The Ogden standard. [volume], September 28, 1918, LAST EDITION - 3:30 P.M., Image 24

About The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1913-1920

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HI - THE OGDEN STANDARD,. V - jjjjjg
I America's Declarations, Purposes and Actions in War What Walt Whitman
Predicted in Writings of Sixty Years Ago They Would Be When Test Came P
I. Works Rg&d nun Viw if Giraft
CoHaffiet, Amirncaini C&irpiniteirp
Mfeiimgs Virgil sumdl Daunt, OW
GA aimd ScknlliPo
U
Htf w HE great war has made an Amor-
lean, "Walt Whitman, one oC the
greatest of world poets. Whlt
man wrote his poetry, prophecies and
songs about the period of the civil war.
Jfc was recognized as a distinct Amcrt
can poet by Europeans In the GOs and
70s, but has had slight recognition in
his native land.
The events of the great war, Amcrl
cas entry therein, the declarations and
purposes, the actions of the United
States have been just what "Whitman
said they would be, wished they would
ho, hoped they would be sixty yean
Hj before. Whitman was an enthusiastic
American. Ho believed in the United
HJ States and the high purposes and duties
of the republic in the scheme of clvillza-
ire had a set purpose to lay down a
Torld policy for his country. The coun
trj is now carrying out the world policy
that Walt Whitman, great American,
the first poet of democracy and the first"
democrat of poets, wrote for it sixty
years ago.
Whitman was born at West End,' L,
7., in 1510, and died at Camden, X. J.,
in 1S02. For fifty years his poetry has
been tho pleasure and despair of critic-3.
'British critics have long acclaimed him
tho only really distinctive American
Hj poet and welcomed him warmly. Amerl-
H can critics have been wont to deny him
merit.
Read in "tho light that the great war
Hj has thrown upon the world, the Amcrl-
Hj can carpenter, bus driver, wound
dresser, clerk and printer leaps far
ahead of all other poets. He outstrips
Homer, outsings Virgil and Dante, o'cr
leaps Shakespeare, distances Goethe and
Schiller.
Hj Whitman Foresaw
War Sixty Years.
ry EAD today, Whitman is the greatest
of poets and truest of prophets. He
foresaw, predicted and "placed" the
great war sixty years before St was
fought. Ho forecast America's part in
tho world drama of today. He even
named the tlmo America would take
part in the war.
There is little uso writing about
Whitman. Let us assert that he was
tho great seer and prophet of "these
States," as he loved to call them, and
Hf then read this prophecy written In ISoS,
H fifty-eight years before the great war
Hj began:
V I sco not America, only I sec not only Llb-
B crty's nation, but other nations prcpax-
H I see tremendous entrances and exits I rco
H new combinations I aco the solidarity
H of races;
H 1 aeo that force advancing, with Irresistible
power, upon tbo world stage;
H I oeo Freedom completely arm'd and vlc
torlouB and with law on her side, both
H issuing forth against tho Idea of caste:
H What historic denouements aro these wo so
H rapidly approach?
H I see men marching and counter-marching
H by swift millions,
B I see the frontiers- and boundaries of old
H aristocracies broken,
B I see tho landmarks of European kings 10-
H X see this day tbo people beginning their
landmarks (all other glvo way),
H Never were such sharp questions asked as
H In this
H .Never wa3 tho avcrago man, his soul, moro
H energetic, moro like a God;
H Ix, ho urges and urges, leaving the masses
H no rest;
H His daring foot is on land and sea, evcry-
Hj Are all tho nations communing? Is thers
U going to bo but ono heart to tho globe?
H Is humanity forming cn masse? for, lo,
K tyrants tremble, crowns grow dim.
H Tho earth, restive, confronts a new era, pcr-
Hj haps a general, divine war:
H No ono knows what will happen next such
H portents fill tho days and nights.
H Unborn deeds, things soon tq be, project their
H shapes around rac;
H The performed America, and Europe grown
Hj dim, retiring In tho shadow behind mo,
1 The unperformed, moro gigantic than ever,
H advance, advanco upon mc.
