Chapter VIII

Tributes To Nathan Hale

When Captain Montressor told Hale's dismayed
friends of the terrible doom that had befallen their
comrade, it must have seemed as if all the influence
Hale might have had in a prolonged life, all that
could come to such a man, had been sacrificed.
We must not blame them if the question involuntarily
rose in their hearts, "Why such waste?
Why was such an influence so permanently destroyed?"
Curiously enough, many years passed
with little special notice by the public of Hale's
death. But the leaven of patriotism works, even
though slowly, and step by step Hale was coming
to his own. Little by little the memory of his
sacrifice for his country, and the fact that he had
left words that should glow with increasing splendor,
took possession of those who had ears to hear
and hearts to remember.

Old Linonia in Yale did not forget the splendid
boy, once its Chancellor, who died as he had
lived. Linonia's records still bear, in clear and

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