I 1 1 i it^L FOR RLS >v. jy ' "^ •■; J^^ V vv-. K^TTv V^ f ■\ t. 4.>" #, . ^ ^^U I'M 4janE9MMB| ' M^A V K >V t n mmmmmm Over one hundred pieces that have actually taken prizes io Prize Speaking Contests. Pieces That Have Taken Prizes Selected by A. H. Craig, author of ^* Craig's N'ew Common School Question Book," (of which over 189,- 000 copies have been sold) and Binney Gunnison, (Harvard), Instructor in the School of Expression, Boston, Mass., and author of ^'New Dialogues and Plays." The compilers spent nearly three years' time in col- lecting the pieces for this book. All have actually taken one or more prizes at some Prize Speaking Contest. Among the selections will be found : The Aspir- ations of the American People ; The Storming of Mission Ridge ; Opportunities of the Scholar; The Elements of National Wealth ; Duty of Literary Men to America; The - Future of the Philippines; Trtte Courage; The Boat Race ; The Teacher the Hope of America; A Pathetic Incident of the Rebellion ; The Permanence of Grant's Fame; The Province of History; The Sermon; The Yacht Race; The Soul of the Violin; Opinions Stronger Than Armies ; Not Guilty. Bound in cloth. Price $1.25 HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE 31-35 West J 5th Street New York City These new pieces are just the kind that will arouse an audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. ^ Pieces That Witt Take Prizes Selected and adapted by Harriet Blackstone, Teacher of Elocution and Reading, Galesburg High School, Galesburg, 111. To satisfy the constantly increasing demand for ne7v Pieces for Prize Speaking Contests, the author (with the permission of the authors and publishers) has adapted a number of the choicest selections from the most cele- brated works of our best known writers. Among others will be found : Alice's Flag — from Alice of Old Vincennes, by Maurice Thompson; The Wonderful Tar Baby — from Uncle Remus, by Joel Chandler Harris ; Through the Flood — from Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, by Ian MacLaren ; The Shep- herd's Trophy — from Bob, Son of Battle, by Alfred Ollivant , Grandma Keeler Gets Grandpa Keeler Ready for Sunday School — from Cape Cod Folhs, by Sally Pratt McLean ; The Angel and the Shepherds — from Ben Hur, by Lew Wallace ; The Queen's Letter — from Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope; etc. Each selection is especially suited for Prize Speaking Contests. Bound in cloth. Price $1.2^ HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE 31-35 West I5tb Street New York City THREE MINUTE READINGS FOR COLLEGE GIRLS SELECTED AND EDITED BY HARRY CASSELL DAVIS, A. M., Ph. D. WITH Classified Index and Index to Authors " Eloquence is the noble, the harmonious, the passionate expression of truths profoundly realized or of emotions intensely felt." — Farrar, Seekers After God. Copyright^ iSqy, by Hinds &f Noble HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE 31-33-35 West 15TH Street, New York City Some new Speakers The Best American Orations of To-day (Blackstone) $1.25 Selected Readings from the Most Popular Novels - 1.25 Pieces That Have Taken Prizes in Speaking Contests 1.25 New Pieces That IVtll Take Prizes in Speaking Contests 1.25 Pieces for E'Dfry Occasion (Le Row) - - - 1.25 How to Attract and Hold an Audience (Esenwein) 1. 00 How to Use the Voice in Reading and Speaking (Ott) 1.25 How to Gesture, Nriy ///i(s/r.T/<-<; £rf/V;on (Ott) - 1.00 A Ten Weeks' Course in Elocution (Coombs) - 1.25 Fenno's New Science and Art of Elocution - 1.25 Three-Minute Declamations for College Men - 1.00 Three-Minute Readings for College Girls - - 1. 00 Handy Pieces to Speak (on cards) ... - .50 Acme Declamation Book ..... .50 Ross' Southern Speaker ..... i.OO New Dialogues and Plays (Primary, Inter., Adv.) 1.50 Commencement Parts (Orations, Essays, etc.) - 1.50 Pros and Cons (Questions of To-day Fully Discussed) 1.50 250 New Questions for Debate .... .15 How to Organize and Conduct a Meeting - - .75 Palmer's New Parliamentary Manual ... .75 Howe's Hand Book of Parliamentary Usage - • .50 HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE 31-33-35 West J5th Street, New York City -3 V PREFACE. ^ The author has endeavored to prepare a book 2 of new selections for speaking and reading, Q adapted largely but not exclusively for girls in our »J schools, academies, and colleges. Freshness, brevity, variety, literary quality, and .