The Lafayette Dollars

1900

Readers of The Companion have not forgotten the American monument to the Marquis de Lafayette, which is to be erected in the city of Paris by the aid of subscriptions raised by the school children of the United States. By an act of the last Congress, the United States mint was authorized to strike off fifty thousand silver dollars with a special design commemorating the setting up of this monument, and to turn the coins over to the association which has in charge the erection of the monument in Paris.

By this association the dollars will be sold for two dollars apiece. The sum of one hundred thousand dollars thus realized will be added to the fund for the monument.

On December 27, 1899, the director of the mint, Mr. Roberts, presented to President McKinley the first of these dollars which came from the mint, and Mr. McKinley announced his intention of presenting it in turn to the President of the French Republic, Monsieur Loubet. This, in fact, was done on the third of March.

On one side of the coin are the heads of Washington and Lafayette, and on the other is a reproduction of the proposed monument. Across the face of the monument is this inscription: "Erected in the Name of the School Children of the United States, Paris, 1900." — Youth's Companion.

The Lullaby Song Mother Used To Sing

1911

The Lullaby Song

Some time ago a western contemporary gave utterance to this practical, prosaic and unemotional declaration: "Another very pretty sentiment that should be exploded is the lullaby song. Did your mother rock you to sleep and sing while doing it, and you recall the song? As a rule, a woman has so many children they are hustled off to bed without being rocked, and what mother ever knew a lullaby from start to finish?"

There are some things that are too sacred for alleged humor or wit and the above is an instance in point, as there are many who will not accept it as either, for as observed by an exchange there are those whose years have exiled them to dreamland, who can call up tender recollections of childhood and remember the songs that mother used to sing.

There are plenty of old men living who had mothers who could sing in low, tender, though uncultivated, tones the lullaby song, and its melody is still enshrined in the heart and thrills in memory. The old man of German stock especially can remember the simple folk song of the Fatherland that his mother sang above his cradle. Long ago its music came from over the sea, and at last has incorporated in the runic rhymes the old colored nurse crooned or warbled to woo sleep to infantile eyelids.

It may be that in later years we have been privileged to hear the great voices of the day. But all their grand arias never so touched our hearts as when in an encore they gave us a melody that had been dedicated to babyland and which thousands of mothers had sung to the cradle's rocker beating time.

It is strange what a hold these simple melodies of childhood retain in a life, however long, however filled with changes and vicissitude. There is something in their joys though they be ever so fleeting, that remains indelible. Every now and then, in quiet hours, the heart will hark back over the intervening years and remember it with reverence. And who will say that we are not better men and women for such moments of reflection, even though they do bring back the sound of voices that have long been silent, and the touch of hands that are dust?

And can you recall the song? Of course! You hear the familiar notes again in the midst of other surroundings, and instantly the scene is changed about you. You are a child again, just for a moment, and you look up, as you did in days gone by, into a face you love — oh, it may be aged and wrinkled and homely now, but it's still to you the sweetest face in the world.

You look again into eyes that are eloquent with a mother's unspeakable love — the purest, sweetest, holiest feeling the human heart may know. You feel again the comforting presence of her who guided your first uncertain footsteps, who heard you lisp your first little words, and whose tender solicitude for you has never ceased in all these years.

Can you recall the song? A generation may have passed since you heard it. Perhaps, in the corner of some quiet churchyard the singer lies asleep. Years and experience may have come upon you since you heard it last from her dear lips. Scenes may have changed, and your feet have wandered far since then; but never, never have you forgotten.

Life has brought you discords, but they can't erase it. After it may have come the other songs of other days. but the echo of those earlier ones is with you always. Childhood can never die.

No, do not tell us that the lullabies have gone out of fashion, after all these ages in which they have been sung over cradle and couch, in hovel and palace, and been remembered by millions in whose hearts remained an echo and a light of other days. The childhood that never heard a mother's lullaby is not apt to have a manhood of wholesome sentiment or that reverence for womankind which ennobles the heart and uplifts the soul.

—The Mansfield News, Mansfield, Ohio, Feb. 28, 1911, p. 6.

War Envelopes Used In Civil War Correspondence

1907

War Envelopes

The story of the civil war has been told and retold from platform and press, particularly on Memorial day, until the shelves of our libraries teem with the volumes of records of that epoch of our country's history.

In many a garret or family cabinet may be found some cap or portion of a garment worn during the strife by the soldier boy of the family; possibly the battered, bullet-pierced canteen may have its place.

