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wholly virtuous, possessing many rare qualities that
belong to all elemental greatness ami superior states
manship. His arts in suppressing the Chicago riot
ami in asserting the right of the Monroe doctrine,
even at the probable* expense of a war with England,
though stronglv condemned ami universallv criti-
• •
sized at the time, are now, construed generally as
possibly the greatest accomplishments of his two
administrations.
Eew men of their time have been more admired
bv those to whom thev were close bv association;
few have succeeded more admirably in making as
many enemies among Former friends. Retiring by
nature he could not give his whole* heart and soul
utterance and this very probably accounts for his
being so little understood, and not generally appre
ciated. A thing greatly to his credit is that those
who knew him best are almost a unit in unstinted
praise of him. Though history may never accord
him a place among the really great Presidents, his
acts, which mav elenv him this distinction, were
directed ami controlled by party policy and not
from dishonest motives. 'This should be borne in
mind, and those disposed to criticize and condemn
should make due allowance accordingly.
THE STICK.
Seasoned with the subtle sarcasm of the East,
an ancient fable relates that when Allah created
Adam, lord of Earth, Ruler of Animals, the brute
creation were docile and loving, and obeyed him
gladly; but when he ate the forbidden apple, and so
revolted against his ’Maker, the animals, in their
turn, revolted against him and refused to obey him.
•/
In his extremity he called upon the Lord, and
the Lord answered :
“Since thou hast not known how to reign over
the Good, rule over the Bad; thou hast not known
how to make thyself loved; make thou thyself
feared. ”
“But. Lord." entreated Adam, “how may 1 make
myself Feared by Ferocius Beasts that threaten to
destroy me? How shall 1 rule as Thou sayest. if
they refuse to obey me?”
“Take a Branch from the nearest Tree," mocked
Allah, “and smite with It the first Animal that re
fuses to Obey thee."
This hint appealed so powerfully to Adam's Ada
mic makeup, that he at once betook himself to be
laboring every hapless creature that came in his
way; the human animals of his own begetting, of
course included. Forgetting utterly his own respon-
THE REASON
sibility for the trouble that had come upon them.
Adam founded the Ancient Order of the Stick, never
seeking to regain tin* Love he had lost, nor to
acquire the high power of Reason which he had
m issed.
Tin* majority of his descendants still gaily elude
the two great Powers Adam dodged; but the Lesson
of the Stick they have learned to the marrow of their
bones; hath not Priest, Prophet. Lawgiver. King
and Ruler slammed, jammed. rammed crammed,
burned, blistered, smashed, crashed and pounded
it in ?
To Smite the First Animal that refuses to Obey
was all that our Hentie Forbear ever learned or
wanted to learn, when he swung by his prehistoric
tail from antediluvian t rees ; and it is all that we. his
deseendants, will ever be able to learn, while we tear
from the Tree of Intolerance the Stick. Scourge,
Crozier. Spear, Knout. Sceptre, Sword. Musket or
Policeman's Billy, wherewith to crack the crown of
the First, Animal that Refuses to Obey us. We still
swing by the ape-tail of imitation, like our Ancestor
who was. as per all scientists, Probably Arboreal.
Phe theologians —those wise gentlemen of long
shifts and short shrifts, who knew to a nicety how
many angels could spin on tin* point of a needle,
and were in serious doubt as to whether Adam had
a navel, had no doubt whatever that he procured
from the Almond Tree that redoubtable club where
with he argued with the kerotosaurus, reasoned with
the elinosaurus. and made tin* megatherium see more
stars than were in the sky. Might not the Big Stick
of Mister Roosevelt, which so valiantly thwacks
those mammoths, the Trusts, be a sproutling of the
same old tree ?
“Why, ’ cried old Francis Vossius, in the Year
of the Devil 1640; “Why. must the Club of Can be
perpetuated on the earth; and why. in the* hands of
Kings and Rulers, must the original bloodstain re
appear on it?”
And we have to make answer, in the Year of the
same old Devil, 1908, that it is because* we* still have
not learned tin* simple lesson of Love*, while* we* have*
hearkened but too fatally well te> the* Sermon of tin*
Stick. It is easier ami pleasanter to raise* a lump
on the* outside, than a thought on the inside*, of the*
head of the First Animal that Refuses to Obey us.
Instead of the ('rook of the Hood Shepherel, we*
have* the* Crozier of the Prelate; a pretty instrument
in its way ami day. and responsible for some of the*
heaviest bumps on humanity's cranium. About it
“there’s the* smell o' tin* blood still ; all tin* perfumes
of Araby could not sweeten” that little* Stick! It
has too often smashed the* lamp of Reason and
blacked the* eye* of Science; and spilled more brains
out of men’s heads than it has ever been able* to put
in them. In the* bloody hand of tin* ages, this was
the most potent ami deadly weapon to smite* the* first
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