{"numero_id": "bm-bmtnaaq-1915-07-12-01", "volume": "bmtnaaq_1915-07-12_01", "ocr_sha256": "15933b32806b16c095feea742d9b98dcc4a3cc4614ab92a5a605156e9f28a11f", "source_tei": "https://github.com/Princeton-CDH/bluemountain-transcriptions/blob/main/periodicals/bmtnaaq/issues/1915/07/12_01/bmtnaaq_1915-07-12_01.tei.xml", "source_mets": "https://github.com/pulibrary/BlueMountain/blob/main/metadata/periodicals/bmtnaaq/issues/1915/07/12_01/bmtnaaq_1915-07-12_01.mets.xml", "url_numero": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01", "articles": [{"article_id": "bm-bmtnaaq-1915-07-12-01-c001", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaaq_1915-07-12_01#c001", "volume": "bmtnaaq_1915-07-12_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "1", "page_fin": "1", "image_debut": 1, "image_fin": 1, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.2.1", "titre_corps": "The proof that liberty is the divine ideal of man, is that she is", "titre_sommaire": "The proof that liberty is the divine ideal of man, is that she is", "signature_source": "Alphonse de Lamartine", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "1", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.1", "debut_caractere": 133, "fin_caractere_exclue": 470, "texte": "Alphonse de Lamartine\nThe proof that liberty is the divine ideal of man, is that she is\nihe first dream of youth, and that she does not fade from our\nsoul until our heart is withered and our mind either debased or\ndiscouraged. There is not a soul twenty years old that is not\nrepublican. There is not a decayed heart that is not servile."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaaq-1915-07-12-01-c002", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaaq_1915-07-12_01#c002", "volume": "bmtnaaq_1915-07-12_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "1", "page_fin": "8", "image_debut": 1, "image_fin": 8, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.2.2", "titre_corps": "Les Confidences: Being the Confessions of a Self-made American", "titre_sommaire": "Les Confidences: Being the Confessions of a Self-made American", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "1", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.1", "debut_caractere": 472, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1746, "texte": "Les Confidences: Being the Confessions\nof a Self-made American\nIN the solitude of my garret have I thought about all this busi-\nness that is setting aflame with barbaric rage one world and\ncreating uneasiness, constraining personal liberty and sowing\nthe seeds of hatred among brothers in the other.\nAnd because I am an American citizen, and because I thank\nthe belligerent countries for some of the best and most essential\nthings of my life, I feel that I must voice these thoughts of my\nsolitude and tell them to you, who were born and raised in\nAmerica, and who might better understand after this, and to\nyou who are citizens as I am by your own choice, but who\nperhaps had never time or inclination or the intuition to think\nabout it all.\nWell do I remember the dav on which I resolved to make\n•0\nthis country my own. It was nearly a year after my arrival in\nthe United States. I had just finished reading the writings of\nAbraham Lincoln. I wanted to be a citizen of the country this\nman had lived and worked and finally died for.\nHero worship! But how I would wish to be as young\nagain! My ideals carried me with uncurtaiied wings high above\nall material matters—above disappointments not spared to any\nof us, and all those little disasters which are part of our lives."}, {"page_pdf": 2, "page_imprimee": "2", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.2", "debut_caractere": 16, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2138, "texte": "I had admired Alexander the Great; Napoleon had beer, my\nideal for years. Power, strength, determination of will, mak-\ning other people do what he thought was best for them,—that\nhad impressed me. To read the lives of these men, to study\ntheir methods and their actions brought me elevation and ga e\nme ambition.\nBeing the product of a monarchistic system, raised in ari\natmosphere of discipline, of castes and of traditions, I was\nbe deeply impressed with the European Republic—with Franc-\nLiberte! Egalite! Fraternite!\nI searched for it in France and I could not find it. Maybe I\nwas too young in those days; maybe I was not able to translate\nthe ideal into existing conditions. Maybe I was considering life\nas it was more than as it had been planned to be.\nAnd I became a cynic; I lost my belief in real things. I\nwanted to live my own life outside of the community of men\nwhom I did not trust, who seemed to me egotists, sailing under\na false flag of idealistic endeavors. Too deeply rooted in me\nwas my early education of respect for laws and regulations to\ndo anything desperate, or to join the groups of the dissatisfied,\nof men who call themselves betterers of humanity, and whom\nhumanity calls outlaws, parasites or reformers.