Hj Whitman set the great days of the
w "United States for tho tlmo when the
B nation had 100,000,000 inhabitants.
Hj America had almost exactly that num-
Hj her of inhabitants when tho great war
Hj began. When tho coupntry had 100,-
H 000,000 inhabitants It was to play Its
Hl great part in tho world.
It Is almost impossible to write aoout
H) Whitman. He is too 'big, too great, too
j all-embracing to describe. John Ad-
H: dington Symonds, the great 'British
Hj critic and "bookman, said that Whitman
Hl was like the universe, the earth, sky
H stars, firmnamcnt, all of the world.
Hj There is a literature about Whitman
H as long as a road ditch. Writers all
Bj complain that they cannot describo or
Hj explain him. Ho himself cspeclally
Hj nvarns his readers to beware of those
H who would expound him. "I cannot ex-
H pound myself," he says,
H; Whitman Made
K the American Ideal.
H "WTHITMAN wroto his poetry for de
vv mocracy. His hero Is the avcrago
H man, tho mechanic, farmer, plowman,
H street cleaner, planter, sailor, river man.
j pilot, car driver. Democracy Is the very
Hj breath of his nostrils. He writes of
H democracy for democracy.
Yet of all men the avcrago man,
whom he sings and adores, is least
likely to understand him.
Whitmanitcs, followers of" the poet,
say that he made the American Ideal.
I rather think that he caught the Amer
ican' Ideal. He has not established it.
The average man knows nothing about
Whitman. Longfellow, James Whit
comb Riley, Kugenc Flold and Walt
Mason arc poets as the avcrago Ameri
can understands poetry.
As poets these sweet singers compare
with Whitman as a fly compares with a
Hon.
Whitman is the poet of democracy, of
the average man. Yet only a trained
reader who has a fund of fresh, simple,
wholesome natural feeling and love of
real things at his disposal can really
understand Whitman.
Whitman glorifies the average mnn,
yet the average man will deny him.
Xow that his prophecy has been ful
filled, the description rings as true as
if the same great master hand had
written It today. Mark the line:
Tho earth, restive, confronts a new era, per
haps a general, dlvlno war.
That's what It is, a "divlno war," a
war for liberty of all the world.
America can draw great comfort from
this prophecy and that one line.
Prophecy in 1856
Accomplished in 1914.
PEOPLE call it a terrible war. . Whit
man calls it a "divine war." That
is what it is. Therefore let us tako
cheer from our American seer, poet
and prophet and divinely fight out and
divinely finish this "divine war" for
world liberty.
This was Whitman's prophecy of
what was to happen in Europe, written
In ISoG and accomplished in 1011:
Suddenly, out of its drowsy lair, the loir
of slaves,
Like lightning It (democracy) leapj forth,
half startled at Itself
Its feet upon tho ashes and the rags Us
hands upon tho throats of kings.
O, hope and faith,
O. aching closo of exiled patriots' lives,
O. many a olckcaed heart,
Turn back unto this day and make yourself
afresh.
This Is for tho German military caste:
And you, raid to dcllle the people, you liars,
mark,
Xot for the numberless agonies, murders,
lusts
For court thlovlne In Its manifold mean
forms, worming from his simplicity
the poor man's wages.
For many a promise sworn by royal lips and
broken, and laughed at In tho break
ing. Then in their power, not for all these did
tho blows strike revenge or the heads
of nobles fall,
Tho people scorned tho ferocity of kings.
The last line is submitted to tho kaiser
for his cogitation.
Each comes In state with his train, hang
man, clergyman, tax-gatherer, soldier,
lawyer, lords, Jailers and sycophants.
Yet behind all, hovering, stealing lo a
Shap
Vague as tho night, draped interminably,
head, front and form In scarlet folds.
Whose face and eyes none may see.
Out of Its robes the red robes lifted by tho
arm,
Ono finger crooked pointed high over tho
top, llko tho head of a snake appears.
ilcanwhlle tho corpses llo In the new-made
graves bloody corpses of young men,
Tho ropo of tho gibbet hangs heavily, tho
bullets of tho princes nro Hying, the
creatures of povcr laugh aloud.
