Adrian High School - Sickle Yearbook (Adrian, MI)

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GRATIDN- Night Brings Out the Stars. Samuel Roy Beal. j c or WHEN we judge events of which we i have had no part in the creation, we are prone to consider them sim- ply from their outward appearance or apparent effect. He who has in- herited a vast fortune cannot ap- preciate the cost and self-denial in- volved in its accumulation. The universal love of fame and the gen- H eral desire to be known of men has likewise prejudiced public estima- tion regarding the relative importance of different epochs of history. A certain epoch is accounted successful by the number of human stars in its history. With what trembling hands and eager eyes we turn the pages of that period of his- tory wherein is recorded the deeds of Napoleon, Washington and Lincoln. There is hardly a school boy who does not have the names of these men constantly held up to him as the goal for his ambitions. But let us examine the periods in which these men lived, to decide whether such periods are really as successful as they seem, whether they are times in which we ourselves would like to live. The stars of the historical, like those of the celestial uni- verse, may be grouped into a few great constellations. The stars of the first constellation appearing way back in the hazy dawn of history, are so dim and indistinct that we know but little about them. Among the brighter of this group are Moses, David, Solomon, Sargon, the Pharaohs of Egypt, Cyrus the Elder, Darius and Xerxcs. The second constella- tion appears between five and three hundred years before Christ. In this group may be mentioned Miltiades, Themis- tocles, Pericles, Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great, Demosthenes and the Ptolemies of Egypt. A little later comes the great Roman constellation, Scipio, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Julius Cmsar, Augustus Caesar, and the Carthaginian, Hannibal. But let us hasten to that modern constellation of stars in which we are most interested, with which we are best acquainted. Here we find Napoleon, 'Wellington Nelson,Bis- marck, Washington, Grant, Sherman, Burke, Patrick Henry, Lincoln, Webster, Calhoun and Clay. These are brilliant stars, and their native countries, in their pride of vanity for- getting the cost, are proud to contribute their names to the world's history. But let us stop to consider the tremenduous loss that must be sustained to create even one of the least of these. Consider the homes they have made desolate, the widows they have caused to mourn, the numberless orphans they have created. VVould any of us be willing to live in the dark, bloody period just before the rise of Napoleon, times when neither life nor property was safe, a period which drained France of its very life blood, times when men were rulers one day and guillotined the next. Yet out of this ter-

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. . . Board of AEdu-gation . . . V MRS. OLIVE SHAW. DAYTON B. MORGAN, PRES. MRS. REDFIELD, SECRETARY. FRED. C. BOWERFIND. J. WALLACE PAGE. IRA WATERMAN

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rible night flashed the dazzling meteor, Napoleon. Wellington and Nelson cost the British nation the flower of her manhood for the privilege of putting their names in history. The great Chancellor, Bismarck, has been aptly called The Man of Blood and Iron. His own words, I have caused the death of eighty thousand meng eighty thousand widows may justly cry to me for bread, aptly describes what it cost the German nation to place this star in the world's iirmanent. The names Washington and Patrick Henry are syn- onymous with the Revolutionary War. With Washington is associated Valley Forgeg with Patrick Henry, the Stamp Act. The names Webster, Calhoun and Clay suggest the turbulent times preceding the Civil War: times of sectional jealousies and mighty forensic strifes in Congress' A little later comes the dark, cloudy Civil War, a war in which one part of a nation is desperately trying to destroy the other-father fight- ing against son, brother against brother, the very home divided against itself. Yet out of this terrible night shine forth the bright stars, Lincoln, Grant and Sherman. It is impossible to see the stars except as the world is wrapped in darkness. Lincoln, Grant and Sherman would never have become visible stars but for the Civil War. While we do not see the stars in the day time, will any- one doubt that they are still shining on? The darker the night, the brighter the gleam of the stars, the darker the period in history, the more brilliant and the more numerous stars. But let us consider some period in history in which few bright stars are visible, such as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The reign of good Queen Bess is one of the most prosperous and progressive in English History. The reign of Queen Victoria is an equally good example. The stars of either period can be numbered on the fingers of one hand. To bring the example nearer home: take, for instance, Gen. Grant's administration. No administration has bG611 more uniformly successful than this, yet the number of stars in this period is very small. These were times when no man was especially great, but when every man was truly great. The question is often asked: Do we have capable men among us at the present time ? In answer I would say, Do you expect to see the stars in the day time ? It is just as reasonable to look for stars while the sun is shining as to look for history making men in prosperous times. I do not mean to infer that social upheavals and wars are unnecessary, but I wish to emphasize the fact that the number of stars in a period is no criterion by which to judge of the prosperity of that period. We would hardly wish for night simply that we might see the stars. The stars are ever shining, but the glori- ous sun of happiness and prosperity, at the present time, dulls their rays.