\nAnd so I decided to live my own life in the \"New World,'\nto think as I wanted to think, to believe what I wished to be-\nlieve, not to know anything of government, not to be a part of\na system. As work which should furnish me with the necessi-\nties of life, I chose hard menial labor. Work that anybody\ncould do who had strength and physical ability, where there were\nno questions asked, no contracts made. I came in the morning\nand received my pay in the evening, if I wished to. If I didn't\nlike the work, I could quit it. And while I was working to earn\nmy room and board, my thoughts were my own. And never in\nmy life did I feel freer than in those days in which I had ex-\nchanged my pen for a shovel.\nI frequented the libraries. In my work clothes I strolled\nin, asked for any book I wished to read. Can you recollect the\nred tape you have to go through if you ask for a book in the"}, {"page_pdf": 3, "page_imprimee": "3", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.3", "debut_caractere": 16, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2186, "texte": "?urary in France, in Germany or in Italy? Not the big trage-\niit'S of life make for unhappiness, but the small, little annoyances\nspoil for us the pleasure of enjoying this world.\nJ \"I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and\nmean to keep doing so 'til the end. If the end brings me out\nalp right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.\"\nI These are the words of Lincoln, uttered at a time when he\n■\nseemed entangled in a labyrinth of political complications. I\nnbad his life, I read everything I could find about him, about his\ncountemporaries, and now after more than fifty years have\nelapsed since his tragic death, these words of his have proven\nt!'ue. He had been far above the criticism of his time; he had\nfeen only one goal for his life, one path leading to this goal, and\nlie walked this path. He saw the ambushes; he anticipated the\nstones which would be hurled at him from behind, but he walked\npn. He had one life and the only vocation of his was to live\nthat life of his. His words—and his words were his life—\nshowed me what this country meant to the world, what America\nhad been and was for all nations, for all races.\nAND so I stood there before the clerk in a western city and\ndesired to make my application for American citizenship.\nIt was a formality of a couple of minutes. I glanced over the\nslip of paper he handed me. There it stood, black on white,\nglaring into my face, that I had to renounce the sovereign, the\nprince whose subject I then was.\nThere are moments in the life of every human being when\nhis brain works with a hurrifying alacrity. Thoughts, memories,\nvivid pictures of scenes that have left an everlasting impression\nshoot through the brain in terrifying quick succession. They\nfollow one the other, covering as long a stretch of years as our\nconscious and unconscious memory goes back in our lives. It\nhappened there to me. In the clerk's office while I was look-\ning at the disinterested face of the man who wanted me to raise\nmy hand and repeat the oath and to be done with me. I saw\nmyself as a young boy singing patriotic songs. I saw myself\nas a youth in uniform with unsheathed sword swearing an oath"}, {"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "4", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.4", "debut_caractere": 16, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2151, "texte": "of allegiance to my king. How terrible that oath was! \"Dur-\ning day and night,\" the oath reads, \"in water and on land, (in\npeace and in war, will I follow his leadership, will I be loyal to\nhim. Even against my father and my brothers will Ibe loyal\nto him.\"\ni\nAnd then I thought how I had been educated at his ex-\npense, being a beneficiary of a stipendium, how I had to than>k\nhim indirectly for my college and for my university education.\nAnd I thought of my father and of his father and of all of m;y\nancestors, and I thought of my brothers who wore his coat ancj\nspent their lives in his service, and all this I thought in less\nthan a minute, and I told the clerk that I would come back ori\nanother day to sign my declaration of intention.\nI do not take myself more seriously than is necessary in\norder to be taken seriously by others. I always hated cere-\nmonies and climaxes of any kind, but on that day I felt some-\nthing that I never had felt before. I felt I was giving birth to\nI\nmyself. Instead of doing as I had done so often in questions!\nof importance, to wait until the moment presented itself and then\nact, I decided to have it out with myself.