All these things bear fruits and they aro
good.
Those corpses of young men,
Tho3o martyrs that hand from tho gibbets
those hoarts pierced by the gray lead,
Cold and motionless they aro alive, clsc-
whero with unslaughtcred vitality.
They live in other men, oh, kings,
They live in brothers ready again to defy
you.
They were purified by dcath-thcy wcro
taught and exalted.
ot, a gravo of tho murdered for freedom
but grows eccd for freedom. In Its
turn to bear seed,
Which tho winds carry afar and rcsow and
the rains and tho snow nourish.
s'ot a disembodied spirit can the weapons
of tyrants lot loose,
Cut It stalks Invisibly over tho earth, whis
pering, counseling, cautioning.
Liberty, let others despair of you. I never
despair of you.
As a vision of what Europe was, Js
and will be, as a sheer intimate Je
scrlptlon of the kalser'3 passage through
Belgium, can tho above, written fifty
year3 ago by a man who never was oft
the North American Continent, o
equaled?
America's Message
to Oppressed Peoples.
xTtrE are talking every day of "making
W tho world safe for democracy"
for peoples and of tho unselfish brother
hood and sisterhood of Americans for
all peoples.
"Read this vision of what American
claims to be today written by Whitman
sixty years ago In his "Saluto to tho
World":
You, where aro you?
You son or daughter of lingland.
You of tho mighty Slavic tribes and em
pire, you Itus In Russia.
You llm-desccndcd, black-faced, dlvlnc
aoulcd African, large, flno-bwdcd,
Winamp- ;;iv--- gimm
WALT WHITMAN, GREAT AMERICAN POET AND FEELR
nobly formed, superbly destined, on
oven terms with me.
You Norwegian, Swede, Dane, Icelander,
Prussian,
You Spaniard of Spain, you Portuguese,
You Frenchwoman and Frenchman of France,
You Beige, you liberty lover of tho Nether
lands, You sturdy Austrian, Lombard, Hun, Bo
hemian, farmer of Styrla,
You neighbor of the Danube,
You worklngman of the lthlne, the Elbe, tho
Wcscr; you working woman, too.
You Sardinian, you Bavurlan, you Swablan,
Saxon, Wallachlan, Bulgarian,
You citizen of Prague, you Roman, Neapol
itan, Greek,
You lltho matador of the- arena at Seville,
You mountaineer living lawlessly on ,tho
Taurus or tho Caucasus,
You Bokh horschcrd watching your marcs -and
stallions feeding,
You beautiful-bodied Persian, at full speed
in the saddle, shooting arrows to the
mark;
Tou Chinaman and Chinawoman of China,
you Tartar of Tartary,
Tou women of the earth nubordlnatcd In your
tasks,
Tou Jew Journeying In your old age, through
ovcry risk, to stand once moro on
Syrian ground;
Tou other Jcvs waiting m all lands for
your Messiah;
Tou thoughtful Armenians, pondering by
.lands of tho Euphrates, you peering
amid tho ruins of Nineveh, you as
cending Mount Ararat;
You footworn pilgrims welcoming tho far
away sparkle of tho minarets of Mecca;
You Sheiks along tho stretch, from Suez to
Babclmandel, ruling your families and
tribes.
You olive grower tending your fruit on tho
vale of Nazareth Damascus or Lako
Tiberias.
You Thibet trader on tho wldo Inland, or
bargaining In tho shops of Lhossia,
You Japanese man or woman, you liver In
Madagascar, Coylon or Borneo,
All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe,
Australia, Indifferent of plac-.
All you numberless Inhabitants of the archip
elagoes of the sea,
And you of centuries of hence, when you
listen to me;
And you each and everywhere whom I speci
fy not, but includo Just the same.
Health to you all, good will to you all from
mc and from America sent; for we ac
knowledge you all and each.
That as Whitman's and American
message of greeting, good will and as
surance of help and succor to tho op
pressed peoples of the world, written
mora than sixty years ago. (
This is Wh'tman's idea of an Ameri
can man.
