The vidette., 1922-03-02

@ANE OF the permanent possess ons Of human
q y heart is the memory of its greet enthu-
slams. You may ave cone to disdain
and even despise them, but they are never uprt O..
ed. Then yon reached your highest and you know
When a noble ideal kindles such enthusiasms
that ideal become ofthose things that without
warning, at rare intervals, flares up. And you sit
in the light of the flare and ponder, Why did it
lfhl? Not because it was not beauiful-rght ht-de-
sirable. Was it because you were not fit for beau
| ty, righteousness, desirability?
! Peoples sre like men. They may lay aside their
great hopes, but to the end there hours when,
they SIT wth't EN- ard ponder
| P .rhaps that is the explanation of the persistent.
mysterious, uncOnsc Gus way in which men today
! draw together around President Woodrow Wilson.
| 1t reQu res explanation Why, in Washington for
months now, has the sightseeing wagon followed
h car? Why do tie chattering tourists inside
grow silent they pass ii? They don't peer. They
lift their hats and sigh, and it sometimes takes
minutes and striking sights to break the mood the
feeting glimpse of that drawn long white face has
stirred.
Why is it that on Sundays and holidays men
and women and children-most of them busy
through the week--walk to his house and stand
there in groups, speak together in hushed tones as
if something solemn and ennobGng moved in
them? Curiosity? Men chatter and be and jos
tie in curiosity These people are silent, gentle
and orderly You will see them before the thea
ter on nights when it is known that Mr.. Wilson is
within, quietly waiting for him to come out. There
will be fifty hundred, even sometimes thous
and.
They cheer him he passes and there often
chokes in the cheers and always tenderness. Why
do they do it? Nothing more instructive, more
unplanned goes on in Washington. Let it be known
that he is in bis seat in theater, and II whole
house will rise in homage. Let his face be Il rown
on the screen, and it will draw greeting that the
face of no other living American receives And
that is not true in Washington alone.
Why should the vast throng that packed Penn
svlvania Avenue from end to end on A rmis tice
Day have stood reverently. with heads barred in
silence the bier of the Unknown Soldier passed,
attended by all the official greatness of the moment
the president, his cabinet, the supreme court the
House, the Senate, the diplomatic corps, Pershing,
Foch-why should this great crowd have watched
in silence until, quite expectedy, carriage far
down the line came to view? Why should this
crowd unconscious of what it was doing, have brok-
e into low cry of sympathy and grief: There's
Wilson!' The cry flew down the long avenue.
They saw him as the man who had called into
service the boy they honored, who had put TIE
derful light in his eye, that light of which great
French surgeon said: "The American soldier is
d fferent from all Others don't know what it is,
whether il is God the Monroe doctrine, of Presi-
dent Wilson; but he has something in lis eye"
Yes, Wilson'S place was by de dead soldier and
the people knew it, and toll Linn SO by their un-
conscious outburst.
Woodrow Wilson means something to the people
of the United States something profound, some-
thing they cannot forget People think Of him
as the man who was behind the inspiration OF their
greatest moments; who stirred them to fresh un-
de standing of the meaning of words that had be-
come mere patter on many tongues" democracy"