- adaptability were important elements in determin- o ing the choice of selections. Committing to memory and jjublicly reciting patriotic thoughts are valuable aids in keeping the sacred fire of patriotism burning on our altars. Therefore a large number of patriotic pieces will 5 be found in this collection, commemorating impor- tant epochs in our national history. The women of our country who are so nobly per- forming their part in all reform movements in this age of reforms, and upon whose brows the century has placed the crowns of illustrious achievement, are represented by some choice extracts of tongue and pen. The classified index will be found useful in decid- ing upon selections appropriate to the seasons and to the various holiday occasions. The courtesy of those who have responded so generously to the request for permission to use /! o IV PREFACE. selections from their speeches and writings, and of those teachers who have made valuable sug-o-es- tions, is gratefully acknowledged. The co-opera- tion of the various publishers in consenting to the use of their publications, without which a book of this kind is impossible, has been most kindly and heartily given. Harry Hillman Academy, Wilkes Barre, Vk., June, 1897. THREE MINUTE READINGS FOR COLLEGE GIRLS. THE MINUET. By Mary Mapes Dodge, Poet, Editor. B. 1838, New York City. Mrs. Dodge is the conductor of the 5/. Nicho- las magazine. Grandma told me all about it, Told me so I couldn't dovibt it, How she danced — my Grandma danced! — Long ago. How she held her pretty head, How her dainty skirt she spread, Turning- out her little toes; How she slowly leaned and rose — Long ago. Grandma's hair was bright and sunny ; Dimpled cheeks, too — ah, how funny! Really quite a pretty girl. Long ago. Bless her! why, she wears a cap, Grandma does, and takes a nap Every single day; and yet Grandma danced the minuet Long ago. THE MINUET. Now she sits there, rocking, rocking, Always knitting Grandpa's stocking — (Every girl was taught to knit Long ago). Yet her figure is so neat, And her ways so staid and sweet, I can almost see her now Bending to her partner's bow, Long ago. Grandma says our modern jumping, Hopping, rushing, whirling, bumping, Would have shocked the gentle folk Long ago. No — they moved with stately grace. Everything in proper place. Gliding slowly forward, then Slowly courtesying back again. Long ago. Modern ways are quite alarming, Grandma says ; but boys were charming- Girls and boys, I mean, of course — Long ago. Brave but modest, grandly shy, — She would like to have us try Just to feel like those who met In the graceful minuet Long ago. Were the minuet in fashion. Who could fly into a passion? TOPSY. All would wear the calm they wore Long ago. In time to come, if I, perchance, Should tell my grandchild of our dance, I should really like to say: " We did it, dear, in some such way, Long ago." TOPSY. By Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe, Author. B. 1S12, Connecticut ; d. 1896. This extract is from " Uncle Tom's Cabin," which was first published as a serial in the National Era and appeared firs£ in book form in 1S52. One morning, while Miss Ophelia was busy in some of her domestic cares, St. Clare's voice was heard, calling her at the foot of the stairs. y "Come down here, cousin; I've something to show you." " What is it? " said Miss Ophelia, coming down, with her sewing in her hand. y" I've made a purchase for your department — ^ee here," said St. Clare; and, with the word, he pulled along a little negro girl, about eight or nine years of age. She was one of the blackest of her race; and her round, shining eyes, glittering as glass beads, moved with quick and restless glances over every- thing in the room. Ilcr- mouth, half open with astonishment at the wonders of the new mas'r's par- 4 • ■ TOPSY. lor, displayed a white and brilliant set of teeth. Her woolly hair was braided in sundry little tails, which stuck out in every direction. The expres- sion of her face was an odd mixture of shrewdness and cunning, over which was oddly drawn, like a kind of veil, an expression of the most doleful g-ravity and solemnity. She was dressed in a single filthy, ragged garment, made of bagging; and stood with her hands demurely folded before her. Altogether, there was something odd and goblin- like about her appearance, — something, as Miss Ophelia afterward said, " so heathenish," as to in- spire that good lady with utter dismay; and, turn- ing to St. Clare, she said : " Augustine, what in the world have you brought that thing here for? " '■ For you to educate, to be sure, and train in the way she should go. I thought she was rather a funny specimen in the Jim Crow line. Here, Topsy," he added, giving a whistle, as a man would to call the attention of a dog, " give us a song, now, and show us some of your dancing." The black, glassy eyes glittered with a kind of wicked drollery, and the thing struck up, in a clear shrill voice, an odd negro melody, to which she kept time with her hands and feet, spinning round, clapping her hands, knocking her knees together, in a wild, fantastic sort of time, and producing in her throat all those odd guttural sounds which dis- tinguish the native music of her race; and finally, turning a somerset or two, and giving a prolonged TOPSY. 