A man la a summons and a challenge,
Whlchovcr the sex, whatever tho season or
place, ho may go safely anl lottly an J
froflhly by day and by night, '
Ho has the pass-key to hearts to him tho
response of tho prying hands on tho
knobs.
Hla wclcomo Is Universal the flow of beauty
Is not moro fresh or universal than
ho Is,
The person ho favors by day or slcops with
at nght Is blessed.
He says Indifferently and alike, How aro you,
friends? to the prcsldont at hla levee.
Mill ho says, good-by, my brother, to Cu'dfio
that hoes In tho sugar field.
And both understand him and both know
that his speech la right.
He walks with perfect case In the Capitol,
Ho walks among tho Congress and one rep
resentative says to another, Hero is our
equal, appearing and new.
Then tho mechanics take him for a mechanic,
And' the soldiers suppose hhn to be a cap
lain and the sailors that ho has fol
lowed tho sea;
And tho authors tako him for an author and
the artists for an artist.
And tho laborers perceive that ho could labor
with them and love them.
No matter what tho work 13. ho Is the one
to follow It or has followed It,
No matter what tho nation, that ho might
find his brothers and sisters there.
This is the way Whitman speaks to all
men who arc or who wish to be Ameri
cans. My Comrade.
For you to aharo with mo two greatnesses
and a third ono, rising, and moro In
cluslvo and more rcspendent,
Tho greatness of Lovo "and of Democracy
.and tho third greatness of rollglon.
"Who Are You When
in America?"
At this time, when Americans demand
the uttermost faith and loyalty from all
who dwell in the United States, tho fol
lowing will be cnliahtcning:
WHITMAN did not. wait until tho
United States was at war with
Germany. He wroto sixty years ago
theso words, admirably applicable at
this moment:
"Who aro you, Indeed, who would talk
or sing in America?
"Have you studied out MY LAND, Its
idioms and its men?
"Havo you learned tho physiology,,
phrenology, politics, geography, pride,
freedom, friendship of my land, its suh
stratums and objects?
"Havo you considered tho organic
compound of tho Jlrst day of tho first
year of tho Indcpondcnco of the states,
signed by the commissioners, ratified by
the states and read, by Washington at
tho head of tho army?
"Have you possessed yourself of tha '
federal constitution?
"Do you acknowledge liberty, with
audible anrT absolute acknowledgment,
and set slavery at nought for life and
death?
"Aro you faithful to'these things?
"Can you hold your hand against all
seductions, follies, whirls, fierce con
tentions? Aro you very strong? Are
you for tho wholo people?
"Are you not for some coterie, school
or religion?
"Havo you vivified yourself from the
maternity of theso states?
"Havo you sucked the nipples of the
breasts of the mother of many chil
dren? "What is this you bring my America?
"Is it uniform with my country?
"Does it answer universal needs?
Will it improvo manners?
"Docs it meet modern discoveries,
facts, calibers, facts, faco to face?
"Will it absorb Into mo as I absorb
food and air, nobility, meanness to ap
pear again in my strength, gait, face?
"Docs it respect me? Democracy, tho
soul today?
"What docs it mean to mc, to Ameri
can persons, progresses, cities, Chicago,
Arkansas, tho planter, Tankcc, Geor
gian, native immigrant, sailors, squat
ters, old states, new states?
"Docs it encompass all the states and
unexceptional rights of all tho men and
women of the oarth, the genital impulso
of these atates?"
Whitman demands that men who live
in America shall not only understand
that America is a nation, but shall
' DOG INVESTIGATES ENTOMOLOGY
IN PRODUCING photoplays four
hours are devoted to arranging the
scene and rehearsing the action and
four seconds to photographing the re
sult. No wonder, then, that Luke, ca
nine comedian, should feel bored to ex
tinction after waiting almost an entire
forenoon while "Fatty" Arbucklc fussed
over preparations for filming a frag
ment of fun.