\nA man who wanted to live his own life, a man who could\nnot give himself up to the narrowness of his surroundings, who\nwas willing to give up everything, to sacrifice the fruits which\nlong years of study and a professional training would have\nbrought him, because he could not accept certain traditions and\nconvictions—an iron ring around his head and an untrans-\ngressable wall enclosing his ambitions—must have the ability to\nforget, to erase out of his mind completely what has been. Or\nthe thoughts what could have been will come and torture him\nand make him regret and kill him.\nFor years I had not thought. I felt a stranger in my own\npast, as I was sitting there in my dark little hall room thinking\nof my allegiance to my king whom I had to abrogate in order to\nbecome an American citizen.\nA TEACHER paid by him or by the government whose earthly\nimpersonation he is, had taught me to read and to write.\nHis schools gave me a military training and the military disci-"}, {"page_pdf": 5, "page_imprimee": "5", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.5", "debut_caractere": 16, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2153, "texte": "pline taught me that great lesson millions of our brother citizens\nseem never to have learned: To keep my mouth shut and obey\norders.\nThat was about all that I wanted to say thanks for to the\ncountry of my birth. I came to this conclusion after I had\nguided my thoughts through twenty-three years of my life. I\nsurprised myself at musings of sympathy and of pity for many\not those who had been associates of my youth. While my coun-\ntry gave me my education, I had to go to other countries for\nfood to sustain my real self. I had to go to the philosophers of\nGermany, I had to go to the poets and artists of France, I had\nto go to the singers and musicians of Italy and to the dramatists\nof England for all those essential things that make my real life\nworth living. And then I recollected those months that I had\nspent in this new country of my choice. 1 remembered how\nnobody asked me questions, how nobody put obstacles in my\nway, how everybody seemed to take me for granted, looking into\nmy eyes and sizing me up as the man I seemed to be.\nI summed up the impressions I had received during my stay\nin the United States. The streets of New York loomed up in\nmy mind. I saw the Italian selling his Italian wares, the Ger-\nman the products of his country, the French the specialties of\nFrance, I saw Norwegian and Swedish skippers, I saw the ghetto\nwith its typical life, I saw the Armenian with his carpets and I\nsaw the Greek and the Turk and the Spaniard; in the Metropoli-\ntan Opera House there was German and Italian and French\nopera. The book stores were laden with the Anglicised litera-\nture of the world. The museums bore witness of everything\nbeautiful that had ever been created in any part of the world at\nany age. The most remarkable, the most useful, the most bene-\nficial things of the universe were brought here, put to the dis-\nposal of, annexed and assimilated by the American. And the\nAmerican himself had come once from one of these countries\nand had taken possession of all that he found and had given in\nexchange all that he had.\nHe had come as I did.\nAnd I realised that to be American means to be cosmopoli-\ntan."}, {"page_pdf": 6, "page_imprimee": "6", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.6", "debut_caractere": 16, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1870, "texte": "To be cosmopolitan means to be big, to be high above small\nhatred and petty jealousy and ill-directed ambition. It means to\nbe a brother to mankind, a fellow-builder of this world.\nWhile I had felt the laws of every country that I had lived\nin constraining personal liberty of the individual, I saw them\nhere apparently made for the protection and for the benefit of the\ncitizen . I was young in those days!\nA PESSIMIST, he who has given up hope, turns easily into an\nenthusiast. Over there in my own country by not com-\nplying with the average requirements of that particular class to\nwhom I belonged by birth and among whom to live would have\nbeen my fate I hardly could have done anything with my life.\nI always would have been the apostate.\nHere all paths seemed to me open to any goal I might set for\nmyself. I had just finished reading the writings of Lincoln\nand I felt that everybody could do things in this country. Peo-\nple would consider the merit of things done and would not ask,\n\"Who is he—why did he do it?\"\nI felt they would give me a chance.\nAnd how I wanted a chance!\nAnd then I thought what I would do with my life. I de-\ncided to stay here for good, to make America my own country.\nAnd then and. there I bade farewell to the past, to my king and\nto my country.