5 closing note, as odd and unearthly as that of a steam-whistle, she came suddenly down on the car- pet, and stood with her hands folded, and a most sanctimonious expression of meekness and so- lemnity over her face, only broken by the cunning- glances which she shot askance from the corners of her eyes. " Topsy, this is your new mistress. I'm going to give you up to her; see, now, that you behave yourself." " Yes, mas'r," said Topsy, with sanctimonious gravity, her wicked eyes twinkling as she spoke. " You're going to be good, Topsy, you under- stand," said St. Clare. " Oh, yes, mas'r," said Topsy, wdth another twinkle, her hands still devoutly folded. " Now, Augustine, what upon earth is this for? " said Miss Ophelia. " Your house is so full of these little plagues, now, that a body can't set down their foot without treading on 'em. I get up in the morning, and find one asleep behind the door, and see one black head poking out from under the table, one lying on the door-mat — and they are mopping and mowing and grinning between all the railings, and tumbling over the kitchen floor! What on earth did you want to bring this one for? " " For you to educate — didn't I tell you? You're always preaching about educating. I thought I would make you a present of a fresh-caught speci- men, and let you try your hand en her, and bring her up in the way she should go." 6 TOPSY. "Well, I'll do what I can," said Miss Ophelia; and she approached her new subject very much as a person might be supposed to approach a black spider, supposing them to have benevolent designs toward it. Sitting down before her, she began to question her. " How old are you, Topsy? " " Dunno, missis," said the image, with a grin that showed all her teeth. " Don't know how old you are? Didn't anybody ever tell you? Who was your mother? " " Never had none! " said the child, with another grin. " Never had any mother? What do you mean? Where were you born ? " "Never was born!" persisted Topsy, with an- other grin, that looked so goblin-like that, if Miss Ophelia had been at all nervous, she might have fancied that she had got hold of some sooty gnome from the land of Diablerie; but Miss Ophelia was not nervous, but plain and businesslike, and she said, with some sternness: " You mustn't answer me in that way, child; I'm not playing with you. Tell mc where you were born, and who your father and mother were." " Never was born," reiterated the creature, more emphatically; "never had no father nor mother, nor nothin'. I was raised by a speculator, with lots of others. Old Aunt Sue used to take care on us." TOPSY. 7 " How long have you lived with your master and mistress? ' " Dunno, missis." " Is it a year, or more, or less? " " Dunno, missis." " Have you ever heard anything about God, Topsy?" The child looked bewildered, but grinned as usual. " Do you know who made you? " " Nobody, as I knows on," said the child, with a short laugh. The idea appeared to amuse her considerably; for her eyes twinkled, and she added: " I spect I grow'd. Don't think nobody never made me." " Do you know how to sew? " said Miss Ophelia, who thought she would turn her inquiries to some- thing more tangible. ** No, missis." " What can you do? — what did \ou do for your master and mistress? " ** Fetch water, and wash dishes, and rub knives, and wait on folks." "Were they good to you?" " Spect they was," said the child, scanning Miss Ophelia cunningly. The child was announced and considered in the family as Miss Ophelia's girl; and, as she was looked upon with no gracious eye in the kitchen. Miss Ophelia resolved to confine her sphere of 8 TOFSY. operation and instruction chiefly to her own cham- ber. With a self-sacrifice which some of our readers will appreciate, she resolved, instead of comfortably making her own bed, sweeping- and dusting her own chamber, — which she had hitherto done, in utter scorn of all offers of help from the chambermaid of the establishment, — to condemn herself to the martyrdom of instructing Topsy to perform these operations, — ah, woe the day! Did any of our readers ever do the same, they will ap- preciate the amount of her self-sacrifice. Aliss Ophelia began with Topsy by taking her into her chamber, the first morning, and solemnly commencing a course of instruction