To each or to all of these the grayhaired veteran may point his children at this memorial season, while telling them of the part he took in the struggle. But there is still another reminder of those years of national trial, simple though it may be, that serves to recall the spirit that prevailed before hostilities began, as well as to remind us of the progress of events during the development of those four years of bloody conflict. It is the stationery used in the correspondence between camp and fireside and between home and battlefield.

One envelope shows Gen. Scott to be the bulldog, with Jeff Davis as the smoking car, and the bone of contention as the city of Washington. The gamecock and shanghai envelope has no significance only as one turns to an issue of the Richmond Examiner of that period and reads, "The capture of Washington is perfectly within the power of Virginia and Maryland. The entire population pant for the onset. Our people can take it. They will take it, and Scott, the archtraitor, and Lincoln, the beast, combined, cannot prevent it. The just indignation of an outraged and deeply injured people will teach the Illinois ape to repeat his race and retrace his journey across the border of the free negro state still more rapidly than he came. And Scott, the traitor, will be given the opportunity at the same time to try the difference between Scott's tactics and the shanghai drill for quick movements."

The Ellsworth envelope was popular throughout the union, as was the "young man of 24 years" and his Chicago zouaves. His genuine energy and self-confidence had won the attention and admiration of the whole country.

Under the Blossoms of May — Memorial Day poetry

1907

Under the Blossoms of May
(By Chart A. Pitt, Bellingham, Wash.)

When the drum's lone beat sounds the "Last Retreat,"
To the star-sown fields o'er head,
And the veterans grey, are lain away,
In the city of the dead;
O'er their chambered town the sunshine gleams,
And the spring time breezes play,
Peaceful their slumbers, and happy their dreams,
Under the blossoms of May.

The stars look down o'er their silent town,
Where the marble shafts gleam white;
And shadows dim, come drifting in,
From the stronghold of the night.
No bugle's blare can wake them there,
Nor banners flaunting gay,
There's no "measured tread" in the streets of the dead,
Under the blossoms of May.

—The Gazette, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, May 22, 1907

Girl Dies in Sunday School

1903

Swallows Mouthpiece of a Toy Balloon While the Service Is On and Chokes

New York, March 3.—Emma Rauch, 9 years old, swallowed the wooden mouthpiece of a toy balloon and died in the presence of the entire Sunday school of the Ainslee Presbyterian church in Brooklyn. The child bought the penny balloon while on the way to Sunday school. She inflated it in the church, but the mouthpiece slipped into her throat. Superintendent Follett tried in vain to extract the wood. He then summoned physicians and the child's parents. When it was seen that all efforts were futile and the doctors announced that death was approaching the whole school knelt and prayed until life was extinct.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 4, 1903, page 1.


SWALLOWED TOY BALLOON

Strange Scene in Brooklyn Sunday School

NEW YORK, March 2—A remarkable scene was enacted in the Sunday school of the Ainslee Street Presbyterian Church, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn yesterday. A short time before 10 o'clock Emma Rausch, nine years old left home for Sunday school. On the way she bought a penny whistling balloon. This she took into her class and while inflating it for the amusement of her classmates, the wooden mouth piece slipped into her throat. She gasped, and pain showed in her eyes. The children became alarmed and their exclamations of fright attracted the attention of Chas. Follett, superintendent of the Sunday school. He called to a trustee of the church and they worked to extricate the toy from the throat of the fast choking child. Not until she became unconscious was it believed that her condition was critical. Physicians were hastily summoned but could do nothing for her. When they announced that death was near the Rev. D. S. Dawson raised his hands and asked that all kneel and pray. Then he prayed aloud and fervently for the soul that was passing before their eyes.

The child's parents, who had been sent for, entered as the clergyman was about to begin his prayer. The meaning was clear to them, and they knelt sobbing beside their child and on the wings of the prayer of their playmates and friends the child's soul was borne away to its maker. Tenderly the body was carried to an adjoining room and Dr. Dawson led the awestricken congregation in a memorial service in place of the regular Sunday School exercises.

—The Daily Republican-News, Hamilton, Ohio, March 2, 1903, page 1.

Note: The Davenport paper had "Rauch" and the Ohio paper "Rausch" for the child's name.

A Poem in Memory of Mrs. E. Calvey, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

1912

IN MEMORIAM

Lines in Memory of Mrs. E. Calvey.

Grandma's chair is vacant
In the old familiar place
Where the children sat and listened,
To her tales of childhood days.

