章节正文
Some of you saw the procession go up Broad
Street. I was away, but the family wrote to me
that the tally-ho coach with Lieutenant Hobson
upon it stopped right at the front door and the
people shouted, ``Hurrah for Hobson!'' and if I
had been there I would have yelled too, because
he deserves much more of his country than he
has ever received. But suppose I go into school
and say, ``Who sunk the _Merrimac_ at Santiago?''
and if the boys answer me, ``Hobson,'' they will
tell me seven-eighths of a lie. There were seven
other heroes on that steamer, and they, by virtue
of their position, were continually exposed to the
Spanish fire, while Hobson, as an officer, might
reasonably be behind the smoke-stack. You have
gathered in this house your most intelligent people,
and yet, perhaps, not one here can name the other
seven men.
We ought not to so teach history. We ought to
teach that, however humble a man's station may
be, if he does his full duty in that place he is
just as much entitled to the American people's
honor as is the king upon his throne. But we do
not so teach. We are now teaching everywhere
that the generals do all the fighting.
I remember that, after the war, I went down
to see General Robert E. Lee, that magnificent
Christian gentleman of whom both North and
South are now proud as one of our great Americans.
The general told me about his servant, ``Rastus,''
who was an enlisted colored soldier. He called
him in one day to make fun of him, and said,
``Rastus, I hear that all the rest of your company
are killed, and why are you not killed?'' Rastus
winked at him and said, `` 'Cause when there is
any fightin' goin' on I stay back with the generals.''
I remember another illustration. I would leave
it out but for the fact that when you go to the
library to read this lecture, you will find this has
been printed in it for twenty-five years. I shut
my eyes--shut them close--and lo! I see the faces
of my youth. Yes, they sometimes say to me,
``Your hair is not white; you are working night
and day without seeming ever to stop; you can't
be old.'' But when I shut my eyes, like any other
man of my years, oh, then come trooping back
the faces of the loved and lost of long ago, and
I know, whatever men may say, it is evening-time.
I shut my eyes now and look back to my native
town in Massachusetts, and I see the cattle-show
ground on the mountain-top; I can see the horse-
sheds there. I can see the Congregational church;
see the town hall and mountaineers' cottages;
see a great assembly of people turning out, dressed
resplendently, and I can see flags flying and
handkerchiefs waving and hear bands playing. I can
see that company of soldiers that had re-enlisted
marching up on that cattle-show ground. I was
but a boy, but I was captain of that company
and puffed out with pride. A cambric needle
would have burst me all to pieces. Then I thought
it was the greatest event that ever came to man
on earth. If you have ever thought you would
like to be a king or queen, you go and be received
by the mayor.
The bands played, and all the people turned
out to receive us. I marched up that Common
so proud at the head of my troops, and we turned
down into the town hall. Then they seated my
soldiers down the center aisle and I sat down on
the front seat. A great assembly of people a
hundred or two--came in to fill the town hall,
so that they stood up all around. Then the town
officers came in and formed a half-circle. The
mayor of the town sat in the middle of the
platform. He was a man who had never held office
before; but he was a good man, and his friends
have told me that I might use this without giving
them offense. He was a good man, but he thought
an office made a man great. He came up and took
his seat, adjusted his powerful spectacles, and
looked around, when he suddenly spied me sitting
there on the front seat. He came right forward
on the platform and invited me up to sit with the
town officers. No town officer ever took any
notice of me before I went to war, except to advise
the teacher to thrash me, and now I was invited
up on the stand with the town officers. Oh my!
the town mayor was then the emperor, the king
of our day and our time. As I came up on the
platform they gave me a chair about this far, I
would say, from the front.
When I had got seated, the chairman of
the Selectmen arose and came forward to the
table, and we all supposed he would introduce
the Congregational minister, who was the only
orator in town, and that he would give the oration
to the returning soldiers. But, friends, you should
have seen the surprise which ran over the audience
when they discovered that the old fellow
was going to deliver that speech himself. He had
never made a speech in his life, but he fell into
the same error that hundreds of other men have
fallen into. It seems so strange that a man won't
learn he must speak his piece as a boy if he in-
tends to be an orator when he is grown, but he
seems to think all he has to do is to hold an office
to be a great orator.