\nI became an enthusiast again. I wanted to give everything\nso as to be worthy to receive. I went up to that clerk's office\non one of the next days and made tabula rasa. I swore off an\nallegiance which had become sham without flesh and without\nblood.\nVEARS came and years passed. I found that there was a vast\ndifference between a Lincoln and the lives of Americans I\nwas confronted with every day. I found that not everything is\ngold that shines. The enthusiasm cleared away like clouds—\nbeautiful clouds, dreamy, rose-colored clouds, but never did I\nmiss the silver lining."}, {"page_pdf": 7, "page_imprimee": "7", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.7", "debut_caractere": 16, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2148, "texte": "I know America from East to West and from North to\nSouth. I know its people, those wonderful people who till the\nsoil, who raise cattle, who mine hundreds of yards beneath the\nsurface; I know the people of the city who work and scheme\nand labor and slave. I know the rich who had more at the day\nof their birth than an average human being could ever earn in\nthree-score years: I know those wonderful geniuses who mould-\ned their lives to their own desire, and I know the unfortunates\nwho await on park benches the dawn of a new day of misery.\nI KNOW this country, with the beauty of Italy, the romance\nof Spain and of Switzerland, with the marshes and pastures\nof France and of Germany. And the people are big-minded\nand big-hearted; they are dreamers but builders, lovers of the\nbeautiful but utilizers of beauty: everything that is fit to survive\n—everything that was created to last forever is a part of this\nUnited States. It is the cosmopolis as a whole and in its small-\nest village.\nJNEVITABLY will there arise in every community which,\nthrough individual vote, expresses its individualism by the\nelection of one leader, the occasion when he will have to act as\nthe supreme executive. The President of the United States is\nthe leader of every citizen. At a time of crisis he has to shoul-\nder the gravest responsibility that ever burdened a human be-\ning. He has to think, he has to come to conclusions which mean\nlife and death to thousands, to millions of those who look up to\nhim with trust and with confidence.\nWould you call an American a loyal American citizen who\ninterferes with his President while he is meditating the gravest\nproblem perhaps ever to be solved by a President of the United\nStates? Can he be called an American citizen who forgets his\noath of allegiance to this country—be it acquired by birth or by\nhis own free choice—and tries by means that can be called either\n\"making use of his right of free speech\" or open vulgar treason\nto interfere with the highest executive who alone can act, who\nalone must act and who alone will be responsible to posterity for\nthe occurrences during his administration?"}, {"page_pdf": 8, "page_imprimee": "8", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.8", "debut_caractere": 16, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2721, "texte": "Be it good or be it bad, be it wise or be it hasty, be it peace-\nbringing, or involving us in a disastrous war, like one man we\nmust stand back of him whom we have chosen to be our Presi-\ndent—in the time of crisis our leader.\nthe descendants of all nations of the world, feel today\nbetter than ever that to be American means to be cosmo-\npolitan. And while we rage against this nation or that nation\nwe forget above all the most vital thing in life: good taste. We,\nwho are brother citizens of the descendants of all nations, can-\nnot, now or ever in the future, speak ill of any nation without\nhurting the feelings of a descendant of that nation who breathes\nour American air and who may be sitting at our table.\nThe decision of our President must be final with us.\nAmerica does not know military conscription, but everybody is\nexpected to be a soldier in time of need. A bad soldier is he\nwho discusses the possible actions of his leader ahead of their\nevent. And a failure in life is he who complains and mumbles\nand talks even after he realizes that his choice of leader was\nnot the wisest. The individual ceases to have an own will and\nan own opinion if he is bound by his oath and by the honor of\nhis manhod to follow one leader. A coward is he who resigns\nin the last second, who is not willing to sacrifice his individual\nconvictions and even conscience for his country.\nThere are no hyphenated citizens. There are citizens and no\ncitizens.\nOYPOCRISY it is to hoist the American flag and at the same\ntime incite hatred against nations. Just as cosmopolitan as\nthe United States are, just as cosmopolitan as its people is—\nand therefore truly American, the American flag is the highest and\nsupermost symbol of the universal love of the kindred of men.