FOREWORD. In the lives of progressive nations events of transcendent importance have taken place on certain dates. The most important of these dates are celebrated each recurring anniversary and form the patriotic holidays of the year. The events celebrated are connected with the successful defense or establishment of principles to which the nation must continue to adhere, if it is to fulfill its mission and share in the world's progress. Hence such holidays are of vital moment to the nation which has established them. But, as the years go by, a patriotic holiday may fail to receive that kind of attention which fosters the principles for which it stands. Indeed, the celebration may take on such a character that it weakens instead of strengthens the original purpose. It is here that the schools have a patriotic duty to fulfill. Not only should patriotic holidays be appropriately celebrated in the schools, but, what is of equal importance, previous instruction suited to the advancement of those taught should be given, so that they will clearly comprehend the reasons for the celebration. This instruction should first of all be definite, and along with this it should be inspirational in character, so that when the program is given, there will be not only a prograin well prepared but also a school well prepared to enjoy it and to receive an impulse toward good and effective citizenship. In other words, the school as a whole should be prepared by a series of general exercises with as great care to appreciate the celebration as the program should be prepared by the training of part of the school. The "gentler purpose runs" over the events of the Civil War, and it is indeed well that sectional bitterness has largely passed away. But it is a serious mistake to have a program which leaves the impresson that both sides were "about equally right" in that great struggle. Union and freedom won over slavery and disunion, and if we fail to teach that this was a victory of right 2662 W 1281 over wrong, we fail in our duty as educators. This teaching is not inconsistent with the most sincere admiration of the gallantry of those who championed "the lost cause," nor with the entire good will of one section toward the other. It is principles we are now concerned with, not with sections. The teacher should begin early to plan for the celebration of the patriotic holidays which are included in this annual and which come within the school term. By properly providing for such special occasions, schools will exert a telling influence for good citizenship. The Boys of '61. Sound the bugle and blow the fife, Slowly beat the drum, While with stooping form and faltering step, The gray-haired veterans come. Thinner and thinner their ranks are seen, And fewer, year by year, When the roll is called, stand at their post Speak to them tenderly while you may, Show them a patriot's gratitude For their loyalty tried and true; Smooth the path for their trembling feet, As they near life's setting sun, And bring your garlands of love to-day Sound the bugle and blow the fife, While over our hearts, this sacred day, Memories dear of those stirring days When, with banners bright and gay, Our soldiers marched away. Theirs the partings from home and friends, Theirs the marches with weary feet, And the battle's deafening roar; Theirs to share in a nation's throes; The shattered ranks and the tattered flags; We of these later, peaceful days, The trials they had to undergo; And yet their fame with age will grow So bear an offering of flowers And fragrant garlands o'er them heap, As tokens to these dead of ours A nation's gratitude is deep, While angels vigils o'er them keep, The country that they loved around them, May they for aye serenely sleep Beneath the wreaths that love has bound them. -Denver News. Volunteer Soldiers of the Union. A tribute to the soldiers of the war of the Union delivered at the banquet in honor of General Grant at the Palmer House, Chicago, in November, 1879. The speaker was Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll. When the savagery of the lash, the barbarism of the chain, and the insanity of secession confronted the civilization of our country, the question, "Will the great republic defend itself?" trembled on the lips of every lover of mankind. The North, filled with intelligence and wealth-children of liberty-marshaled her hosts and asked only for a leader. From civil life a man, silent, thoughtful, poised and calm, stepped forth and with the lips of victory, voiced the Nation's first and last demand: "Unconditional and immediate surrender." From that moment the end was known. That utterance was the first real declaration of real war, and, in accordance with the dramatic unities of mighty events, the great soldier who made it, received the final sword of the rebellion. The soldiers of the Republic were not seekers after vulgar glory. They were not animated by the hope of plunder or the love of conquest. They fought to preserve the homestead of liberty and that their children might have peace. They were the defenders of humanity, the destroyers of prejudice, the breakers of chains, and in the name of the future they slew the monster of their time. They finished what the soldiers of the Revolution commenced. They re-lighted the torch that fell from their august hands and filled the world again with light. They blotted from the statute books laws that had been passed by hypocrites at the instigation of robbers, and tore with indignant hands from the Constitution that infamous clause that made men the catchers of their fellowmen. They made it possible for judges to be just, for statesmen to be humane, and for politicians to be honest. They rolled the stone from the sepulchre of progress, and found therein two angels clad in shining garments-Nationality and Liberty. The soldiers were the saviors of the Nation; they were the liberators of men. In writing the Proclamation of Emancipation, Lincon, greatest of our mighty dead, whose memory is as gentle as the summer air when reapers sing amid the gathered sheaves, copied with the pen what Grant and his brave ccmrades wrote with swords. Grander than the Greek, nobler than the Roman, the soldiers of the Republic, with patriotism as shoreless as the air, battled for the rights of others, for the nobility of labor; fought that mothers might own their babes, that arrogant idleness should not scar the back of patient toil, and that our country should not be a many-headed monster made of warring states, but a Nation, sovereign, great, and free. Blood was water, money was leaves, and life was only common air until one flag floated over a Republic without a master and without a slave. But then was asked the question: "Will a free people tax themselves to pay a Nation's debt?" The soldiers went home to their waiting wives, to their glad children, and to the girls they loved-they went back to the fields, the shops, and mines. They had not been demoralized. They had been ennobled. They were as honest in peace as they had been brave in war. Mocking at poverty, laughing at reverses, they made a friend of toil. They said: "We saved the Nation's life, and what is life without honor?" They worked and wrought with all of labor's royal sons that every pledge the Nation gave might be redeemed. And their great leader, having put a shining band of friendship—a girdle of clasped and happy hands—around the globe, comes home and finds that every promise made in war has now the ring and gleam of gold. There is another question still: "Will the wounds of war be healed?" I answer, yes. The Southern people must submit— not to the dictation of the North, but to the Nation's will, and to the verdict of mankind. They were wrong, and the time will come when they will say that they are victors who have been |