Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 25, 1948)

Page 6 SS Unforgotten if SYRAR; eee The Gaunt, Melancholy Man Not long ago I was strolling along a shabby street and the curious phrase “Jack Himself,” on the grimy window of a second-hand shop, stopped me. Through the glass, among an unorderly display of articles, I noticed a dull bronze medallion of Abraham Lincoln. I acquired it. On the obverse side, bordered by both his names, Lincoln’s head projects in marked relief, and on the reverse side, enwreathed, are the dates of both his inaugurations as the sixteenth president of the United States, as well as the date of his assassination, April 14, 1865. The medallion is a fine example of the coiner’s art, about three inches high and about a quarter of an inch thick at its thinnest point. I do not know when or by whom it was struck. But it appealed to me and brought closer the man it honors. No individual in non-biblical history so commands enduring reverence as this man. To him fell the heart-gnawing task of leading a war between brothers; a war fought to preserve a union “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” and “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The triumph of Lincoln’s principles kept alive what was to become one of the greatest forces for good in history, the union known as the United States of America. It disestablished an evil which had become part of the life of his country, the evil of human slavery. It gave the world a higher standard of morality. * * * Canada, linked to the United States by the common ancestry of most of its inhabitants and the source of its dominating culture, has an even greater bond through its sons who fought at the side of Lincoln and his supporters. Part of Canada’s contribution to the victory of the Republic can be learned from the Rev. William H. Withrow’s “History of Canada,” printed in Toronto in 1883: “The first shot fired on the flag of the Republic reverberated through the nation. North and South rushed to arms. A royal proclamation, issued May 13, enjoined strict neutrality of all British subjects, and recognized the belligerent rights of the South. Such, however, was Canada’s sympathy with the North in this war for human freedom, — for such it ultimately proved to be, — that before its close fifty thousand of her sons enlisted in the Northern armies, and many lost their lives for what they felt to be a sacred cause, while comparatively few entered the armies of the South. “At the battle of Bull Run, on the 21st of July, were opened the sluices of the deep torrent of blood shed in this fratricidal war. For four long years of the nation’s agony, that gory tide ebbed and flowed over those fair and fertile regions from the valley of the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi; carrying sorrow and death into almost every hamlet in the Union, and into many a Canadian home; costing a million of lives and millions of treasure;. but let us thank Ged! emancipating forever four millions of slaves.” But the South also had its adherents here. With the increasing success of the Northern armies many Southern, refugees came and these organized raids from this side of the border until the government took action to stop them. Relations between Canada and the United States became embittered and this was partly responsible for the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty in existence then. * * * Two decades before the Civil War the Canadas, Upper and Lower (roughly Quebec and Ontario) became Canada — but not’ the Canada of now. Confederation, which brought the Atlantic provinces into the new state called the Dominion of Canada and opened a way for the others, did not come until 1867. It was being vigorously debated while the United States fought to save its form of union and both subjects shared the talk of the day. The benefits of a union of those on this side of the United States boundary must have been brought home strongly by the Canadian FILM WEEKLY February 25, 1943 News Notes Heard Hereabouts Arch Jolley, MPTAO secretary, just getting over a painful illness . . . Are you the one who borrowed Archie Laurie’s old scrapbook of fronts and exploitations? He’s forgotten who borrowed it months ago... Make sure there isn’t much smoke around the theatre. With so many fires, the public is getting panicky .. . Fred Trebilcock found it colder at the Mardi Gras and in Jacksonville, Florida than here... Mel Jolley of the Marks, Oshawa, is president of the Oshawa Junior Chamber of Commerce. Several theatre owners have been fined and others face prosecution for allowing ice and snow to block exit doors .. . With so much Scotch whiskey exported “Table Topics” calls it “The Cup that Cheers the Pound Sterling”. . . Vaudeville isn’t dead. It's just hanging out elsewhere. Spike Jones and his musical mayhemers, brought here by Billy Cross and Babe White, pulled over 15,000 into the Coliseum at $2.25 tops ... The poor old Hesperus is getting as many poundings as the Von Tirpitz did. “The Wreck of the Hesperus” was wrecked in the Audio explosion. Young Jack Warner was in Vancouver and Calgary looking over the Canadian field and will be here soon... A jerk who slugged Max Pelly, manager of the Pix, when he asked three of them to take their places in the line was fined $100 or 20 days ... Associated Screen News, through Jack Chisholm, offered its facilities, which weren’t needed, to Audio. That’s the spirit ... Myer Nackimson, RKQ Winnipeg manager, hereabouts helloing folks, gigantic efforts of our neighbors to overcome early adversity and preserve theirs. The murder of “the simple, honest, magnanimous Abraham Lincoln” could not have been without influence in creating interest in Confederation as a Canadian equivalent to the political pattern of his country. “The heart of Canada was deeply stirred,” wrote Withrow. “Crowded meetings for the expression of national sympathy were held, and the utmost detestation of the crime was avowed. Amid tolling bells, flags at half-mast, and mourning emblems, the obsequies of the martyred president were celebrated throughout the land; and much of the growing estrangement of recent years between the two nations was overcome by this exhibition of popular sentiment and good-will.” Our concepts of democracy and freedom are the same as those for which Abraham Lincoln lived and died. Together our country and his have defended them since his death, just as so many of our countrymen did while he lived. And so, since he belonged to us also, we cherish his memory and uphold his principles, still valid in a troubled world. * * * To return to the medallion. On it Lincoln’s face has the firm character, the nobleness of mind and the sadness of the war years. That face, as a guide to what lies behind it, has held the imagination of each succeeding generation. “He has a face like a Hoosier Michael Angelo, so awful ugly it becomes beautiful, with its strange mouth, its deep cut, criss-cross lines...,’”” Walt Whitman, who served as a volunteer nurse, wrote to friends. “When last I saw him, a few weeks before his death, I was struck by his haggard, care-fraught face, so different from the sunny, gladsome countenance he first brought from Hlinois,” Horace Greely wrote. é’ I like to look at my medallion and think about it, to feel its weight in my hand and to sense its great strength. It is 50 much like the man it symbolizes — refined from the common earth, moulded yet rough, unyielding to abuse, shaped by powerful forces into something which reflects Man’s better nature. And with attributes that will last through the centuries to come,