As Talked in the Sanctum [pp. 5-8]

OVERLAND MONTHLY
I WISH to record here that I believe that patriotism needs culture, and that it is an
element in man like religion that flourishes when the soil is prepared for it. For a
century and more we have been worshiping the heroes of other countries. I once
related to the Sanctum my feelings at the Hotel des Invalides as I stood between a
French peasant in wooden shoes and an old officer of the Legion of Honor, silently worshiping at the stately tomb of the greatest of all Frenchmen. It seemed then that
there could be no American counterpart, that no American shrine would ever draw such
never failing crowds as came daily there. Not long ago I took my little boy out to Riverside to the tomb of Grant. I did not expect to find more than a corporal's guard of
sight-seers. I admit that curiosity drew me. The name of Grant seemed plebeian by the
side of that of the French Emperor. Vicksburg, Donnelson, the Wilderness, Appomattox,
rung flat alongside Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, and Waterloo. One was the
soldier of a republic, the other the Man of Destiny. The great gray dome that surmounts
the remains of our soldier is not hedged round with historic associations or emblazoned
with regal memories, and yet I was not alone in my pilgrimage. There was a line three
deep, a quarter of a mile long, passing in and around the crypt. It was not one crowd,
but many, and all day long it swayed in a ceaseless throng. For a month this has been
going on. Every head was uncovered as we entered the stately sarcophagus, and the soft
light that fell from above on the tomb carried with it the same idealization that
enshrouded the last resting place of that other. The reverence was as genuine in the one
as in the other the homage paid this republican hero was as sincere as that lavished on
Frenchman's demigod. For the first time I appreciated at their full value the power and
benefit of such national shrines. About it from year to year will crystallize a love of
country and a pride of home. It is something that can be pointed to- something
tangible. On it will feed patriotism, and the tomb of the man who said: "Let us have
peace," will become to unborn generations all that the golden dome of Des Invalides is to
France.
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