Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1918 — DAY OF TRIUMPH FOR YOUNG MEN [ARTICLE]

DAY OF TRIUMPH FOR YOUNG MEN

Vast Opportunities Offered to Those With Foresight t to Grasp Them. GREATEST HOURS IN HISTORY >■ ■■ Thrilling Moment* of History Nothing Compared With Epoch-Making Events That Are Taking Place Today. —— By FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER, LL D. fc - L What a day of triumph this is for ycuhg men I What vast opportunities are offering themselves to young men who have the foresight to grasp them I What an opportunity this very moment to be something, to be somebody, to make your life known and heard tnroughout the world. A year ago we were unimportant even in our own little towns; today the whole world is calling us. We, who are living today, are living in the greatest hours of the world’s history. Never before in the annals of mankind has the world been thrown wide open for every young man to test bis valor and prove his worth. As a youth, I longed for the days when great events were in the making. I wanted to live when new civilizations were being born; when soul-stir-ring heroes were treading the earth; when men were gods.

Dream Has Come True. And here we are —in just such an age. The dream has come true. Romance and chivalry have returned from the past ages. Today we are all knights setting forth on the grandest crusade in the whole noble adventures of the hqman race. 3 What would you not give to have been a soldier under Alexander the Great in his conquest to destroy Thebes at twenty-one, to conquer Babylon at twenty-five, and to die master of the world at thirty-three years of age? Or of Hannibal on his march across the Alps with his 90,000 foot-soldiers, 12,000 horsemen, and 40 elephants. Or to have ridden with! the helmeted hosts of William the Conqueror Into the battle of Hastings when King Harold lost his life and hip kingdom—and England was born?

What would you not give to have followed the heroic Joan of Arc into the battle of Orleans—to save France? Or with the duke of Marlborough In the cavalry charges on the battle ground at Blenheim? Or with Washington and his victorious army at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered —and the American nation was born —what a glorious moment?- 4 ' v Or with the duke of Wellington at Waterloo —to have been one of the soldiers who conquered the mighty Napoleon; to have stood at attention aS he passed doWn the lines into exile and death at St. Helena? What thrilling moments are these — and yet they are nothing compared with the epoch-making events that are taking place today.. And to think that you are a part of them! That you are an important factor in their outcome 1 That you can march to with the mightiest armies in all human history I Yesterday, you were unknown and Insignificant; jthere was no opportunity for you to assert yourself; you were destined to live and die an ordinary, inconsequential life. Today—the world is calling you.

Th* Trumpet" Call. I can hear the beat of the dram. And the call of the bugle. Thirty million men are on the battle grounds. Over their heads fly the blood-stained standards of the nations of the* earth. What _ a glorious vision—the strpng men of the earth in battle array to storm the citadels of autocracy; to free the human race from despotism; to carry the flag of liberty and democracy to all the peoples of the globe. I can hear the trumpet call. It is calling—me 1 I can hear the cries of women and children trodden down by the brute heel of the Invaders. I can hear the kings blaspheme as their thrones totter and fall. I can hear the voice of humanity calling—calling to —me! Who speaks? Who tells me to turn i deaf ear? Who tells me I am a coward and a fool? Think you I have no manhood within me? Think you I am weakling or knave? Think you I have neither a human heart or soul —nor even a glimmer of reason within me? Mother of men, I hear you calling me! Women and children of Belgium! Starving babes of Siberia! Suffering Poland! Weary Russia! Heroic France! Chivalrous Italy! Noble Britannia! Bruised Roumania! My heart is bleeding for you. I see your uplifted faces and your outstretched aiYDS. Men of the earth, I hear the tramp of your marching feet! And lam coming —coming to stand beside you, shoulder to shoulder; coming, to be with you the greatest moment in the world’s history; coming, to write my name with yours on the pages of immortality; coming, to save civilization; to “make democracy safe for the peoples of the earth”; to be one of God’s noblemen! I am coming, comrades, coming. „