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Lord Byron, who wrote tremendously on the subject of lattle, puts powerful words into the mouth of Saul in his "Sgng of Saul," when he makes him say: "\ll/arriors and chiefs ! Should the shaft or the sword, Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord, Heed not the course, though a king's in your path, Bury your steel in the bosom of Gath."

And many of our own blessed American boys now bearing arms abroad may echo the poetic words of Sir Walter Scott, when he wrote:

) The day she cradled me, r,,. What lands I was to travel through, '.,,, What death I wa; to dee.' fn the old days they made war with words as well as rreapons, and did it grandiloquently. Take the meeting of l. Alexander the Great and Darius on the banks of the River Astukhus. Darius was ruler of the world, and Alexander ff,, ,sought to be. Darius sent a letter to Alexander, in which li"'h" said: "The King of I{eaven has bestowed on me the

I These tense days when we listen to everv cry of the. ,i newsboys on the street, and sit fearsomely by the radio' l,:,at home expecting at any moment to hear the echoes of :turogrean invasion, it is difficult to think or talk qf anything but war. The ordinary affairs of life become flat, stale and unprofitable by comparison, as matters of thought or con{:'..! versat'on.

'do-ittions of the earth." The boyish Alexander wroti in [' 'reply : "That you may taste and 'acknowledge the bitterness of my victory, I have resolved to meet you in battle. I pro1,1fess myself the weak and humble servant of God, to whom .-*,,. f address my prayers and look for victory and triumph, i,l- *d whom I adore." (Note: Alec beat the- bloody hades out +.f 9f the boastful Darius.)

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Which reminds me that certain words of Abraham Lin1;1,1 coln on the subject of God's help in battle, are often misi: ;quoted. Here they are correctly. A certain clerg5rman, ;:,' talking to Lincoln, remarked: "I hope that the Lord ls on our side." Lincoln r6plied: "I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side,"

Lincoln once made a powerful short statement concerning the value of our national Congress, when he said: "In a certain sense and to a certain extent, the President is a representative of the people. He is elected by them,.as Con- ' gress is. But can he, in the.nature of things, know the wants of the people as well as three hundred other men coming from all the'various localities of the nation?"

Speaking of war again. General Zachary Taylor was a simple, plain-spoken man. His words were so blunt that they might have seemed egotistlcal. Yet he was far from an egotist. Before the great battle of Buena Vista in Mexico -the battle that made Taylor President-he had an army of about 5,000 Americans, mostly volunteers and many of them going into actual combat for the first time. And he was surrounded by at least 20,000 Mexicans under General Santa Anna. Santa Anna sent a niessenger to Taylor demanding his surrender. Taylor never hesitated. He said to his officers who surrounded him to learn his answer: "\lVere there twice twenty thousand it would make no difference." And the reply he sent back to Santa Anna read: "General Taylor never surrenders." They fought a whale of a battle for ten hours, and Taylor was everywhere on horseback, directing his men. Before the fighting started he addressed his arrny, saying: "Soldiers, I intend to stand here, not only so long as a man remain5, but so long as a piece of a man is left."

Under heavy fire he rode up to a battery of cannon and calmly said to its commander: "A little more grap€, Captain Bragg." By nightfall over 7O0 Americans had fallen, and the Mexicans had lost over 2,000. All night the Americans watched for the next attack. It did not come. When dawn broke it was found that the great Mexican army had'withdrawn in the night. What a relief that was ! That battle made General Taylor President of the United States. He had served only a year when a cold brought on his death. His last words were: "I am not afraid to die." He wasn't afraid of anything in this or the next.

Andrew Johnson, the Vice President, who succeeded to the.Presidency when Lincoln was as3assinated, was like Lincoln inasmuch as he was alpays proud of his plain origin. Once in the United States Senate he was reminded rather sarcastically of the fact tfiat he was a man of the people. Johnson replied: "Sir, I do not forget that I am a -.mechanic. Neither do I forget that Adam was a tailor who sewed fig leaves, or that our Savior was the son of a carpenter.r' >8 :r

During one of Lincoln's debates with Douglas, a loudmouth in the.rear of the audience demanded to know if it was not a fact that Lincoln entered Illinois barefoot and driving a team of oxen. Lincoln stopped his speech,. and replied to the heckler: "There are many men in this audience who can testify that I came in that way, each of them far more respectable than*this queslioner.'

