And it was the same with the Civil War; there was
always the vision of cavalry sweeping up and down slopes as they do in
the movies, and of the bugles calling, and bands playing 'Marching
through Georgia' or 'Dixie' as the case might be--and flags
flying--isn't it glorious to think that the men in gray are singing
to-day, 'The Star Spangled Banner' with the rest of us?
"But my thoughts never had anything to do with money, though I suppose
people gave it then, as they are giving now. But you can't paint
pictures of men and women making out checks, and children putting
thrift stamps in little books, so I suppose that in future the heroes
and heroines of the emptied pocket-books will go down unsung--.
"It isn't a bit picturesque to give until it hurts, but it helps a lot.
I saw Sarah Bernhardt the other day in a wonderful little play where
she's a French boy, who dies in the end--and she dies, exquisitely,
with the flag of France in her arms--the faded, lovely flag--I shall
never forget. The tears ran down my cheeks so that I couldn't see, but
her voice, so faint and clear, still rings in my ears--
"If she had died clutching a Liberty Bond or wearing a Red Cross
button, it would have seemed like burlesque.
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