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Show OCCASIONALLY one meets with a phrase that has a history worth remembering, re-membering, as for instance, "a place in the sun." We heard this r many times shortly after the war broke out, and though it is still re membered, its history has gone into the limbo of forgotten things. We, too, had forgotten it but recently the memory of it was revived by a random editorial comment made in December, 1911, a comment on the use of the phrase by the Kaiser in August of that year. Discussing the subject of Germany's expansion, he spoke of "the place in the sun" to which she had made a rightful claim. The phrase made something of a stir in England where it soon passed imperceptibly into the language. It was quoted as a heading for the news in all the leading French and English papers. Its literal meaning seemed obscure, but there were alarmists who thought it meant something mystical. Perhaps the Kaiser meant a place in the sunshine. Perhaps ha was thinking of Diogenes, the cynic, who when asked by Alexander the Great what he would be pleased to have, replied "I'd have you get out of my sunshine," or words to that effect. But whatever the Kaiser was thinking of he contributed a classic to the general language of men. It was a fine and inspiring as well as fateful utterance utter-ance by a man, who, almost alone among the sovereigns of the day, writes his own speeches and quite often coins a phrase with dramatic value that appeals to the hearts and imagination of the German people. Town Talk. |