The Washington times., 1921-05-23

sU'o OtTs - OrIeTont.
Aspiring viii Hays.
We Need An Airship Cato.
by ARTHUR BRISBANE
tcopyrisht. iss1.)
The house in Frankfort where
Goethe was born is going to ruin;
an appeal is made .for funds to
put and keep it in repair.
Some, deeply patriotic, may say,
Why, we are just finishing Q war
with Germany. How can you talk
OF repairing a German house, no
matter who was born there?"
Yes. but we have had q couple Of
fights with England; nevertheless,
men OF common sense would help
to restore the Shakespeare house
or the Hathaway cottage. To
Goethe. next to Shakespeare. An
glo-Saxon literature owes most.
Anybody that knows anything, or
THINKS anything, owes to Goethe
enough to justify modest contri-
button to the Goethe fund. The
entire amount needed is only 500,-
900 marks, $500.
You will recall a dozen sayings
OF Goethe's that are worth the
small sum asked. For instance:
who never ate his bread in
sorrow,
Who never spent the darksome
hours
Weeping and watching for the
morrow
He knows ye not, ye gloomy
powers"
Or
Muth uerloren allies verloren,
besser du waerest ME geboren."
Which means, Courage lost,
everything lost, better thou vert
never born" Germany and some
other countries need that thought
just now,
Or
SVolk und knecht und ueber-
winder
Gestehen zu jeder zeit,
Hoechest gluck der erdenkinder
Sci nur die persoenlichkeit."
Which means that PERSON
ALITY is the great power. Lucky
the children whose parents know
it and do not destroy personality
by unwise discipline.
Anybody whose patriotism does
not object to honoring a man
who stands among the first four
of the worlds greatest literary
geniuses may send a contribution
to the firm Of James Speyer &
Co., "a Pine street, New York
City. That firm will acknowl-
edge the money and forward it to
Frankfort. 1t may be mentioned
that Goethe died in 1882, nearly
ninety years ago, and therefore
did NOT start the recent war.
Anything really new attracts
attentiop,..and is --newS. Hence,
Amos Cummings maxim, III a
dog bites a man, that's no news.
But if q man bites a dog, that is
news"
II you read "Girl Discouraged,
Kills Herself With Cas-" you pass
on--so many girls kill themselves
with gas.
But when Miss Mary Caprea
poor thing, buys ten dresses and
ten hats, then fails in the movies
and kills herself, you read
all of it. For Miss Caprea
took the ten hats and dresses out
of her trunk. Then she ran pipe
from the gas stove into the trunk,
got inside the trunk, pulled down
the lid, and died, crouching. News
papers will print diagrams Of that
suicide, but if it happened ten
times, they'd hardly notice it.
That's why the ancient philosophi-
cal egotist jumped into the mouth
of Vesuvius. And that's why. as
Cibber remarked two hundred
years ago:
The aspiring youth that fred the
Ephesian dome,
Outlives in fame the pious fool that
raised il.
Will Hays, Postmaster General,
an aspiring youth of different
kind, must have done lot of use
full thinking, while flying on Sat-
urday last from Washington to
New York in a Postoffice aero
plane.
He must have reflected on the
new character of war, on the help
lessness Of great cities against at
tack from above-no defense ex-
cept aerial defense. As he flew,
faster than 100 miles per hour,
along the edge of the Atlantic, he
realized how easily our coast.
and inland cities, too, could
be destroyed by fliers bringing
dynamite and asphyxiating gases
from big transports and battle
ships.
Formerly transports brought in
fantry, and the problem was to
land the soldiers on enemy soil
- fzol fhov,, fboro NJ r,oro &c