OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

Otago Witness, Issue 3169, 9 December 1914, Page 76

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS. (Conducted by Maoistee. to whom all communications must be addressed.) [Maglster win be glad to receive Nature Notes, marked papers containing educational articles, diagrams, details of experiments, etc., of scholastic interest to teachers and pupils. Correspondents must use only one side of the paper, and whether using a pen name or not, must send both name and address.] , “TO WILLIAM THE MAD.” In a recent issue of Nash’s Magazine this verse appears. The lines are written by Herbert* Kaufman, and the editor adds the note: “ It is claimed that there is a strong Mongol strain in the Prussian race.” Some say that there’s a Mongol strain in Prussian blood; That when there burst from the fell East that yellow flood Of flat-iaoed devils, sprung from hell’s own womb, And Attila left Home behind, a tomb: The Hunnish tribesmen, raiding in the West, Left many an Hunnish babe at German’s breast. This is sheer legend; yet, if the tale be true, How proud to-day were Attila of you! “ WHAT ALL FLAGS SHOULD SAY.” Public Opinion for July 31 has on its first page an article in italics with my heading, and the sub-tit'.e, “ And What One Flag in Particular Said to a Clerk.” I should have said a speech, not an article, for it was delivered to ‘ Secretary Franklyn Lane, one of President Wilson’s group of men, and head of the Interstate Commerce Commission. This Flag Day speech was only addressed to the clerks of hie own department, but it has a world-wide message to all who love their flags and those who don’t, and warns Europe to-day not to smirch its flags.” The introduction tells us that it is expected that Secretary Franklin Lane is about to be made a judge: “ This morning, as I passed into the Land Office, the flag dropped mo a most cordial salutation, and from its rippling folds I heard it say ; ‘ Good-rnorning, Mr Flagmaker.’ “ ‘ I beg your pardon, Old Glory,’ I said, ‘ you are mistaken. 1 am not the President of the United States, nor the Vice-president, nor a member of Congress, nor even a general in the army. I am only a Government clerk.’ “‘I greet you again, Mr Flagmaker,’ replied the gay voice. ‘ I know you well. You aro the man who worked in the swelter

of yesterday straightening out the tangle of that farmer’s homestead in Idaho.’ “ ‘ No, I am not,’ I was fox'ced to confess. “ ‘ Well, perhaps you arc the one who discovered the mistake in that Indian contract in Oklahoma V “ ‘ No, wrong again,’ I said. “ ‘ Well, you helped to clear that patent for the hopeful inventor in New York, or pushed the opening of that new ditch in Colorado, or made that mine in Illinois more safe, or brought relief to the old soldier in Wyoming. No matter, whichever one of these beneficent individuals you may happen to be, I give you greeting, Mr Fiagrnaker.’ THE GREETING. “I was about to pass on, feeling that I was being mocked, when the flag stopped me with these words: “ ‘ You know, the world knows, that yesterday the President spoke a word that made happier the future of 10 mill ons peons in Mox.co, but that act looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which the boy in Georgia is making to win the Corn Chip prize this summer. “‘Yesterday the Congress spoke a word which will open the door of Alaska, but a mother in Michigan worked from sunrise until far into the night to give her boy an education. She, too, is making the flag. “ Yesterday wc made a new law to prevent financial panics; yesterday, no doubt, a school teacher in Ohio taught his first letters to a boy who will write a song that will give cheer to the millions of our race. We arc all making the flag.’ “‘But,’ I said impatiently, ‘these people were only working.’ “ ‘ Then came a groat shout from the flag. “WHO I AM.” “ ‘ Lot me tell you who I am. The work that we do is the making of the real flag. “ ‘ I am not the flag, not at all. “ ‘ I am but its shadow. “ ‘ I am whatever you make me, nothing more. “ ‘ I am your belief in yourself, your dream of what a people may become. “ ‘ I live a changing life—a life of moods and passions, of heartbreaks and tired muscles. Sometimes I am strong with pride when men do an honest work, fitting the rails together truly. Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from mo, and cycnically I play the coward. Sometimes I am loud, garish, and full of that ego that blasts judgment. But always I am all that you hope to be and have the courage to try for. “ I am song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope. “ ‘ I am the day’s work of the weakest man and the largest dream of the most daring. “‘I am the Constitution and the courts, statutes and statute-makers, soldier and Dreadnought, drayman and street-sweep, cook, counsellor, and clerk. “‘I am the battle of yesterday and the mistake of to-morrow “‘I am the mystery of the men who do without knowing why. “ ‘ I am the clutch of an idea and the reasoned purpose of resolution. “ ‘ I am no more than what you believe me to be, and I am all that you believe I can bo. “‘I am what you make me, nothing more. MAKERS OF THE FLAG. “ ‘ I swing; before your eyes as a bright gleam of colour, a symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation. “ ‘ My stars and my stripes are your dreams and your labours. “ ‘ They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you have made them so out of your hearts, for you are the makers of the fiag,_ and it is Well that you glory in the making.’ ” THE LAUREATE’S CALL. Wc have had many fine pieces on the present war. The following by the Poet Laureate, Mr Robert Bridges, appeared in the London Times on August 9. The tripping character of the verse does not give that majesty of movement we associate with great momentous events. Kipling, Newbolt, and others have done much better work:— Thou careless, awake! Thou peacemaker, fight I Stand, England, lor honour, And God guard the right. Thy mirth lay aside, Thy cavil and play, The foe is upon thee, And grave is the day. The Monarch Ambition Has harnessed his slaves, But the folk of the oceau Are free as the waves. For peace, thou art armed, Thy freedom to hold, Thy courage as iron, Thy good faith as gold. Through fire, air, and water Thy trial must be, But they that love life best Die gladly for thee. The love of their mothers Is strong to command, The fame of their fathers Is might to their hand. Much suffering shall cleanse thee, But thou through the flood Shall win to salvation, To beauty through blood. Up, careless. Awake! Yo peacemakers, fight! England stands for honour, God defend the right. CORRESPONDENCE AND NOTES. I have three or four queries to answer, but as they are not specially urgent. I’ll allow them' to stand over until next week. Recently I have been giving prominence to some war notes, but 1 do not intend war to have a monopoly of our columns. Recently I was shown an interesting document recalling the times of the Boer war. It is one of the addresses circulated throughout the universities of Germany for signature, and then for transmission to Paul Kruger. I took it to a gentleman who has a working knowledge of German, and this is the free translation he gave rno: —“To his Excellency Paul Kruger, the President of the Transvaal Republic.—ln view of the intense enthusiasm which has permeated the whole of Germany, and has found such eloquent expression in the metropole of the Rhineland [that; is, Berlin], we, the German students, cannot refrain from offering to your Excellency our unbounded homage; tnd may your unshaken confidence and your trust in God be rewarded by finding out of this unholy war in which the blood of so many brave men has been shed an issue crowned with honour, and by bringing to your oppressed Fatherland the desired peace. This is the heartfelt wish of the

academic youth of Germany.” Under this superscription were columns in which signatories placed tho;r name, faculty, and place of residence. This document is one of many showing the trend of thought of thj educated classes in Germany.