We children loved her dearly
Our grandma, good and kind,
Whose tender voice and loving hands
Now cold in death, they'd ever soothing find.

We will grieve for her and call her,
But we will call in vain:
She has gone to her eternal rest,
To no care or pain.

Her old arm chair is vacant,
But we will hold her memory dear,
And we'll keep the old chair sacred,
Though she'll never more be here.

MARIE FITZGERALD.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 20, 1912, page 5.

President Harding Dedicates Memorial to Francis Scott Key

1922

MEMORIAL TO SONG WRITER

PRESIDENT PAYS TBIBUTE TO FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.

Dedication at Baltimore in Honor of Author of "Star-Spangled Banner" — Greeted by Enthusiastic Crowd.

BALTIMORE, June 14.—A national memorial to Francis Scott Key, author of the "Star-Spangled Banner," was dedicated by President Harding today on the site of Fort McHenry, where, in 1814, hung the flag to which the anthem was written during an attack by a British fleet. Referring to the inspiring words and their prayer that victory "ever may be justified when liberty is imperiled," the president declared that "to give ringing voice" to such an aspiration was "one of the greatest services which any man could do for the young republic."

Lowering skies and occasional rain greeted the presidential party as it arrived by automobile from Washington, but did not dampen the enthusiasm of the greeting by the people who lined the route of a pageant procession — which proceeded the unveiling and in which the president rode. Thousands of massed and uniformed school children sang and waved flags in tumultuous greeting. The dedication was the center of the nation's Flag day celebration as Mr. Harding appealed for more of the spirit of Francis Scott Key to be instilled into Americans of today.

"The outstanding and the reassuring thought of today," he added, "is the supreme exaltation of Key in the hour of great trial to reveal the soul of a patriot in the night of surpassing anxiety and devotion to duty."

Visits Wounded Soldiers.

The president was taken into the old "Star" bastion of the fortress, on which the famous attack of 1814 centered and, with Mrs. Harding, inspected the post hospital, where 300 wounded of the world war are still under care, before going to the speaker's stand, erected under the colossal statue in bronze by Charles H. Niehaus to commemorate the battle and song alike.

"Don't any of you hesitate in taking shelter," the president told his audience when a burst of rain broke as he began speaking, "but I'm a Baptist myself." The audience cheered.

"I ask you in fancy to turn your gaze back to the flag which inspired the immortal words of Key," the president said before beginning his prepared speech. "As I stand here I can see its folds. There were only fifteen stars in it then. Then look at old glory before you with its forty eight stars symbolizing forty-eight unified states and consider that it is hardly more than a century since fifteen filled its field.

"I ask you, in the face of that, what are the limitless possibilities of our republic of tomorrow. You in Baltimore are making a fine contribution in your monumental city, for it is the finest thing to preserve the heritage of the founding fathers. You'll never have an Americanism go wrong that cherishes the traditions and memories of the sacrifice that has prepared for it."

From the fortress ground, the president's party went to the home of Senator France, where a brief reception to the public was held. He returned to Washington this evening.

Address of the President.

President Harding, in dedicating the memorial, spoke as follows:

"My Fellow Americans: The shrines of American patriotism not only reflect the duality of its gratitude, but they are ever refreshing and inspiring. We are assembled today to rededicate one of these sacred shrines. We are met to commemorate a historic victory in arms, when the young republic was first asserting its national rights against an armed foe. And we are met to commemorate a very unique achievement in the literature of national inspiration. Here the patriotic sons of the early republic crushed one of the most ambitious invasions ever aimed against our nation. Here during the rage of combat was born the swelling anthem of American patriotism.

"It is wholly fitting that flag day should be chosen for this commemoration and rededication, because our hymn of patriotism is in apostrophe to the flag we love. Yea, it is apostrophe and invocation as well, born of a patriotic and poetic soul in the travail of a sublimely heroic night.

"To one who has a bent for such oddities, there will be found much of absorbing interest in the study of those songs of patriotism which at different eras have enjoyed popularity. The civil war brought a generous contribution of songs, good, bad or indifferent, but all aiding to fire the national spirit. Once they were on millions of tongues, sung in every assembly; yet one will have difficulty finding anybody of the present generation who is familiar with more than a line or two from any of them. I must, of course, except 'Dixie,' which in the years since Appomattox, has been claimed like every good thing that the south possessed, as part of the common heritage of the entire people."

—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 15, 1922, page 2.