Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-06-07
are when dawn arrives.

J are when dawn arrives. :
In the stirring poem, an Flandel
) Fields" written by Lieutenant Colone
John McRae, is the line, "Short days
ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset
glow" The expression probably has
meant nothing to the average reade,
of the poem. But to those who fol
any reason have watched through the
long night for the coming of some por-
tentious day it is real.
Dawn is SIMPLIFY the first crack
o'day. OF is the instant of time when
night ends. To the average conscious
ness, under average conditions, it is
'signalized by the first flush of light.
What McCrae means in the poem is
that dawn has already come, when the
first light appears, and that the SEN
sitive soul has thrilled to the feel of
it, even before the sense of sight had
given any signal of the dawning.
Kipling, in "Mandalay," speaks Of
the dawn that "comes up like thun-
der" He means identically the same
thing that is expressed in the McCrae
verse. There is no tumult of sound,
but but somehow the day trumptes its
coming to the alert consciousness. The
long, dark night of fears and expecta-
tons has ended and the soul springs
up to meet the day of hope and ach-
iievement.
Something like this has happened
as the epochs Of history have passed
through alternating periods of dark
ness and light. Nineteen hundred
years ago little group of discouraged
disciples Of one who had been called
king, but who had died on the cross,
were enveloped by the impenetrible
gloom of despair. And suddenly they
felt dawn, They had not yet seen
!glimmer Of light, but they knew day
was coming, and the day did come.
The life Of the world has never been
iengulfed under so dark a night that
there has not come to some soul the
feeling" Of dawn. Long before the
light Of day has arrived prophets
souls have thrilled to the new day
that was Trusting up over the horizon
The world has been going through a
nighttime Of anguish. There are
those today who see no CLEAN of the
morning star. Hope seems an utterly
futile thing. Pessimism has come to
be a. virtue.
But in the midst OF the gloom there
are some who are feeling the dawn.
There is not much light visible, but
these intrepid souls insist that new
day is coming. Industrial conditions
are bad over the world, politics is
muggy, the whole social fabric is I'M
settled, religions are disturbed by
questionings, Intellectually The whole
world is muddled. 1t looks very much
as if civilization is in had way. In
spite Of these visible signs of night,
however, there a feeling creeping
into the mind Of humanity that day is
coming.
There has never been a night so
dark that day has not dawned. Back
Of all the mistakes of men there are
evidently constructive processes at
work. Call it what you will-God, |
nature, the "invisible king-there is
adivinity that sheapes oru ends, rough |
hew them how we will" The devel-
opn1ent on the whole is upward and |
onward. There are epochs of gloom,
but there are greater dawnings of day |
Browning, in an exquisite little bit |
in Pippa Passes, sings,
Goods in his heaven,
ALPS right with the world
There are many people who are fin
ding it very hard to sing this song to-
day, but here and there are those who
feel dawn" The new day of human
brotherhood is on the way.
THE PENDULUM SWINGS BACK.
For a generation the political pen
dulum has swung toward that point
in its arc which is called "direct rule
of the people" The point is best
known for its primary nominating
conventions, wherein the mass of the
populace is permitted, if it wills, and
"has the price," to announce itself
candidate for any office from con-
stable to United States senator, re-
CARELESS of fitness, regardless of de-
mand, regardless of whether or not