in the art and mystery of bed-makmg. Behold, then, Topsy, washed and shorn of all the Httle braided tails wherein her heart had delighted, arrayed in a clean gown, with well-starched apron, standing reverently before Miss Ophelia, with an expression of solemnity well befitting a funeral. " Now, Topsy, I'm going to show you just how my bed is to be made. I am very particular about my bed. You must learn exactly how to do it." " Yes, ma'am," says Topsy, with a deep sigh, and a face of woeful earnestness. " Now, Topsy. look here; — this is the hem of the sheet, — this is the right side of the sheet, and this is the wrong; — will you remember?" " Yes, ma'am," says Topsy, with another sigh. " Well, now, the under sheet you must bring over the bolster, — so, — and tuck it clear down TOPSY. 9 under the mattress nice and smooth, — so, — do you see?" " Yes, ma'am," said Topsy, with profound at- tention. *' But ihc upper sheet," said Miss OpheHa, " must be brought down in this way, and tucked under nrm and smooth at the foot, — so, — the nar- row hem at the foot." "Yes, ma'am," said Topsy, as before; but we will add, what Miss Ophelia did not see, that, dur- ing the time when the good lady's back was turned, in the zeal of her manipulations, the young disciple had contrived to snatch a pair of gloves and a rib- bon, which she had adroitly slipped into her sleeves, and stood with her hands dutifully folded, as before. " Now, Topsy, let's see you do this," said Miss Ophelia, pulling ofif the clothes, and seating herself. Topsy, with great gravity and adroitness, went through the exercise completely to Miss Ophelia's satisfaction; smoothing the sheets, patting out every wrinkle, and exhibiting, through the whole process, a gravity and seriousness with which her instructress was greatly edified. By an unlucky slip, however, a fluttering fragment of the ribbon hung out of one of her sleeves, jusit as she was finishing, and caught Miss Ophelia's attention. Instantly she pounced upon it. " What's this? You naughty, wicked child, — you've been stealing this!" Tlie ribbon was pulled out of Topsy's own sleeve, lO TOPSY. yet was she not in the least disconcerted; she only looked at it with an air of the most surprised and unconscious innocence. " Laws! why, that ar's Miss Feely's ribbon, an't it? How could it got caught in my sleeve?" " Topsy, you naughty girl, don't you tell me a lie — you stole that ribbon! " " jVIissis, I declar for't, I didn't; — never seed it til' dis yer blessed minnit." " Topsy," said Miss Ophelia, " don't you know it's wicked to tell lies? " " I never tells no lies. Miss Feely," said Topsy, with virtuous gravity; " it's jist the truth I've been a-tellin' now, and an't nothin' else." " Topsy, I shall have to whip you, if you tell lies so." " Laws, missis, if you's to whip all day, couldn't say no other way," said Topsy, beginn.ng to blub- ber; " I never seed dat ar — it m.ust a-got caught in my sleeve. Miss Feely must have left it on the bed, and it got caught in the clothes, and so got in my sleeve." Miss Ophelia was so indignant at the barefaced lie that she caught the child and shook her. " Don't you tell me that again ! " The shake brought the gloves on the floor, from the other sleeve. " There, you! " said Miss Ophelia, " will you tell me now, you didn't steal the ribbon? " Topsy now confessed to the gloves, but still per- sisted in denying the ribbon. TOPSY. II " Now, Topsy," said Miss Ophelia, '' if you'll confess all about it, I won't whip you this time." Thus adjured, Topsy confessed to the ribbon and gloves, with woeful protestations of penitence. " Well now, tell me. I know you must have taken other things since you have been in the house, for I let you run about all day yesterday. Now, tell me if you took anything, and I shan't whip you." " Laws, missis! I took Miss Eva's red thing she wars on her neck." "You did, you naughty child! Well, what else? " " I took Rosa's yer-rings, — them red ones." " Go bring them to me this minute, both of 'em." " Laws, missis! I can't, — they's burnt up! " "Burnt up! what a story! Go get 'em, or I'll whip you." Topsy, with loud protestations, and tears, and groans, declared that she could not. " They's burnt up — they was." " What did you burn 'em up for? " said Miss Ophelia. " 'Cause I's wicked — I is. I's mighty wicked, anyhow. I can't help it." Just at this moment, Eva came innocently into the room, with the identical coral necklace on her neck. " Why, Eva, where did you get your necklace?" said Miss Ophelia. " Get it? Why, I've had it on all day," said Eva. 12 TOPSY. " Did you have it on yesterday?" "Yes; and what is funny, aunty, I had it on all night. I