A friend asked me the other day if it were true that Thomas Jefferson was an ardent violinist. Indeed he was, to the very end of his long life. ft was through his fiddle playing that he met that flaming American, Patrick Henry. Both were fiddlers and attended fiddling meetings. They became warm friends, although Jefferson was rich and to the Manor born, while Henry was poor, married the daughter of an innkeeper, and tended bar in his father-in-lads inn. But they were great souls, and after their fiddling brought them together, they remained friends through life. To give you an idea of the devotion of Jefferson to his violin, it is related in history that when his beautiful home at Shadwell burned to the grdund, his faithful colored servants were able to make .just one rescuing trip inside the burning building, and what do you think they brought out? Jefferson's violin. He'lost the finest library in Virginia. But he sav.ed his fiddle. The negroes knew what he loved best.

Talking again of J"nurlorrl t"l ,r,. add several thoughts that are to me intensely interesting concerning that great man. He was very straight-laced. He was noted for his purity of character. He never used profanity, and deplored its use. He never played cards, nor allowed card playing fur his home. He hated liquor and was so prejudiced against it that he refused to take it as a stimulant prescribed by his doctor when he was dying. FIe was a very early riser. Not long before he died he remarked that the rising sun had not found him in bed in more than fifty years. While a slim man with extrernely thin legs, he was one of the strongest men physically, in Virginia. One historian declares that he could lift one thousand pounds dead weight, and that in his youth he could run all day like a panther, without tiring. One shoulder was lower than the other. He was red-headed and very homely.

His ahoice biblical quotation was th; lstrr psatrn oi,'j David. When he vzas dyrng (he died a'lingering dceth:ri#.,tii you know) he read a great deal. His biographer, Hearli'1fi S. Randall, tells of his final literary interests in this manner: "The majesty of 'Aeschylus, the ripe art of Sophocles, thi,ili exhaustless invention of Euripides, now came before himl;l in more than their pristine grandeur and beauty. and ia :' the Bible he found fights of sublimity more magnifice41.i than in these, coupled with a philosophy compared to which.;: the Grecian was imperfect, narrow, and weak. No senti-rii ment did he express oftener than his contempt for all mofa$l:.l systems compared with that of Christ." Nothing low-brow. about the Father .of Democracy when it came to reading;i,, was there ? Y

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Having devoted most of this column today to historicali i matters, let me close with a little sketch of a truly'great and.ii: ' delightful woman who once presided over the domestic *.'-* affairs'of the White llouse, and shed nothing but gtory .i upon the place by so doing. I whnt you folks to meet a,;l ----- J\ most charming woman, Mrs. James Knox Polk, wife of.:i President Polk. Her wit, her charm, her delightful manner and manners, made her a notable person in any assembllii:,,i She was a very gentle and cultured woman, but most of al{,j a diplomatic and witty one. As you know, her husbaridl;ii and the great Kentuckian, Henry Clan had been competi;i tors for the presidency, and Polk had won. At a sparkling, White House dinnbr, Mrs. Polk seated Henry Clay at her:l side. He was his usual charming conversational self. In hiC': most polished manner, partly in fun and partly serious, Mi.d Clay said to Mrs. Polk: "Madam, all agree in.commendirry;i in the highest terms your excellent administration of thc"l domestic affairs of the White House. But as for that yqung l gentleman there (nodding toward President Polk), t c.arr;rii not say as much." While all the guests hung on her wordf": ,Mrs. Polk smilingly replied: "Indeed, I am glad to hear: that MY administration is pbpular; and in return for yonr,,, compliment I will say that if the country should elect .i Whig next fall, I know no one whose elevation would pleasa:,;r me more than that of Henry ClayJ' That, folks, is what ie:, called "Taking the play away from.the other fellow." I

Yes, friends, truly someone should write a book about:ij the brilliant and gifted women of American history, ,h.S,i sayings and'their writings. It would be a honey. .t , ,,.':';1.:

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