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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1916)
Omaha PART THUEE EDITORIAL PAGES ONE TO SIX EE PART TTIREF, MAGAZINE TAGES OZZ TO SIX VOL. XLV NO. 32. OMAHA, SUNDAY. MORNING, JANUARY 23, 10KV SIXdLK COPY FIVK CENTS Bobby" Burns' Birthday Asrain Summon TH Sunday B Will r 0 , --....... A ( is 1 U a Choice Bits of Verse by Scotland's Famous Bard "Hear the woodlark charm the forest,. Telling o'er his little Joys, napless bird, a prey the surest To each pirate of the skies. Dearly bought the hidden treasure, Finer feeling can bestow, Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure Thrill the deepest notes of woe." "It's o In titles nor In rank, It's no In wealth like Lon'on bank. To purchase peace and rest. It's no In makln' muckle malr, It's no In books, it's no In lear To make us truly blest. If happiness hae not her seat And center In the breast We may be wise or rich or great, But never can be blest." "They gie the wit o age to youth, They let us ken oursel. They make us see the naked truth, The real good and til. Tho' losses and crosses Be lesson right severe, There's wit there ye'll get there, Ye'll find nae other where." Selected by Beriah F. Cochran. Kenneth Stewart Fin lays on. l c Av.' S r "i , IV vhr VIVA ! Hislop 'Ul I,, i i : IX r"Jv,.;5 J 1 .... . 11 hi , 1 . mi .mi. mi1 f ."fill ' ' '',V'V, -i-'f U : v. "A A A t TURBULENT, tender-hearted, thoroughly human Bobble Burns. Would Omaha descendants of "Scots wha hae wl" Wallace bled" ever let his birthday pass without commemorating it with the songs and dances of dear old Scotland? Na, na, non, o' course they would na. It will be ,157 years ago next Tuesday since Bobble was born in fair Ayrshire, and the event will bo celebrated In Omaha by Ulan Gordon, No. 63. Order of Scottish Clans, with a concert and ball. There'll be the bagpipes piped by no less a person than O. W. McDougall, piper to the clan. Tbere will be Glengarry bonnets and Balmoral bonnets and tunics and plaids and tartan hose and kilts, and brogues and sporrans and dirka and ikeandhus and horns. Oh, It'll be thoroughly Scotch, aye, entirely Scotch. And there'll be far lasses In the Hie land costume. If Bobble himself were to drop In be might, find there, the counterpart of his dear 'IIieland Mary." Poor Bobble, dead at 37! . . . This country boy, son of a poor nursery gar dener, great lyric poet of Scotland, grew Into a man of average height and of heavy build. It U one of the mysteries ot genius that It appears In the most unexpected places. It seldom shines out tr. the offspring of the great and Intellectual, but ertabllehes Its temple In the children of the lowly. So it did with Burns. It shone from his eyes. "I never saw such another eye," says Scott, 'la Irene Hislop Y V '-oil' M' -" 'Vf " J- U I n i I jA- ,:f;i' i r.ny human head. His face became singularly anli mated and expressive in conversation." And his poetry! Where 1s another man that lias matched his many-sided muse, the tenderness of "Highland Mary," "Ae Fond Kiss" and "To Mary In Heaven:" the martial swing of "Bannock- burn;" the fu and action of "Tarn O'Snanter" and the humble devontness of "Grace Bebore Meat" and "The Cotter's Saturday Night." Iove for his na tive land 1 op pi res not only bis countrymen but those ot other lands as he sings: Krom scenes like this old Scotia's grandeur springs, That make her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad. Princes and lords are but the breath of kings. An honest man's the noblest work of God. And It's good to be merry and "wise, It's good to be honest and true, It's good to support Caledonia's cause And bide by the buff and the blue." In a farmer boy one would hardly look for the shrewd philosophy found la these oft-quoted lines: O, wed some power the glftle gle lis To see ourselves as ithers see us. It wad frae roonie a blonder free us, And foolish notion. Burns' pre-eminent (ymanneaa makei him loved as well aa hi tender heart, tender to the "wee cowerln' mousle" whose rest had been laid bare by his plow share; and tender to his sweet hearts, to Nellie Kllpatrick, to Ellison Begble, to Jean Armour, to Mary Campbell. , . Yes, Bobble knew life's pacsions, the heights of bliss, the depths of despair