(2318)
See [Fidelity]; [Home Where the Heart is]; [Symbol, Power of a].
PATRIOTISM, DISINTERESTED
A rather refreshing sight for this year of our Lord would be a repetition of the office seeking the man as in “Saul’s” case, where it was said, “They sought him (to make him king) but he could not be found.”
It is said of Abraham Lincoln that, fully expecting, owing to the meager success of the Union armies up to that time, that he would fail of reelection as President, he resolutely set about putting the governmental departments in order for his successor. He took special pains that as little inconvenience as possible (and detriment to the country’s interests) should be experienced in the transfer of power. How differently he might have acted but for his distinguishing patriotism! Washington once said: “It is of little consequence that my closing days be embittered if only the liberties of my country be conserved.” (Text.)
(2319)
Patriotism, Early—See [Loyalty].
Patriotism, Emblem of—See [Memorials of Patriotism].
PATRIOTISM, LACK OF
A significant punishment was administered recently to a man in Hoboken, N. J., for an act of disrespect to the Stars and Stripes. He was returning from an entertainment in the early morning hours, when he noticed a large flag flying from a pole in a citizen’s yard. In a spirit of mischief he opened his pocket-knife and cut the halyards and the flag came fluttering to the ground. A policeman saw it fall and promptly arrested the man. When asked by the recorder before whom he was arraigned why he had done the mischief, he had nothing to say but that he objected to see the flag flying at that time in the morning. The recorder answered that it was right to have that flag flying at any time, and he would pass a sentence that would teach the offender a lesson of respect. He ordered him to climb the forty-foot pole and replace the flag, and instructed two policemen to see that it was done. The news of the sentence attracted a crowd and the man was jeered as he clumsily climbed the pole and put the flag back. It is a curious fact that the man who cut the flag down was an American, but it was flying in the yard of a Frenchman, and the arrest was made by an Irish policeman, and the recorder who pronounced sentence is said to be of English descent.