\nAbolished is the distinction of races. Black be the body of a\nman or white, as long as he has a white soul he is one of us.\nAnd white are the stripes, next to the red, red as the blood that\npulsates in the veins of everything that is alive, of everything\nthat is created and might find its way to the hospitable shores of\nthe land of liberty. And the dome of blue arches above all of\nus in all parts of both hemispheres and the stars are there, those\nkind, benevolent eyes of eternity which follow us wherever we\ngo, that bring peace to our hearts and hope and beauty, if we\nonly lift our eyes to find them.\nAnd because every one of the belligerent countries gave me\nan essential part of my life, and because I lived in all of them,\nand because I claimed the United States as my own, and be-\ncause I am looking to our President as to my leader and to the\nUnited States as my just claimant, I feel that to be an American\nmeans to be cosmopolitan."}]}], "pages_ocr_originales": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "1", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.1", "texte": "BRUNO'S WEEKLY\nEdited by Guido Bruno in his Garret on Washington Square\nMONDAY\nJULY 12, MCMXV\nVol. I\nCopyright 19 /5 by Guldo Bruno\n\nAlphonse de Lamartine\nThe proof that liberty is the divine ideal of man, is that she is\nihe first dream of youth, and that she does not fade from our\nsoul until our heart is withered and our mind either debased or\ndiscouraged. There is not a soul twenty years old that is not\nrepublican. There is not a decayed heart that is not servile.\n\nLes Confidences: Being the Confessions\nof a Self-made American\nIN the solitude of my garret have I thought about all this busi-\nness that is setting aflame with barbaric rage one world and\ncreating uneasiness, constraining personal liberty and sowing\nthe seeds of hatred among brothers in the other.\nAnd because I am an American citizen, and because I thank\nthe belligerent countries for some of the best and most essential\nthings of my life, I feel that I must voice these thoughts of my\nsolitude and tell them to you, who were born and raised in\nAmerica, and who might better understand after this, and to\nyou who are citizens as I am by your own choice, but who\nperhaps had never time or inclination or the intuition to think\nabout it all.\nWell do I remember the dav on which I resolved to make\n•0\nthis country my own. It was nearly a year after my arrival in\nthe United States. I had just finished reading the writings of\nAbraham Lincoln. I wanted to be a citizen of the country this\nman had lived and worked and finally died for.\nHero worship! But how I would wish to be as young\nagain! My ideals carried me with uncurtaiied wings high above\nall material matters—above disappointments not spared to any\nof us, and all those little disasters which are part of our lives."}, {"page_pdf": 2, "page_imprimee": "2", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.2", "texte": "BRUNO'S WEEKLY\n\nI had admired Alexander the Great; Napoleon had beer, my\nideal for years. Power, strength, determination of will, mak-\ning other people do what he thought was best for them,—that\nhad impressed me. To read the lives of these men, to study\ntheir methods and their actions brought me elevation and ga e\nme ambition.\nBeing the product of a monarchistic system, raised in ari\natmosphere of discipline, of castes and of traditions, I was\nbe deeply impressed with the European Republic—with Franc-\nLiberte! Egalite! Fraternite!\nI searched for it in France and I could not find it. Maybe I\nwas too young in those days; maybe I was not able to translate\nthe ideal into existing conditions. Maybe I was considering life\nas it was more than as it had been planned to be.\nAnd I became a cynic; I lost my belief in real things. I\nwanted to live my own life outside of the community of men\nwhom I did not trust, who seemed to me egotists, sailing under\na false flag of idealistic endeavors. Too deeply rooted in me\nwas my early education of respect for laws and regulations to\ndo anything desperate, or to join the groups of the dissatisfied,\nof men who call themselves betterers of humanity, and whom\nhumanity calls outlaws, parasites or reformers.\nAnd so I decided to live my own life in the \"New World,'\nto think as I wanted to think, to believe what I wished to be-\nlieve, not to know anything of government, not to be a part of\na system. As work which should furnish me with the necessi-\nties of life, I chose hard menial labor. Work that anybody\ncould do who had strength and physical ability, where there were\nno questions asked, no contracts made. I came in the morning\nand received my pay in the evening, if I wished to. If I didn't\nlike the work, I could quit it. And while I was working to earn\nmy room and board, my thoughts were my own. And never in\nmy life did I feel freer than in those days in which I had ex-\nchanged my pen for a shovel.