I see a half-dozen regiments charging a Cuban hillside to dislodge a fortified enemy—strong, alert, confident soldiers—their courage born of the consciousness that they are fighting for right and justice against wrong and oppression. Who are they? A strange conglomeration of militia men, regular army soldiers, nabobs from New York, rough riders from the plains—but all of them average men.
So through all the years of our nation’s history, in the hours of her peril and of her achievements, she has been saved from shame and has been crowned with glory by the deeds of her average men.
Great men have arisen from time to time to lead her armies into battle or to defend her principles of liberty and justice, but, after all, these leaders had been powerless and, indeed, impossible except for the rank and file—the host of average men, who followed them and put into effect their teaching; not as slaves, but as free men doing their duty as intellect and conscience had directed.
Who is it that will determine the future policy of this nation and write success or failure above her gates? Not her millionaires, nor her statesmen, nor her scholars, nor her soldiers, but the average men whose votes count millions in the aggregate and whose will is law.
Thomas Jefferson understood this and read the future with unerring mind. Therefore he made it his chief concern and his great political work to protect the rights and enlarge the privileges of the average man—the bone and sinew of the state.
HON. ALF TAYLOR,
One of the most eloquent and scholarly contributions to the intellectual menu of the coming season will be the new lecture of Hon. Alf Taylor, “If Columbus Should Wake.”
SAMUEL SIEGEL.
Samuel Siegel, the great mandolinist, who is known to more people than any other player of this instrument, is very popular throughout the South. He is the originator of the system used by the Siegel-Myers Correspondence School of Music, and is also exclusive mandolinist for the Edison, Victor and Columbia Phonograph Companies. Mr. Siegel will tour the South next season at the head of the Siegel-Meyer-Reed Concert Company.