and despondency and remorse. Genius and passion burned hot. within him, burned out his mortal frame In thirty seven years. f , , The charm of Burns' poems lies in the Justness -and commonness of the feelings expressed and In the truthfulness and freshness that they derive direct from life. .. He felt all the things he wrote. He wrote on the spur of the moment, ana he wrote things that come spontaneously, direct from a full heart. So the clans are coming together In Omaba, the Macintoshes and the MacDonalds and the Mac Pbersons and the Stuarts and the Cameruns and , the MacGregors and the MacAlplnes and the Mac Nlcolls and the Grahams and the Bruces and th -Wallaces and the MacKinnons and the MacKlnleys -and the MacKenzies and the Campbells and the ' Sutherland and the Murrays and the MacLeans end the MacLeods and the MacFarlanes and the Kennedys and the Merries and the Buchannans . end the MacKaskllls and the MicGUllvrays and the MacPhails and the MacCullochs and the Frasers and the Lindsays and' the Malcombs, and all the ether sons and daughters of Scotland. This sturdy race Is well represented here In Omaha. Three of them are on the bench In the court house. One of them la going to run on the republican ticket for the United States senate. In business, the professions and politics you find them, too numerous to mention. And the MacDonalds and Cameroni no longer pull out their dirks and skeandhus when the Campbells come along, as they did In the days of Bonnie Prince Charlie. As Burns said, i r For a', that an' a' that. . i ; It's coming yet for a' that, i . ' ' That rnan to man the warld o'er t . Shall t rlthers be for a that. ' Hoot, moo, when Uamerohs can be friendly with Campbells It would seem the time la near at band. Kenneth S. Fioiayson is chief of Clan Gordon and will be In charge of the celebration. Fin layson Is of the Scotch Bcotchy. ' He fairly out Scotcbes the Scotch. He has a burr on his tongue that almost puts Harry Lauder to shame. ' He talks the Gaelic language with perfect flu ency. In fact be was quite a broth ot a boy be fore' he could talk anything but Gaelic. He was torn on a sheep farm near Portree In the Isle of Skye, Scotch highlands. This farm was seven Tr.iles square and was chiefly hills, where the sheep and long-horned, shaggy cattle fed. His father waa born on the strae farm. So was bis grandfather. So was bis great grand father. So i was his great great-grandfather. So was bis great-great-great-grandfatber. Back ten generations be has the names and tates of birth of his ancestors on the same farm. And It Is likely that the family lived and died there fir ten gen erations before that, or maybe twenty. William Rennle Is tsnnlst of the clan. In the old days the tannlst was always the chief's eldest son, but that' custom isn't insisted upon now for obvious reasons. ' - 1 William R. Gunn Is senior henchman, and Rob ert Gait is Junior henchman; Robert Watson, re- -cording secretary; W. J. Hislop, treasurer; John Trench, chaplain; Harold Fernandes, financial sec retary; Andrew V. Hislop, seneschal; John Mark ham, warden; John Chapman, sentinel; George MacDougall, piper, and William Hampton, stand ard bearer. Celebrated in the arts of bonnle Scotland Is ' George MacDougall, piper to the clan. He can pipe ' The Campbells Are Coming" with a marital vigor and vim and orotundlty that just makes real mem bers of the other c!ans give their kilts a whisk and reach for their skeandhus. 1'ts a reversion, an instluct, a stirring of the blood of generations In their veins when George puffs out his cheeks, puts a few ruble yards of breath Into the bagpipe and then starts tickling them with hla skilled fingers. And not a wee bit Isss celebrated are the His lop sisters, MUses Jean and Irene. Ah, 'Us a bon nle sight when they get their btghlanu costumes on and begin to dance the "Highland Fling' or the "Sword Hance" or the "Sheantrews" or the "Reel o' Tulloch" or the "Strathspeys." They'll be at the celebration In force, these de scendants from folks of "that knuckle end ot En gland, that land of Calvin, oat-cakes and sulprur," as Sidney Smith called it. They'll be tbere from the land ot the thistle, the thistle Bae green. They'll be there for the memory ot Bo nolo Burns and auld'lang syne. K 1 1 i 'I N