\nI frequented the libraries. In my work clothes I strolled\nin, asked for any book I wished to read. Can you recollect the\nred tape you have to go through if you ask for a book in the"}, {"page_pdf": 3, "page_imprimee": "3", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.3", "texte": "BRUNO'S WEEKLY\n\n?urary in France, in Germany or in Italy? Not the big trage-\niit'S of life make for unhappiness, but the small, little annoyances\nspoil for us the pleasure of enjoying this world.\nJ \"I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and\nmean to keep doing so 'til the end. If the end brings me out\nalp right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.\"\nI These are the words of Lincoln, uttered at a time when he\n■\nseemed entangled in a labyrinth of political complications. I\nnbad his life, I read everything I could find about him, about his\ncountemporaries, and now after more than fifty years have\nelapsed since his tragic death, these words of his have proven\nt!'ue. He had been far above the criticism of his time; he had\nfeen only one goal for his life, one path leading to this goal, and\nlie walked this path. He saw the ambushes; he anticipated the\nstones which would be hurled at him from behind, but he walked\npn. He had one life and the only vocation of his was to live\nthat life of his. His words—and his words were his life—\nshowed me what this country meant to the world, what America\nhad been and was for all nations, for all races.\nAND so I stood there before the clerk in a western city and\ndesired to make my application for American citizenship.\nIt was a formality of a couple of minutes. I glanced over the\nslip of paper he handed me. There it stood, black on white,\nglaring into my face, that I had to renounce the sovereign, the\nprince whose subject I then was.\nThere are moments in the life of every human being when\nhis brain works with a hurrifying alacrity. Thoughts, memories,\nvivid pictures of scenes that have left an everlasting impression\nshoot through the brain in terrifying quick succession. They\nfollow one the other, covering as long a stretch of years as our\nconscious and unconscious memory goes back in our lives. It\nhappened there to me. In the clerk's office while I was look-\ning at the disinterested face of the man who wanted me to raise\nmy hand and repeat the oath and to be done with me. I saw\nmyself as a young boy singing patriotic songs. I saw myself\nas a youth in uniform with unsheathed sword swearing an oath"}, {"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "4", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.4", "texte": "BRUNO'S WEEKLY\n\nof allegiance to my king. How terrible that oath was! \"Dur-\ning day and night,\" the oath reads, \"in water and on land, (in\npeace and in war, will I follow his leadership, will I be loyal to\nhim. Even against my father and my brothers will Ibe loyal\nto him.\"\ni\nAnd then I thought how I had been educated at his ex-\npense, being a beneficiary of a stipendium, how I had to than>k\nhim indirectly for my college and for my university education.\nAnd I thought of my father and of his father and of all of m;y\nancestors, and I thought of my brothers who wore his coat ancj\nspent their lives in his service, and all this I thought in less\nthan a minute, and I told the clerk that I would come back ori\nanother day to sign my declaration of intention.\nI do not take myself more seriously than is necessary in\norder to be taken seriously by others. I always hated cere-\nmonies and climaxes of any kind, but on that day I felt some-\nthing that I never had felt before. I felt I was giving birth to\nI\nmyself. Instead of doing as I had done so often in questions!\nof importance, to wait until the moment presented itself and then\nact, I decided to have it out with myself.\nA man who wanted to live his own life, a man who could\nnot give himself up to the narrowness of his surroundings, who\nwas willing to give up everything, to sacrifice the fruits which\nlong years of study and a professional training would have\nbrought him, because he could not accept certain traditions and\nconvictions—an iron ring around his head and an untrans-\ngressable wall enclosing his ambitions—must have the ability to\nforget, to erase out of his mind completely what has been. Or\nthe thoughts what could have been will come and torture him\nand make him regret and kill him.\nFor years I had not thought. I felt a stranger in my own\npast, as I was sitting there in my dark little hall room thinking\nof my allegiance to my king whom I had to abrogate in order to\nbecome an American citizen.