Alton High School - Tatler Yearbook (Alton, IL)

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24 ••Til E tatler: suited from such conditions. For, as Macaulay says, “the violence of these outrages will always be proportioned to the oppression and degradation under which the people have been accustomed to live. Let Russia in her pres- ent state of unrest, heed the warning of history lest she, too, suffer a Reign of Terror. It is to this great instructor, history, that wise statesmen turn in times of perplexity and doubt. When the French formed their first republic they ignored her teachings. Fiercely opposed to any regulation that savored of the old regime, foolishly disregarding the accumulated wisdom of ages, and depending entirely upon their own overestimated abilities, they endeavored to establish a government totally unlike any that had ever existed; they even thought to abolish God and set up in llis temples the Goddess of Reason. The result of their efforts was short lived. But when the convention met to frame a constitution for these United States, the delegates went provided with the experience of the founders of all governments since history began ; and that great document, our constitution, is the product, not of the original genius of our fathers, but of their wisdom in the use of that experience. To question the value of history is to question the value of experience. And just as this great teacher compiles an infinite number of lessons for the instruction of governments, so she furnishes innumerable examples for the guidance of the individual. Literature depicts the lives and deeds of imaginary men and women, draws from them most excellent moral lessons and outlines most beautiful theories. But of what value is even the best of theories without practical demonstration of its truth? History records the lives and deeds of real men. portrays them as they actually existed, points out their chief characteristics, shows how these characteristics led them to success or brought about their downfall, and teaches, as no fiction can teach, the difference l etween right and wrong. It shows us Washington in all the glory of his unselfish devotion to the cause of liberty, winning, by his disinterested ambition for his country, an imperishable name in the annals of history and the love and admiration of all people for all time. It pictures Napoleon in the high light of great military genius, but with a gloomy background of the devastation and distress he caused in order to satisfy that insatiable greed for power which eventually brought about his humiliating captivity and death. What intelligent reader of history can fail to appreciate the distinction between true and false greatness revealed in the characters of these men? Or who can doubt that history preaches

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“ T 11 E T A T L E R.’’ 23 T II E MISSION O F IIIST O R Y . ISTORY is a mighty chain, forged, link by link, upon the anvil of time, binding the past to the present and safely mooring many a ship of state that might otherwise drift away on a disastrous cruise in unknown seas. History is a Delphic oracle, exerting a powerful influence on the conduct and fate of governments and men. when they comprehend its prophecies and arc heedful of its warnings. Readers who find history drv and uninteresting consider it merely a mixture of dates and facts; but the bare facts are not the real history. To depict the life of the time, to impart its spirit, to win sympathy for its people, to trace the causes preceding the leading events, and the effects resulting from them, to show how these events combine to form the whole—an outline of the progress of the human race—this is the purpose of the true historian. And it is the special mission of history to serve as guidepost to the future. Tt has been called “philosophy teach- ing by experience.” (ircat minds of all ages tell us that we can judge of the future only by the past. Epoch and surroundings may change, but human nature is the same “yesterday, today, and forever;” and the same conditions that have made and marred nations in the past will make or mar a nation today. Review your history of Rome. Behold her, the obscure rustic village on the Tiber, rising to a position as “mistress of the world.” But with this sovereignty her citizens acquire enormous wealth and, utterly dependent on their vast households of slaves, become indolent, immoral, and corrupt. She falls, a victim to the deterioration of her national character. At fearful cost America has wisely cast aside the yoke of slavery, but let her look to it that her citizens preserve their strong integrity, lest she fall, even as Rome fell. Examine the state of affairs in France in 1789. Observe the great inequality in the conditions of the classes; the aristocrats, pampered and privileged, living in luxury and splendor; the lower classes, cruelly harassed and oppressed. forced to yield to the extortions of the tax-gatherers the scanty proceeds of their bitter toil, while they and their families suffer from famine cold; and see how inevitably the Reign of Terror, that awful carnival of blood, re-

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“TH E TAT LER.” 25 a mighty sermon on the value of integrity and sincerity in the lives of Luther, the poor miner’s son. who. through fidelity to God and his convictions, became the founder of Protestantism, and of Wolsey. who gained great power by the sacrifice of his honor and the interests of his God, only to fall miserably “from his high estate.” Hut perhaps history’s favorite lesson is this; that the ridicule, opposition, and cruel injustice of a man’s contemporaries are matters of small moment. She shows us a Socrates in his cell, a Wesley, ridiculed and despised, a Lincoln, maligned and scorned: and then she shows us the names of these “immortal dead” written in letters of gold in the imperishable temple of fame. Thus history proceeds, prophesying, preaching, and teaching men and nations. For, as an eminent teacher has said, “to instruct man bv telling the story of h'.s more serious and valuable experience n the most important spheres of his activity—in politics, war. religion, art. industrial achievement, education, scientific discovery and moral endeavor”—such is the mission of history. Alida C. Bowler. “A man severe he was, and stern to view, I knew him well, and every truant knew; Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee At all his jokes, for many a joke had he. —Mr. Richardson.