forgot to take it of¥ when I went to bed." Miss Ophelia looked perfectly bewildered; the more so, as Rosa, at that instant, came into the room, with a basket of newly ironed linen poised on her head, and the coral ear-drops shaking in her ears ! " I'm sure I can't tell anything what to do with such a child! " she said, in despair. " What in the world did you tell me you took those things for, Topsy? " "Why, missis said I must 'fess; and I couldn't think of nothin' else to 'fess," said Topsy, rubbing her eyes. " But, of course, I didn't want you to confess things you didn't do," said Miss Ophelia; "that's telling a lie, just as much as the other." " Laws, now, is it? " said Topsy, with an air of innocent wonder. THE NASHVILLE EXPOSITION. 13 THE NASHVILLE EXPOSITION. By Wii.i.iAM McKiNLEY, Statesman, ex-Governor of Ohio, President of the United States. B. 1843, Niles, O. Selected from a speech delivered at the Nashville Expo- sition, June II, 1S97. The battle of King's Mountain, South Carolina, was fought October 7, 1780, between Colonel Ferguson of Corn- wallis' army and Colonel Campbell of the American army. The battle resulted in the crushing defeat of Ferguson's force. vSevier commanded one of tlie divisions of tlie American army. American nationality, compared with that of Europe and the East, is still very young; and yet already we are beginning to have age enough for centennial anniversaries in States other than the original thirteen. Such occasions are always inter- esting, and when celebrated in a }M-actical v.-ay are useful and instructive. Combining retrospect and review, they recall what has been done by State and nation, and point out what yet remains for both to accomplish in order to fulfill their highest destiny. This celebration is of general interest to the whole country, and of special significance to the people of the South and West. It marks the end of the first century of the State of Tennessee and the close of the first year of its second century. One hundred and one years ago this State was -ad- mitted into the Union as the sixteenth member in the great family of American commonwealths. It was a welcome addition to the national household — a community young and strong and sturdy, with an honored and heroic ancestry, with fond antici- 14 THE NASHVILLE EXPOSITION. I^ations not only of its founders, but faith in its success on the part of far-seeing and sagacious statesmen in all parts of the country. The builders of the State, who had forced their way through the trackless forests of this splendid domain, brought with them the same high ideals and fearless devotion to home and country, founded on resistance to oppression, which have everywhere made illustrious the Anglo-American name. Whether it was the territory of A^irginia or that of North Carolina mattered little to them. They came willing and eager to fight for independence and liberty, and in the War of the Revolution were ever loyal to the standard of Washington. Spain had sought to possess their territory by right of discovery as a part of Florida. France claimed it by right of cession as a part of Louisiana, and England as hers by conquest. But neither contention could for an instant be recognized. Moved by the highest instincts of self-government and the loftiest motives of patriotism, under gallant old John Sevier, at King's Mountain, your fore- fathers bravely vindicated their honor and glori- ously won their independence. The glory of Tennessee is not alone in the brilliant names it has contributed to history, or the heroic patriotism displayed by the people in so many crises of our national life, but its material and industrial wealth, social advancement and population are striking and significant in their growth and development. Tiiis Exposition CHORUS OF ISLANDERS. 15 demonstrates directly your own faith and purpose, and signifies in the widest sense your true and un- faihng beHef in the irrepressible pluck of the Ameri- can people, and is a promising indication of the return of American prosperity. Let us always remember that whatever differ- ences about politics may have existed or still exist, we are all Americans before we are partisans, and value the welfare of all the people above party or section. Citizens of different States, w^e yet love all the States. The lesson of the hour, then, is this — that whatever adverse conditions may tem- porarily impede the pathway of our national prog- ress, nothing can permanently defeat it. CHORUS OF ISLANDERS. By Alfred Austin, Poet B. 1S35, England. Poet Laureate. From "Lyrical Poems," copyrighted by Macmillan & Co. Sweet are the ways of peace, and sweet The gales that fan the foam • That sports with silvery-twinkling feet Around our island home. But should the winds of battle shrill, And the billows crisp their mane, Down to the shore, from vale, from hill, From hamlet, town, and plain! The ocean our forefathers trod, In many a forest keel. 1 6 CHORUS OF ISLANDERS. Shall feel our feet once more, but shod With ligaments of steel. Ours is the sea, to rule, to keep, Our realm, and if ye would Challenge dominion of the deep. Then make that challenge good. But ware ye lest your vauntings proud Be coffined in the surge. Our breakers be for you a shroud, Our battle-song your dirge. Peaceful within our peaceful home We ply the loom and share, Peaceful above the peaceful foam Our pennons float and fare; Bearing, for other peaceful lands. Through sunshine, storm, and snow, The harvest of industrious hands Peacefully to and fro. But, so ye will it, then our sails Tlie blasts of war shall swell. And hold and hulk, now choked with bales, Be crammed with shot and shell. The waves impregnably shall bear Our bulwarks on their breast. And eyes of steel unsleeping glare Across each billowy crest; Along the trenches of the deep Unflinching faces shine. And Briton's stalwart sailors keep The bastions of the brine. GRANT AT APPOMATTOX. I? Ocean itself, from strand to strand, Our citadel shall be, And, thoug-h the world together band, Not all the legions of the land Shall ever wrest from England's hand The Scepter of the Sea. GRANT AT APPOMATTOX. By Eugene H. Levy, Soldier, formerly a member of General A. P. Hill's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia ; lives in New York City. An extract from a letter written to the New York Trib- une at the time of the dedication of the Grant Monument, April 27, 1897. Thirty-two years have passed since the battle flags were furled and the victors turned to the North and the vanquished faced their desolate homes in the South, to begin the life struggle under that old flag which had been the idol of their Revo- lutionary fathers. After statesmen had wrangled for nearly two generations, the question between sections was left to the arbitration of the sword, and the true men of the South never showed more valor or more manli- ness than they did in bowing heroically and uncom- plainingly to the will of Providence and the power of the heavier batteries and battalions. Since that day at Appomattox the mystic angel's bugle call has been summoning with increased rapidity the remnant of the Army of Northern Vir- l« GRANT AT APPOMATTOX. ginia to cross the dark river to the white tents of the silent, where are resting under the eternal truce- flags the men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray; all of whom did before God and man what they believed to b" the full measure of their duty. If by some divine mandate the comrades in gray who died before or who have been " called " since could once more assemble at the drum's long roll or the bugle's summons, they would rally in the lines and dress ranks, to do honor to the memory of the heroic commander of the Army of the Potomac. He was the leader who in the hour of his magnificent triumph proved his splendid man- hood by considering the needs and respecting the feelings of the men he had beaten, after the most terrific fighting and heroic sufifering of any soldiers of whom history has preserved a record. In that supreme moment, when Fame crowned his efforts at the bidding of Victory, Grant gave no thought to himself, nor did he need to consider his superbly equipped army. The impoverished men in gray — the men whose lines were so thinned by death, the men whose clothing was rags, whose money was waste paper, yet the men whose man- hood remained, because they were of his race — it was to the care of these he gave his first thought; and we, who survive to witness or share in this crowning honor to himself, cannot forgot it till we, too, arc called to join him and the heroic Americans who have gone before. MY GREAT-AUNT'S PORTRAIT. 