So he came up to the front, and brought with
him a speech which he had learned by heart
walking up and down the pasture, where he had
frightened the cattle. He brought the manuscript
with him and spread it out on the table so as to
be sure he might see it. He adjusted his spectacles
and leaned over it for a moment and marched
back on that platform, and then came forward
like this--tramp, tramp, tramp. He must have
studied the subject a great deal, when you come
to think of it, because he assumed an ``elocutionary''
attitude. He rested heavily upon his
left heel, threw back his shoulders, slightly
advanced the right foot, opened the organs of speech,
and advanced his right foot at an angle of forty-
five. As he stood in that elocutionary attitude,
friends, this is just the way that speech went.
Some people say to me, ``Don't you exaggerate?''
That would be impossible. But I am here for
the lesson and not for the story, and this is the
way it went:
``Fellow-citizens--'' As soon as he heard his
voice his fingers began to go like that, his knees
began to shake, and then he trembled all over.
He choked and swallowed and came around to
the table to look at the manuscript. Then he
gathered himself up with clenched fists and came
back: ``Fellow-citizens, we are Fellow-citizens,
we are--we are--we are--we are--we are--we are
very happy--we are very happy--we are very
happy. We are very happy to welcome back to
their native town these soldiers who have fought
and bled--and come back again to their native
town. We are especially--we are especially--we
are especially. We are especially pleased to see
with us to-day this young hero'' (that meant
me)--``this young hero who in imagination''
(friends, remember he said that; if he had not
said ``in imagination'' I would not be egotistic
enough to refer to it at all)--``this young hero
who in imagination we have seen leading--we
have seen leading--leading. We have seen leading
his troops on to the deadlybreach. We have
seen his shining--we have seen his shining--his
shining--his shining sword--flashing. Flashing in
the sunlight, as he shouted to his troops, `Come
on'!''
Oh dear, dear, dear! how little that good man
knew about war. If he had known anything
about war at all he ought to have known what
any of my G. A. R. comrades here to-night will
tell you is true, that it is next to a crime for an
officer of infantry ever in time of danger to go
ahead of his men. ``I, with my shining sword
flashing in the sunlight, shouting to my troops,
`Come on'!'' I never did it. Do you suppose
I would get in front of my men to be shot in front
by the enemy and in the back by my own men?
That is no place for an officer. The place for the
officer in actual battle is behind the line. How
often, as a staff officer, I rode down the line, when
our men were suddenly called to the line of battle,
and the Rebel yells were coming out of the woods,
and shouted: ``Officers to the rear! Officers to
the rear!'' Then every officer gets behind the line
of private soldiers, and the higher the officer's
rank the farther behind he goes. Not because
he is any the less brave, but because the laws of
war require that. And yet he shouted, ``I, with
my shining sword--'' In that house there sat
the company of my soldiers who had carried that
boy across the Carolina rivers that he might not
wet his feet. Some of them had gone far out to
get a pig or a chicken. Some of them had gone
to death under the shell-swept pines in the
mountains of Tennessee, yet in the good man's speech
they were scarcely known. He did refer to them,
but only incidentally. The hero of the hour was
this boy. Did the nation owe him anything?
No, nothing then and nothing now. Why was he
the hero? Simply because that man fell into that
same human error--that this boy was great because
he was an officer and these were only private
soldiers.
Oh, I learned the lesson then that I will never
forget so long as the tongue of the bell of time
continues to swing for me. Greatness consists
not in the holding of some future office, but really
consists in doing great deeds with little means
and the accomplishment of vast purposes from
the private ranks of life. To be great at all one
must be great here, now, in Philadelphia. He
who can give to this city better streets and better
Street. I was away, but the family wrote to me
that the tally-ho coach with Lieutenant Hobson
upon it stopped right at the front door and the
people shouted, ``Hurrah for Hobson!'' and if I
had been there I would have yelled too, because
he deserves much more of his country than he
has ever received. But suppose I go into school
and say, ``Who sunk the _Merrimac_ at Santiago?''
and if the boys answer me, ``Hobson,'' they will
tell me seven-eighths of a lie. There were seven
other heroes on that steamer, and they, by virtue
of their position, were continually exposed to the
Spanish fire, while Hobson, as an officer, might
reasonably be behind the smoke-stack. You have
gathered in this house your most intelligent people,
and yet, perhaps, not one here can name the other
seven men.
We ought not to so teach history. We ought to
teach that, however humble a man's station may
be, if he does his full duty in that place he is
just as much entitled to the American people's
honor as is the king upon his throne. But we do
not so teach. We are now teaching everywhere
that the generals do all the fighting.
I remember that, after the war, I went down
to see General Robert E. Lee, that magnificent
Christian gentleman of whom both North and
South are now proud as one of our great Americans.