Luke slept as long as he could, got
up, stretched, yawned, pawed at the
htrd board floor to mako a soft spot to
lie on, turned around, three times and
curled up. But it was no go. Ho could
not even shut his eyes. Just as he was
about to cxplro of ennui a bumblebeo
flew in through tho open studio win-
Cow and pounced upon a bonbon an ex
tia girl had dropped on tho floor within
feet of Luke's nose.
HERE was something of interest at
last, Luke gazed intently at the
bumblebee, . then got up an gazed
hqrdcr. Then ho hit the bumblobcc a
playful tap with a forcpaw. At last
v ' .
it was meant to bo playful, but it
hrokc one of the bumblebee's wings
Unable to fly, the bumblebee started
home on foot. Its gait appealed o
Luke's sense of humor. He cut capers
to express,, his delight, running in cir
cles around the bumblebee, raising Ills
forepaws a few inches from tho floor
and coming down with a grunt and
Avith hoad cocked roguishly.
When tho bumblebee stopped to . rest
Luko tried to start It off again by
shoving it with his nose, which caused
tho bumblebee to buzz Its good wing.
Now, a dog's nose Is the most sensitivo
part of his anatomy, being crowded
with nerves which make possible tho
owner's oxquislto senses of smell and
touch. That delicate wing fanning his
nose touching it, In fact sent a thrill
of ecstasy throughout every fiber of
Luke's body. Ho raced around tho
studio out of sheer joy; then got in
front of the bumblebee's line of march
and, keeping his hindquarters erect, laid
his forelegs flat on the floor and placed
his nose between theny-to await tho
bumblebee's approach.
WHEN tho bumblebee was within 2
Inches-Luke gave it another shove
as an Invitation to tlcklo him 'again.
The shovo turned tho bumblebee over
and thus brought hl3 rear guard Into
point-blank range.
Luke l03t all further interest in tho
study of entomology. With a yelp of
anguish, ho sprang up and started off
at top speed, howling at ovcry jump. .
Ho was so maddened with pain that ho
neither saw nor cared where he was
going. Straight between Fatty's legs
he drove just as that gentleman backed
away to view in perspective tho sceno
ho had so laboriously arranged. Down
came Fatty flat on his back, whllo Luko
charged into a group of extra girls, who
fled, shrieking. "Mad dog!"
When Fatty regained his feet his hair
day's work was dispersed, whllo a di
minuendo recital of canine woe In the
distance told him that he needn't look
for Luke to pose again that day.
- A
CMimfary Mow Cairirynimg M Sg. , A
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Iby Bug Aminig Girg&tts(t Pofe ojf H.
'All Tknigp ik Ffa&t P(L - if D0
ff Pdteo : Iff
rIso understand why and how it becamo
a nation, tho scheme of Its founders,
tho work of their successors and tho
system of government. Ho ever urges
that tho immigrant and tho native
thereof, must learn the governmental
principles of the states to really know
and lovo them.
He always insists that Americans
should not regard the president or tho
Congress or the governors or the stato
legislatures as their rulers or servants,
but merely as delegates deputed to
work tho will of the real rulers all tho
people.
All Men Are His
Dear Brothers.
yHIS Is a point that is not easy for
" foreign bcrn, accustomed to the
rulo of kings to acquire. Those who un
derstand Americanism will agree that
tho first requisite of an American ci'.i
zen should be that ho knows that he
has no ruicra, that ho rules.
Touching tlHs, Whitman says:
"Does it sec behind the apparent cus
todians, the real custodians, standing
menacing, silent, the mechanics. West
ern men, Southerners, significant alike
in their apathy and the promptness of
their love?"
This may fit tho pettr politicians who
tempered their speech to the foreign
vote, especially war-paltering congress
men beaten at tho recent elections:
"Docs it sec what befalls and ha3
always befallen each temporizer, patch
er, outsider, partialis;, alarmist. In
fidel, who ever asked anything from
America?"