\nA TEACHER paid by him or by the government whose earthly\nimpersonation he is, had taught me to read and to write.\nHis schools gave me a military training and the military disci-"}, {"page_pdf": 5, "page_imprimee": "5", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.5", "texte": "BRUNO'S WEEKLY\n\npline taught me that great lesson millions of our brother citizens\nseem never to have learned: To keep my mouth shut and obey\norders.\nThat was about all that I wanted to say thanks for to the\ncountry of my birth. I came to this conclusion after I had\nguided my thoughts through twenty-three years of my life. I\nsurprised myself at musings of sympathy and of pity for many\not those who had been associates of my youth. While my coun-\ntry gave me my education, I had to go to other countries for\nfood to sustain my real self. I had to go to the philosophers of\nGermany, I had to go to the poets and artists of France, I had\nto go to the singers and musicians of Italy and to the dramatists\nof England for all those essential things that make my real life\nworth living. And then I recollected those months that I had\nspent in this new country of my choice. 1 remembered how\nnobody asked me questions, how nobody put obstacles in my\nway, how everybody seemed to take me for granted, looking into\nmy eyes and sizing me up as the man I seemed to be.\nI summed up the impressions I had received during my stay\nin the United States. The streets of New York loomed up in\nmy mind. I saw the Italian selling his Italian wares, the Ger-\nman the products of his country, the French the specialties of\nFrance, I saw Norwegian and Swedish skippers, I saw the ghetto\nwith its typical life, I saw the Armenian with his carpets and I\nsaw the Greek and the Turk and the Spaniard; in the Metropoli-\ntan Opera House there was German and Italian and French\nopera. The book stores were laden with the Anglicised litera-\nture of the world. The museums bore witness of everything\nbeautiful that had ever been created in any part of the world at\nany age. The most remarkable, the most useful, the most bene-\nficial things of the universe were brought here, put to the dis-\nposal of, annexed and assimilated by the American. And the\nAmerican himself had come once from one of these countries\nand had taken possession of all that he found and had given in\nexchange all that he had.\nHe had come as I did.\nAnd I realised that to be American means to be cosmopoli-\ntan."}, {"page_pdf": 6, "page_imprimee": "6", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.6", "texte": "BRUNO'S WEEKLY\n\nTo be cosmopolitan means to be big, to be high above small\nhatred and petty jealousy and ill-directed ambition. It means to\nbe a brother to mankind, a fellow-builder of this world.\nWhile I had felt the laws of every country that I had lived\nin constraining personal liberty of the individual, I saw them\nhere apparently made for the protection and for the benefit of the\ncitizen . I was young in those days!\nA PESSIMIST, he who has given up hope, turns easily into an\nenthusiast. Over there in my own country by not com-\nplying with the average requirements of that particular class to\nwhom I belonged by birth and among whom to live would have\nbeen my fate I hardly could have done anything with my life.\nI always would have been the apostate.\nHere all paths seemed to me open to any goal I might set for\nmyself. I had just finished reading the writings of Lincoln\nand I felt that everybody could do things in this country. Peo-\nple would consider the merit of things done and would not ask,\n\"Who is he—why did he do it?\"\nI felt they would give me a chance.\nAnd how I wanted a chance!\nAnd then I thought what I would do with my life. I de-\ncided to stay here for good, to make America my own country.\nAnd then and. there I bade farewell to the past, to my king and\nto my country.\nI became an enthusiast again. I wanted to give everything\nso as to be worthy to receive. I went up to that clerk's office\non one of the next days and made tabula rasa. I swore off an\nallegiance which had become sham without flesh and without\nblood.\nVEARS came and years passed. I found that there was a vast\ndifference between a Lincoln and the lives of Americans I\nwas confronted with every day. I found that not everything is\ngold that shines. The enthusiasm cleared away like clouds—\nbeautiful clouds, dreamy, rose-colored clouds, but never did I\nmiss the silver lining."