This morning as I passed into the Land Office, the Flag dropped me a most cordial salutation, and from its rippling folds I heard it say: "Good morning, Mr. Flag Maker." "I beg your pardon, Old Glory," I said; "aren't you mistaken? s I am not the President of the United States, nor a member of Congress, nor even a general in the army. I am only a Government clerk." "I greet you again, Mr. Flag Maker," replied the gay voice; "I know you well. You are the man who worked in the swelter 10 of yesterday straightening out the tangle of that farmer's homestead in Idaho, or perhaps you found the mistake in the Indian contract in Oklahoma, or 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 15 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. Flag Maker." 20 I was about to pass on, when the Flag stopped me with these words: "Yesterday the President spoke a word that made happier the future of ten million peons in Mexico; but that act looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which the boy in Georgia is making to win the Corn Club prize this summer. "Yesterday the Congress spoke a word which will open the 5 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 we made a new law to prevent financial panics, and yesterday, maybe, a school teacher in Ohio taught his first 10 letters to a boy who will one day write a song that will give cheer to the millions of our race. We are all making the flag." 15 20 "But," I said impatiently, "these people were only working!" Then came a great shout from the Flag: "The work that we do is the making of the Flag. "I am not the flag; not at all. I am nothing more than 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 workmen do an honest piece of work, fitting rails together truly. "Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from me, and 25 cynically I play the coward. 30 "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, the statutes and the 85 statute makers, soldier and dreadnaught, drayman and street sweep, cook, counselor, and clerk. "I am the battle of yesterday, and the mistake of tomorrow. "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 be. "I am what you make me, nothing more. "I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation. My stars and my stripes are your dream and your 10 labors. 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 flag and it is well that you glory in the making." NOTES AND QUESTIONS Biography. Franklin Knight Lane (1864-) was born near Charlottetown, Canada. While he was yet a small boy his parents moved to California, where he attended the State University at Berkeley, being graduated in 1886. Then he entered the newspaper field and became New York correspondent for a number of papers in the West. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-five and practiced law in San Francisco. In 1913 he was appointed Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Wilson. "Makers of the Flag" is an address made by Secretary Lane, in June, 1914, before the five thousand officers and employees of the Department of the Interior. Discussion. 1. Why did the Flag greet the author as "Mr. Flag Maker"? 2. Why are the Georgia boy, the mother in Michigan, and the school teacher in Ohio, Makers of the Flag? 3. Tell in your own words some of the things that Mr. Lane says the Flag is. 4. What does the Flag mean by saying, "I am all that you hope to be and have the courage to try for"? 5. How is the Flag a "symbol of yourself"? 6. Do you think that you are a Maker of the Flag? 7. In your opinion, what class of people are the greatest Makers of the Flag? 8. Pronounce the following: cordial; government; garish; ego. I HEAR AMERICA SINGING WALT WHITMAN I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be, blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, 5 The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutters' song, the plowboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission, or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, 10 The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs. NOTES AND QUESTIONS Biography. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was born in Huntington, Long Island, and educated in the public schools of Brooklyn. He left school at the early age of thirteen to make his own way in life. At different times he was school teacher, carpenter, builder, journalist, and poet. During the Civil War he became a volunteer nurse in and about Washington, D. C., and the story of his unselfish hospital service is one of the most inspiring that has come down to us from that war. Lincoln said of him, "Well, he looks like a man!" Two points about Whitman are worthy of notice. The first is that he was a man of intensely democratic sympathies. He wrote of "the dear love of comrades" as the real means for bringing about a better understanding among men of every nation, a better government, and the end of war. He loved every part of America, and all America's sons and daughters. The word "democracy" constantly occurs in his poetry and his prose, and by it he means the cultivation of love and coöperation among men. He had a vision of the time when autocratic government, and all forms of selfishness, should cease among men; like Burns, he dwelt on the time when men all over the world should be brothers. The second point is closely related to the first. In his dislike for conventional and exclusive life he objected even to the form developed for poetry through centuries. He was a lover of freedom, even in writing. So he rarely uses rimes and stanzas. He calls his form "chants," and so they are, chants of human brotherhood and sympathy. Discussion. 1. Who is it that the poet hears singing? 2. In stanza 1, what "varied carols" does he hear? 3. What do you think was the poet's underlying idea in writing this poem? 4. Do you think that he meant to point out that the road to happiness is the road to work? varied carols, 556, 1 Phrases noon intermission, 556, 12 PIONEERS! O PIONEERS! WALT WHITMAN Come my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready, For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers! O you youths, Western youths, 10 So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the fore most, Pioneers! O pioneers! |