Whitman gathor? all the music of ihc
spheres Into him and emits it in ono
Croat whole. It is as if all the sound3
In ail tho world, from the gentle rustle
of the winds in tlis quaking asp to tho
loars of the thunder wero combined In
one great fpipe-organ the bosom ct
Walt Whitman, at his touch to boom
out In world-vclumo to inspire man
kind. All men are his dear brothers, from
the lowly black Australian or Polyncs
Ian, to the Anglo-Norman aristocrat
Especially does he lovo the enslaved
and oppressed. His love for animals la
intense, because they are natural and
honest. In "Chants Native and Demo
cratic," ho writes:
"I bciicvo that thero is nothing but
America and fieedom,
O. to sternly reject all except democ
racy." Again:
What arc Americans?
A breed whose testimony lo their behavior,
What we aro WE ARB nativity I3 answer
enough to all objections;
We wield ourselves as a weapon Is wielded.
Wo aro cxccutlvo In ourselves,
"Wo arn nowerful and tremendous In our
selves wo arc sufficient In tho variety
of ourselves.
Thoso who understand America will
recognize that the people of "theso
States," as Whitman loves to call them,
do "wield themselves as a weapon is
wielded."
That is,- the motion of tho people is,
in itself, as powerful as tho discharges
of thousands of great guns. This the
latent power of democracy. The great
est power that America is sending to
Europe is democracy.
"Land Must Be Promise
and Reliance of Future.
TrIE German war lords recognize In
America their most dangerous foe.
They feel that they can trado and
barter for peace, a province or a coun
try for a province or a country or
a colony, with tho European powers.
They know that, when they faco Amer
ica, it is not a question of Belgium
or Serbia, or Constantinople, or trade
or barter of lands, but a question of
whether democracy or kalserism shall
survive.
Thus aro Whitman's songs of de
mocracy, written In tho ZOs and GOs,
germane to tho latest American policy,
that laid down by Senator Lodge-in
his peace terms speech made In tho
Senate August 23, 101S. Writing for
American statesmen, Whitman pre
pared them with policies that assume
life sixty years after.
At this time, when America Is set
ting standards of statesmanship for
tho world, words of Whitman a half
century old prove that ho foresaw that
it was proper that America should aot
theso policies and standards of states
manship. He wrote: . .
America, curious toward all foreign charac
ters, stands by Its own at all hazards,
Stand3 removed, sees itself spacious, com
posite, sound.
Sees itself proinulgcr of men and women.
Intlatcs tho truo uso of precedents.
At any period ono nation must le&d,
Ono land must be tho promise and reliance
of tho future.
Having, regard to "scraps of paper,"
this:
"To hold men together by paper and
,scal, or by compulalon, 13 no account;
"That only holds men together which
is the living principles, as tue hold of
the limbs of the body or tho libers of
, plants."
In tv6 lines Whitman wipes the en
tire German policy or force off th-i
man. f v
"It amounts to nothing, it won't l
work. Why bother with it?" B
Amcrican correspondents, military
men everywhere have been much lin
pressed by the march of millions of
field-gray Germans through Belgium in '
HIM. They could not sec how such an Hj
army could bo beaten. H
Whitman would have Mnllcd at that
army passing and reckoned It of no ac- Hp
count whatever when confronted with KL(
the spirit of democracy. He would know WSf
that the army va3 not vitalized by any K.
great idea, that its motivating forcc3 Bnj
were conquest, plunder and Toot, that Si 1
sternly opposed, it would not cenque-. Ear
Whitman would have knowr, what Hri
thft thought of America knew, that re-
gardloss of its 3'jpcrior numbers, train- Hj
ing. armament, leadership, foulness, ' wSf
tha German Army could not win be- , Ha
cause the men within it wcro com- Eto
pressed together by an exterior power. TV?
autocracy; not held together by the In- ita
tcrlor animating spirit, democracy. Rt3
Tho spectacle of the German Army K ..
marching through Belgium to sweep EJ
democracy off tho earth would havo , ghc
been as laughable to Whitman as thr '. HljJ
spectacle of iMrs. Partington trying to fea
sweep back the Atlantic Ocean with her jB
broom. Kj
Whitman Absorbed 'r'vSi'
All Unto Himself. 1 Jflj
pOETS before Whitman wero cele- Hfl
bratora of feudalism or the aristo- Htt
cratic caste. Wordsworth and Burns Iffi
did sing tho common man, but they Kth
stood apart from him as artists look- Kj
Ing at him as an object of art. BK
Whitman shows his reader the com- H
mon man, grown, educated, strong, sure BU
of himself, coolly confronting and chal- ttjm
longing the old privileged classes, of Bb
culture, birth, royalty, etc., and wiping H
them out.