}, {"page_pdf": 7, "page_imprimee": "7", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.7", "texte": "BRUNO'S WEEKLY\n\nI know America from East to West and from North to\nSouth. I know its people, those wonderful people who till the\nsoil, who raise cattle, who mine hundreds of yards beneath the\nsurface; I know the people of the city who work and scheme\nand labor and slave. I know the rich who had more at the day\nof their birth than an average human being could ever earn in\nthree-score years: I know those wonderful geniuses who mould-\ned their lives to their own desire, and I know the unfortunates\nwho await on park benches the dawn of a new day of misery.\nI KNOW this country, with the beauty of Italy, the romance\nof Spain and of Switzerland, with the marshes and pastures\nof France and of Germany. And the people are big-minded\nand big-hearted; they are dreamers but builders, lovers of the\nbeautiful but utilizers of beauty: everything that is fit to survive\n—everything that was created to last forever is a part of this\nUnited States. It is the cosmopolis as a whole and in its small-\nest village.\nJNEVITABLY will there arise in every community which,\nthrough individual vote, expresses its individualism by the\nelection of one leader, the occasion when he will have to act as\nthe supreme executive. The President of the United States is\nthe leader of every citizen. At a time of crisis he has to shoul-\nder the gravest responsibility that ever burdened a human be-\ning. He has to think, he has to come to conclusions which mean\nlife and death to thousands, to millions of those who look up to\nhim with trust and with confidence.\nWould you call an American a loyal American citizen who\ninterferes with his President while he is meditating the gravest\nproblem perhaps ever to be solved by a President of the United\nStates? Can he be called an American citizen who forgets his\noath of allegiance to this country—be it acquired by birth or by\nhis own free choice—and tries by means that can be called either\n\"making use of his right of free speech\" or open vulgar treason\nto interfere with the highest executive who alone can act, who\nalone must act and who alone will be responsible to posterity for\nthe occurrences during his administration?"}, {"page_pdf": 8, "page_imprimee": "8", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaaq19150712-01.1.8", "texte": "BRUNO'S WEEKLY\n\nBe it good or be it bad, be it wise or be it hasty, be it peace-\nbringing, or involving us in a disastrous war, like one man we\nmust stand back of him whom we have chosen to be our Presi-\ndent—in the time of crisis our leader.\nthe descendants of all nations of the world, feel today\nbetter than ever that to be American means to be cosmo-\npolitan. And while we rage against this nation or that nation\nwe forget above all the most vital thing in life: good taste. We,\nwho are brother citizens of the descendants of all nations, can-\nnot, now or ever in the future, speak ill of any nation without\nhurting the feelings of a descendant of that nation who breathes\nour American air and who may be sitting at our table.\nThe decision of our President must be final with us.\nAmerica does not know military conscription, but everybody is\nexpected to be a soldier in time of need. A bad soldier is he\nwho discusses the possible actions of his leader ahead of their\nevent. And a failure in life is he who complains and mumbles\nand talks even after he realizes that his choice of leader was\nnot the wisest. The individual ceases to have an own will and\nan own opinion if he is bound by his oath and by the honor of\nhis manhod to follow one leader. A coward is he who resigns\nin the last second, who is not willing to sacrifice his individual\nconvictions and even conscience for his country.\nThere are no hyphenated citizens. There are citizens and no\ncitizens.\nOYPOCRISY it is to hoist the American flag and at the same\ntime incite hatred against nations. Just as cosmopolitan as\nthe United States are, just as cosmopolitan as its people is—\nand therefore truly American, the American flag is the highest and\nsupermost symbol of the universal love of the kindred of men.\nAbolished is the distinction of races. Black be the body of a\nman or white, as long as he has a white soul he is one of us.\nAnd white are the stripes, next to the red, red as the blood that\npulsates in the veins of everything that is alive, of everything\nthat is created and might find its way to the hospitable shores of\nthe land of liberty. And the dome of blue arches above all of\nus in all parts of both hemispheres and the stars are there, those\nkind, benevolent eyes of eternity which follow us wherever we\ngo, that bring peace to our hearts and hope and beauty, if we\nonly lift our eyes to find them.\nAnd because every one of the belligerent countries gave me\nan essential part of my life, and because I lived in all of them,\nand because I claimed the United States as my own, and be-\ncause I am looking to our President as to my leader and to the\nUnited States as my just claimant, I feel that to be an American\nmeans to be cosmopolitan."}]}