The general told me about his servant, ``Rastus,''
who was an enlisted colored soldier. He called
him in one day to make fun of him, and said,
``Rastus, I hear that all the rest of your company
are killed, and why are you not killed?'' Rastus
winked at him and said, `` 'Cause when there is
any fightin' goin' on I stay back with the generals.''
I remember another illustration. I would leave
it out but for the fact that when you go to the
library to read this lecture, you will find this has
been printed in it for twenty-five years. I shut
my eyes--shut them close--and lo! I see the faces
of my youth. Yes, they sometimes say to me,
``Your hair is not white; you are working night
and day without seeming ever to stop; you can't
be old.'' But when I shut my eyes, like any other
man of my years, oh, then come trooping back
the faces of the loved and lost of long ago, and
I know, whatever men may say, it is evening-time.
I shut my eyes now and look back to my native
town in Massachusetts, and I see the cattle-show
ground on the mountain-top; I can see the horse-
sheds there. I can see the Congregational church;
see the town hall and mountaineers' cottages;
see a great assembly of people turning out, dressed
resplendently, and I can see flags flying and
handkerchiefs waving and hear bands playing. I can
see that company of soldiers that had re-enlisted
marching up on that cattle-show ground. I was
but a boy, but I was captain of that company
and puffed out with pride. A cambric needle
would have burst me all to pieces. Then I thought
it was the greatest event that ever came to man
on earth. If you have ever thought you would
like to be a king or queen, you go and be received
by the mayor.
The bands played, and all the people turned
out to receive us. I marched up that Common
so proud at the head of my troops, and we turned
down into the town hall. Then they seated my
soldiers down the center aisle and I sat down on
the front seat. A great assembly of people a
hundred or two--came in to fill the town hall,
so that they stood up all around. Then the town
officers came in and formed a half-circle. The
mayor of the town sat in the middle of the
platform. He was a man who had never held office
before; but he was a good man, and his friends
have told me that I might use this without giving
them offense. He was a good man, but he thought
an office made a man great. He came up and took
his seat, adjusted his powerful spectacles, and
looked around, when he suddenly spied me sitting
there on the front seat. He came right forward
on the platform and invited me up to sit with the
town officers. No town officer ever took any
notice of me before I went to war, except to advise
the teacher to thrash me, and now I was invited
up on the stand with the town officers. Oh my!
the town mayor was then the emperor, the king
of our day and our time. As I came up on the
platform they gave me a chair about this far, I
would say, from the front.
When I had got seated, the chairman of
the Selectmen arose and came forward to the
table, and we all supposed he would introduce
the Congregational minister, who was the only
orator in town, and that he would give the oration
to the returning soldiers. But, friends, you should
have seen the surprise which ran over the audience
when they discovered that the old fellow
was going to deliver that speech himself. He had
never made a speech in his life, but he fell into
the same error that hundreds of other men have
fallen into. It seems so strange that a man won't
learn he must speak his piece as a boy if he in-
tends to be an orator when he is grown, but he
seems to think all he has to do is to hold an office
to be a great orator.
So he came up to the front, and brought with
him a speech which he had learned by heart
walking up and down the pasture, where he had
frightened the cattle. He brought the manuscript
with him and spread it out on the table so as to
be sure he might see it. He adjusted his spectacles
and leaned over it for a moment and marched
back on that platform, and then came forward
like this--tramp, tramp, tramp. He must have
studied the subject a great deal, when you come
to think of it, because he assumed an ``elocutionary''
attitude. He rested heavily upon his
left heel, threw back his shoulders, slightly
advanced the right foot, opened the organs of speech,
and advanced his right foot at an angle of forty-
five. As he stood in that elocutionary attitude,
friends, this is just the way that speech went.
Some people say to me, ``Don't you exaggerate?''
That would be impossible. But I am here for
the lesson and not for the story, and this is the
way it went:
``Fellow-citizens--'' As soon as he heard his
voice his fingers began to go like that, his knees
began to shake, and then he trembled all over.
He choked and swallowed and came around to
the table to look at the manuscript. Then he
gathered himself up with clenched fists and came
back: ``Fellow-citizens, we are Fellow-citizens,
we are--we are--we are--we are--we are--we are
very happy--we are very happy--we are very
happy. We are very happy to welcome back to
their native town these soldiers who have fought
and bled--and come back again to their native
town. We are especially--we are especially--we
are especially. We are especially pleased to see
with us to-day this young hero'' (that meant
me)--``this young hero who in imagination''
(friends, remember he said that; if he had not
said ``in imagination'' I would not be egotistic
enough to refer to it at all)--``this young hero
who in imagination we have seen leading--we
have seen leading--leading. We have seen leading
his troops on to the deadlybreach. We have
seen his shining--we have seen his shining--his
shining--his shining sword--flashing. Flashing in
the sunlight, as he shouted to his troops, `Come
on'!''