The old ruling classes kings, courts, jfa
nobles, ecclesiastics, military, social ho
thrusts aside as dead. He regards only m&
democracy as worth consideration. mJ
The Whitman poetic ideal has never R3
really been that of tho Amorlcan. We ' R
have tended to the fino gentlemen of i;k
English letters. Our Now England ' K9
poets were mere echoes of Old England ; ft
poets. ; Rjj
Whitman was something new. , Hpr
Tennyson sang the feudal days, was
tho poet of an overripe and decaying K$
type of civilization. Thrifty, canny, '
educated, moral, smart New England W-Ai
lay behind Emerson, Longfellow and Em
Holmes. All tho states, mountains. Ken
rivers, lakes, prairies, forests, shops, mBS
strcots, ferries, forges, mills; the rough. Kg
turbulent, boasting, bragging, blowing, ; Mfc;
hopeful, moving, sprawling, unkempt BhEuT
mass of the states, lie back of Whitman
and appear in his work. Wr1
Ho had the high poetical faculty of BC
absorbing all men and women and MSf
things unto himself. He did this for j Ej,
America and recast tho country as a Rv
sort of colossal Walt Whitman. j
Ho starts from tho beginning. Ho H&
assumes that the Western Continent Is Jsjj1,
a real new world. It must havo only ; BrV
,ncw men in it. Adam, Eve, tho garden, WP?
tho apple, the sorpont, sin, punishment, ing
Old World things, aro not for his New v
World. Ho held that the religion of tho
Old World was founded upon a curse.
Great masses of the human race wero DC
doomed to perdition. lo
Whitman wanted none of that In
America. Thero was to be a new crea-
tlon on tho North American Continent. $OC
Thero wero not to be any devils in IL
Dea.th Is as wclcomo a3 birth or as mar- " f
rlago or as love, not because it is the ! '
end of life, but because it Is part of
life. i ft
Whitman hold that aristocratic infiu- h
ence and tradition had shaped tho old
religions as It had shaped old govern- , fe
mcnts and old literatures. Tho old ' W '
religion, he said, always hold the com- ; W- -
mon man wa3 tho most criminal. The ;
mass was damned. Only tho chosen dvI
fow could bo savod. Heaven was a so- SuIlC
Icct circle of the pure and just. Ifffc'-
Whltman's religion was one of Joy, KtfT-
not sorrow; triumph, not fear; sorvicc, KfQr
not sacrifice. In fact, it was not re- JyK?ei
llgion at all in tho old senso of tho war lK?
between tho fleshly and spiritual, the Wh
divine with the human. Vjen
The world to Whitman was a place Bfo
of joy, not a vale of tears. Life was Bf:
cheerful, helpful, loving, tolerant, open- ( BfiL
souled. fearless. Death was not to be i KJon
dreaded, but to bo regarded as an "ex- : '
qulslto transition." ; jfjy
Whitman's pooms aro many. They I no T
breathe tho spirit of true Americanism- an j '
They do not mako easy reading, but tbo , jAuati
man who feels Americanism stir in him, jfilori
who wishes to know and to understand ? Frc
the true spirit of the land that Whit- ; ; 0 a
man lovingly calls "these states," will ' F0u
understand and be charmed by Whit- "and
man's poems. His views of birth, life, ll-aon
work, marriage, child-breeding, dying, drive'
tho whole of life, is sound, sane and .;Contl
mo3t comforting, ' y Qer
That Whitman is tho great American ; ' ??8ntli
poet is certain. That ho Is also the :nxx.
greatest poet of democracy is certain. i
That the Issues of tho great war, now ;'hian 1
crystallizing before us, mako him the ; no
greatest of all pocf3 la my firm content ' "(jhtlr
lion. .,rPnt
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