Soldan High School - Scrip Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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Whitman's tutor in Democracy ultimately was war. His creed forbade his fighting. But as he lived and worked with the soldier in the hospital, or cheered him in the field, and as he wrote of him, there came to him war's deep meaning. As war had tutored him in Democracy, now Democracy tutors him in war. He fully conceived that war was forging the unity of the states. He studied closely the characteristics of his age-Lincoln's age. He knew the souls, passions, ideas and flame-like results. He studied Lincoln closely and caught the deep, subtle and indirect expres- sion reflected in the face of this greatest man of the people. He sang divinely of Lincoln's death. In a vision he saw the coffin of Lincoln carried through the whole country, greeted by the States as crape- veiled women, accompanied by the bareheaded, grief-stricken eloquent throng. He heard dirges, the tolling of bells, the sweet, solemn music of the organs in every church in the land. And surrounding all, a black cloud hanging as a pall over our whole nation. Yet here it did not end. There is another vision: A Phantom arose before me with distrustful aspect, Terrible in beauty, age, and power, The genius of poets of old lands, With finger pointing to many immortal songs, And menacing voice. 'What singest thou?' it saidg 'Know'st thou not there is but one theme for ever- enduring bards? And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles, The making of perfect soldiers. ' Now we might say the years with Whitman take a great leap. It was the time of the Civil War. He had come to realize the meaning of war, the terrible necessity of the last war against war. Again the veil lifts-and shows a vista of fifty years, and then he says: I see not America only, not only Liberty's nation, but other nations preparing, I see tremendous entrances and exits, new combina- tions, the solidarity of races, I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's stage, I see Freedom, completely arm'd and victorious and very haughty, with Law on one side and Peace on the other, A stupendous trio. I see men marching and countermarching by swift mil- lions, 10

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',.,.-,-,.,,-4.--.-R-W: A .fwgw ir ,ff in, Y H t?-.-.,,.gZ-.,f-J,,..i? people, the ultimate expression of the right dualism of community and individual? Echoing from the uttermost parts of America come the two words: Walt Whitman. Reports show that Whitman was the poet most read by our lettered men in the trenches. Walt Whitman is the passionate idealization of world Democracy. He saw himself in all people and all people in himself. His theme as he defined it is: One's-self I sing-a simple, separate Person, Yet ut- ter the word Democratic, the word En-masse. Each one a different distinct individual and yet as a whole with the rest. Whitman's message is: I speak the password primeval g I give the sign of Democracy, and according to a poet interpreter it is Democ- racy, embracing all that is included in Liberty, Equality and Frater- nity. His liberty is the liberty of the whole individual. For him every Self is separate, eternal, perfect, and the Spirit of the Universe. He insists everything exists for the Individual. He resents all restraint that retards the development and expression of the Individual. In these stir- ring times we understand his vision. The soldier to-day in battle is at one with Whitman as never before. Whitman said there was nothing necessary to happiness but to live naturally and appreciate the joys all around us. He even spoke of death as soothing and delicate. He pictured it as a dark mother gliding with soft footsteps. So deeply has Whitman entered into the American soul that throughout this war a calm resignation marked the reconciliation with death by the mothers and fathers of the lads who died in service. Whitman stood for absolute equality for all men and for both sexes. All are equal and he is their bard. He sang for the divine average -the common people--healthy, honest, open-hearted men and women, and his passion was to level all up to their plane. Has this hope been accomplished in our great army? Let us see: the laborer's son and the heir of millions are rubbing elbows on the march. The servant is the master's superior oflicer. Whitman emphasized the fraternity side of democracy under com- radeship. His democracy made the free relationship between men more secure, so he said, than could lawyer or agreement on paper or force of arms. To Germany how sacred were her treaties? and how holy the body of another man-one of God's own creatures? But turn to our own men exercising that new chivalry of which Whitman writes. The soldier of democracy offered his life, not for his own country, not for his own people, but to protect the brothers, the sisters, the mothers, the fathers in those stricken lands over there. 9

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n -xg 12 - , liffiixi- . e ea ,-, I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocra- cies broken, I see the landmarks of European kings removed. Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe? Is humanity forming en-masse? for lo, tyrants trem- ble, crowns grow dim, The earth restive, confronts a new era. The perform'd America and Europe grow dim, retir- ing in shadow behind me. The unperform'd, more gigantic than ever, advance. And has this prophecy come to pass? This terrible war of four years is the answer. There is now one heart to the globe. Democracy has almost real- ized the vision of fifty years ago, the prophecy of her bard, Walt Whitman. -Frances Vivian Feldkamp. A War Definition , ,, 5-A S it not true that with experience some commonplace words Q:l 33'1 F7 . . 'Q grow heavy with new mean1ng? Recently, I learned to ,' thrill at the sound of an old-fashioned word. For this rea- ES' ' son, I dare to bring it to your attention, you who have learned the meaning of the word and the value of the habit expressed, and I, whose attention has been arrested in recent months through a new insight given by war. The immediate thought which comes to many, is that thrift is simply a fact of saving money and material substance. But thrift is an attitude of mind toward life. It means the exercising of the rules of reason with regard to things about us. It warns against yielding to our natural whims and impulses. Thrift must not be thought of as a means of accumulating a fortune only. A thrifty man need not accumulate a fortune, large or small. The object of thrift is to make us masters of all material things that we may enjoy, that these things may not master us. True happiness consists, not in satisfying many wants, but in having fewer wants to satisfy. It is said that people go through life discontented, chiefly because of artificially created and stim- ulated wants. The war taught us to be thrifty in the satisfaction of our wants, that we might lavish our souls and our savings on our country. And then, too, it is necessary that a man uphold thrift as the basis of sound living. He will be a better craftsmang he will do more with 11