Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1899 — How to Teach Patriotism. [ARTICLE]

How to Teach Patriotism.

Perhaps the great poem of the civil war is yet to write; some hand perhaps now unborn may one day send a great epic of it ringing down the ages. Yet while we wait for it the poet’s pen-has not been idle and such poems as “Barbara Freitchie,” “Sheridan’s Ride" and “The Blue and the Gray” will live perhaps forever. They never lost their hold upon us and sweet'it is to hear them lisped by baby voices, to make their indelible imprint upon the characters now being molded into a lifelong patriotism. It is the verses we learn first which retain their hold upon us in after years, therefore let us see to it that the children are taught the ones that tell the story of some heroic deed. Then will Decoration day always -mean more to them than an empty name, and the simple lines perhaps of an unknown poet may help to send some future hero to his duty! If a man is worth knowing at all he is worth knowing well.—Alexander re— t4V SIDitD.

woman. She had entered and asked him about himself; she had noted the poverty in the room, the decrepit old father and mother, and. she had thought this was good missionary work. She went out among her neighbors, begging food, bedding, everything for the family. He told her his story; how he had enlisted, started for the front, had fallen ill, suffered for want of care in the barracks and had finally come home disheartened and crippled for life. Poverty, extreme poverty, had come to the family. A brother who had a family of his own was the only support of them all. They were actually suffering for food. So Decoration day came on and the good friend caused the soldier to be taken to the cemetery, where the address of the day took its chief point from the afflicted man, where a collection was taken up for him and a new start given him in life. A little stock of pins and needles and the like was furnished him, a string was fastened to the old-fashioned latch of the outer door, so that he could open it without trouble, and, as he lay upon his couch, he sold trifles, to his neighbors and friends. The pension surgeon took his case in hand, the lawyers pleaded his cause and after a delay of several years a pension was granted him and a few years farther on back pay was allowed him. Relief from care and anxiety has contributed toward his amendmet in health and he is now much better. All this is the fruit of one Decoration day’s work started by a generous, impulsive woman. —Exchange.