The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1922-02-22
THE MAN THEY
CANNOT FORGET

spise them, but they are never up
rooted. Then you reached your high
Iest--and you know it.
When a noble ideal kindles such en-
thusiasms, that ideal becomes one o.
those things that without warning
at rare intervals, flares up. And YOU
sit in the light of the flare and ponder
Why did it fail? Not because it was
not Observation-Disclosures. Wa:
it because you were not fit for beauty
righteousness, desirability?
Peoples are like men. They may
lay aside their great hopes, but to the
end there are hours when they sit
with them and ponder.
Perhaps that is the explanation OF
the persistent, mysterious way in
which men today draw together
around Woodrow Wilson. 1t requires
explanation. Why, in Washington fol-
months now, has the sightseeing
wagon followed his car? Why do the
chattering tourists inside grow silent
as they pass it? They don't peer.
They lift their hats and sigh, and it
sometimes takes minutes and strik-
ing sights to break the mood the fleet
ing glimpse of that drawn, long white
face has stirred.
Why is it that on Sundays and holt
days men and women and children
most of them busy through the week
walk to his house and stand and
there in groups, speak together in
hushed tones as if something solemn
and enrolling moved in them ? Curios-
ity? Men chatter and gibe and jostle
in curiosity. These people are silent,
gentle, and orderly. You will see them
before the theater on nights when it
is known that Mr.. Wilson is within,
quietly waiting for him to come out.
There will be fifty, a hundred, even
sometimes a thousand.
They cheer him as he passes, and
there are often chokes in the cheers,
and always tenderness. Why do they
do it? Nothing more instructive,
more unplanned, goes on in Washing
ton. Let it be known that he is in
his seat in a theater, and the whole
house will rise in homage. Let his
face be thrown on the screen, and it
will draw a greeting that the face of
no other living American receives.
And that is not true in Washington
alone.
X x X
Why should the vast throng that
packed Pennsylvania Avenue from
end to end on Armistice Day have
stood reverently, with heads barred in
silence as the bier of the Unknown
Soldier passed, attended by all the
1ffcial greatness of the moment--the
his cabinet, the supreme
.ourt, the House, the Senate, the
diplomatic corps, Pershing, Foch-
Why should this great crowd have
watched in silence until, quite unex-
a carriage far down the
inc came to view? Why should this !
rowd, unconscious of what it was do
ng, have broken into a low cry of
and grief: There's Will
on!' The cry flew down the long
venue.
They saw him as the man who had |
allied into service the boy they honor
d, who had put the wonderful light
n his eye, that light of which a
reat French surgeon said; "The AM
rican soldier is different from all
theirs. | don't know what it is,
,hether it is God, the Monroe doc
rine, or President Wilson; but he
as something in his eye" Yes, Will /
on's place was by the dead soldier,
nd the people knew it, and told him
o by their unconscious outburst.
Woodrow Wilson means something
, the people of the United States:
profound, something they
annot forget. People think of him
ow as the man who was behind the
aspiration Of their greatest NOM
hts; who stirred them to a fresh I'M
of the meaning of words
lat had become mere patter on many
'ngues-"democracy," union" He ,
ade them realities, personal, deep ,
lowed them as the reason of all that
good in our present, all that is
ppefdl in our future, the working
isis on which men may strive to |
ocrty of soul and peaceful achieve
ent. He made them literally
lings to die for, lifting all of our
ain, humble thousands who never
new applause or wealth or the
,ror of office into the ranks Of those :
no are willing to die for an ideal
c highest plane that humans reach. 7
People are thinking, also, Of his
ork i'm that after-war period when '
B, hate, revenge, and bitterness that
ar has loosed have none Of the re- r
rains that war compels, and we
Ut, lv reason and good will and
ltieHcc, restore our controls-that l.
irible Leriod we speak Of as recon
'uciion. There too he kindled en- i
usiasms. "Now." he said, "let US v
what men have long dreamed
We to each people its chance, cut
wn the foolish barriers Of trade. u
nit our ornaments, enter into
ion Of all nations pledged to CO. )
Grafton and peace
The peoples Of the earth rallied TO I
5 plan. pledged themselves. And
en- the loosed passions began their A