Oh dear, dear, dear! how little that good man
knew about war. If he had known anything
about war at all he ought to have known what
any of my G. A. R. comrades here to-night will
tell you is true, that it is next to a crime for an
officer of infantry ever in time of danger to go
ahead of his men. ``I, with my shining sword
flashing in the sunlight, shouting to my troops,
`Come on'!'' I never did it. Do you suppose
I would get in front of my men to be shot in front
by the enemy and in the back by my own men?
That is no place for an officer. The place for the
officer in actual battle is behind the line. How
often, as a staff officer, I rode down the line, when
our men were suddenly called to the line of battle,
and the Rebel yells were coming out of the woods,
and shouted: ``Officers to the rear! Officers to
the rear!'' Then every officer gets behind the line
of private soldiers, and the higher the officer's
rank the farther behind he goes. Not because
he is any the less brave, but because the laws of
war require that. And yet he shouted, ``I, with
my shining sword--'' In that house there sat
the company of my soldiers who had carried that
boy across the Carolina rivers that he might not
wet his feet. Some of them had gone far out to
get a pig or a chicken. Some of them had gone
to death under the shell-swept pines in the
mountains of Tennessee, yet in the good man's speech
they were scarcely known. He did refer to them,
but only incidentally. The hero of the hour was
this boy. Did the nation owe him anything?
No, nothing then and nothing now. Why was he
the hero? Simply because that man fell into that
same human error--that this boy was great because
he was an officer and these were only private
soldiers.
Oh, I learned the lesson then that I will never
forget so long as the tongue of the bell of time
continues to swing for me. Greatness consists
not in the holding of some future office, but really
consists in doing great deeds with little means
and the accomplishment of vast purposes from
the private ranks of life. To be great at all one
must be great here, now, in Philadelphia. He
who can give to this city better streets and better
- procession [prə´seʃən]
n.队伍 v.列队行进 (初中英语单词) - lieutenant [lef´tenənt] n.陆军中尉；代理；副手 (初中英语单词)
- steamer [´sti:mə] n.汽船；轮船；蒸笼 (初中英语单词)
- intelligent [in´telidʒənt] a.聪明的；理智的 (初中英语单词)
- humble [´hʌmbəl] a.谦卑的 vt.贬抑 (初中英语单词)
- illustration [,ilə´streiʃən] n.插图，图解，例证 (初中英语单词)
- working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- assembly [ə´sembli] n.集会；装配；与会者 (初中英语单词)
- offense [ə´fens] n.冒犯；触怒；犯法 (初中英语单词)
- platform [´plætfɔ:m] n.(平)台；讲台；站台 (初中英语单词)
- emperor [´empərə] n.皇帝 (初中英语单词)
- supposed [sə´pəuzd] a.想象的；假定的 (初中英语单词)
- minister [´ministə] n.部长；大臣 v.伺候 (初中英语单词)
- pasture [´pɑ:stʃə] n.牧场；放牧 v.吃(草) (初中英语单词)
- advanced [əd´vɑ:nst] a.先进的；高级的 (初中英语单词)
- welcome [´welkəm] a.受欢迎的；可喜的 (初中英语单词)
- imagination [i,mædʒi´neiʃən] n.想象(力) (初中英语单词)
- deadly [´dedli] a.致命的 ad.死一般地 (初中英语单词)
- sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
- actual [´æktʃuəl] a.现实的；实际的 (初中英语单词)
- continually [kən´tinjuəli] ad.不断地，频繁地 (高中英语单词)
- throne [θrəun] n.宝座；王位 (高中英语单词)
- thrash [θræʃ] v.打(谷)；(用棍)痛打 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- manuscript [´mænjuskript] a.手抄的 n.手稿 (高中英语单词)
- breach [bri:tʃ] n.&v.破坏；违犯 (高中英语单词)
- infantry [´infəntri] n.步兵(部队) (高中英语单词)
- greatness [´greitnis] n.巨大；高尚；卓越 (高中英语单词)
- accomplishment [ə´kʌmpliʃmənt] n.完成；成就；才艺 (高中英语单词)
- seeming [´si:miŋ] a.表面上的 n.外观 (英语四级单词)
- orator [´ɔrətə] n.演说者；雄辩家 (英语四级单词)
- incidentally [,insi´dentəli] ad.顺便一提；偶然地 (英语四级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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