Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1908 — WORD PICTURE OF A PATRIOT [ARTICLE]

WORD PICTURE OF A PATRIOT

Drawn by Indiana’s Distinguished Senator/Albert J. Beveridge in Recent Speech at Wolcott. Senator Albert J. Beveridge In his speech before the Lincoln League at Wabash recently painted this glowing picture of the volunteer soldier: “A home in Indiana! Before it runs the country road. Behind it lies the farm. About it are the children at play. Beneath its humble root there is the glory of a happy wife and mother’s song. From the chimney curls the smoke and tells the toiler in the fields of the welcome the comforts of love and all those things that more than reward him for his work and make his life not. only worth living, but a perpetual joy. ‘"To this home the man returns as evening falls. You hear the slow rattle of the wagon. He draws the wafer for the horses. The trace chains jangle as the harness is hung up. fie is a young man. His cheek, it fcronzed and red by air and sunshine. His muscles are hard and. Grin; his step strong and springy;; his, deep chest and broad back powerful;' he has been made masterful by the.' useful exercise of daily labor. ‘“jiis life Is all before him. The beginnings of wealtp are all about him. Happiness is already with him., He, would not change his place with a Sultan, a King or Czar fretting on. their gilded thrones. He * asks for, nothing but health to continue and.. long, life to enjoy the blessings that.. God, has given him. And she whose, love has crowned his life asks only , ■9 _ . ! I -T. - „ U | - „ - -A thej, same boon. Their prayers at. night are for this and nothing more..

“Y.et, all Is changed by a, call that . from the potion’s capital. A , single shot fired at the flag trans- , forms the purposes of all these Uvea. Abraham Lincoln, the father of the natjqn, is asking In the nation’s name the sacrifice of , this home. The', young man answers without a word. The young wife sends him forth, with tears-rbut she sends him forth. He takes the wondering children in his arms, then sets them down and they cling in a nameless terror to the mother’s skirts. The good-by to her —and be is gone. Perhaps he goes to an unknown grave. There is nothing material in that war for him. There Is no mo*ey In it—no comfort; only poverty and hardship. There is nothing of wealth, no happiness. Perhaps there aviil be penury and want. "Yet he. goes and she bids him go. For what? For an ideal—a thing that cannot be heard, or sSSb, or worn; and yet a thing more precious to these humble folk than bank account iff rfojl nr «nir», nr pictures, or works of art; an ideal— I that soul of human life, that inspii ration which makes ns something more than animals and touches the lowliest man with the glory and beauty of the divine. That is the kind of man who saves his country, feeds the sacred flames of a holy cause, and finally gives it victory. 8 *