19 It was throunfh Grant we were returned to our homes, and it was largely through his influence that we were returned to our old positions in the Union. The day is coming when we who fouglit on opposing sides will be mustered out. Then a broader charity will take the place of sentimental hate. Then our children and their children's chil- dren will glory in the exploits of Americans, no matter who led or where they fought. A few names like Lincoln and Grant and Lee and " Joe " Johnston will rise over all as the finest types of American manhood. Our prosaic mountains and rivers and villages will be full of ennobling legend and poetic tradition to the coming generations, be- cause of the men in blue and the men in gray who struggled in them. And this we know, and it thrills our hearts to know it, that the rivers by which our heroes sleep will be drained to the sea, and the battle mountains on which they rest will be leveled with the plains, before the story of their valor dies out or the record of their heroism ceases to ennoble mankind. MY GREAT-AUNT'S PORTRAIT. ANONYMOUS. I WONDER if, some future day, When looking on this cardboard square, (My photograph), some girl will say, (Some slim young maid with yellow hair), 20 MY GREAT-AUNT'S PORTRAIT. " This is my great-aunt, you know; She lived, well I can scarcely tell Just when, but awful long ago. The picture's taken very well; — " I mean for those days ; but oh, dear, How quaint and funny it seems now; And don't her hair look very queer, Cut in a fringe across her brow? " And, goodness me, how dreadful tight Her sleeves are made; how choking high Her collar is — so prim and white; Just fancy now, if you and I " Should dress like that? We'd scare the town! It must have been the fashion then; How did she get into that gown, And how did she get out again? " Oh, dear unknown, the years will play The very same old pranks with you; Some other merry girl will say. When your sweet picture meets her view, " This is my great, great-aunt, you know; Born — well, I cannot tell the year, But very, very long ago; And doesn't she look quaint and queer? " " UNCLE TODD." 2i "UNCLE TODD." By IsAHKL A. Mai.i.on, Author, Editor ; lives in Philadel- phia and is on the editorial staflf of the Ladies' Ho7ne Jour- nal, by whose consent this extract from its pages is taken. You have heard of the Stockett family on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Judo^e Stockett and his two sons were in the army, and both the boys were killed. They were brave young- fellows, and the second one, a good lad, was only eighteen years old. Well, when the judge ivent home he found the place devastated; his people were all gone and Mrs. Stockett quite broken down. With sorrow she drooped, but she brightened up for a little while, when, as a flower of promise, God gave her, after so many years, a little daughter — the child of peace. The judg-e picked up a small practice, for he was a g-ood lawyer, and those three people lived for each other and because they were together. The baby girl was, as is our fashion, called after her mother's family, and so she had the pretty name of Stuart Stockett. She had many admirers. The young gentlemen all around met each other at Judg-e Stockett's and were rivals in their attentions to her, while, like most of our sweet Southern girls, she was frank and open in her behavior to them, for she never dreamed of anything but politeness or consideration from them. Among Stuart's many beaus was voung Allston, Colonel Tom Allston's son. Like all of the family he was handsome. Big, fair, with blue eves that 22- " UNCLE TODD." danced like stars, he was just as unreliable, as tar as twinkling goes, as are the stars. You can imagine the rest. From among the true gentlemen who loved her she selected the one who was a gentleman by birth and a scoundrel by choice — for a man is a scoundrel who neglects his wife, and who does not provide the protection and care that he vows be- fore God to give her. For the first year or two things went along pretty well. Then neighbors began to whisper that there were cold days when there was no firewood in the Allston house. Mrs. Stockett in the meantime died, and the judge did not long sui"vive her. There was a small sum of money for Stuart, and with it her husband, instead of fixing up their home and going into some little business in the town where they were known, brought them all on to this great big, hard-hearted city. Here Stuart had no friends. There was no kind neighbor to send in a supper, with the excuse that " perhaps Miss Stuart might like a change of food," when it was suspected that the table was bare. There was ab- solutely nobod to turn to for sympathy or more material lielji. Tom belonged to a type that is common, too common. He was not a villain; he was worse. He was thoughtless. As long as he did not see the hungry children they did not trouble him. With the little family came the old colored butler, who, years before, when told that he was free, asked helplessly, " What '11 I do away from my missus? " " UNCLE TODD." 23 He had been with them in their prosperous times, he stayed with them in their sorrow; and when his dear " missus " was dead he as naturally followed her little girl as if he belonged to her. And he was a friend in need and in deed. The third of Stuart's little babies was a cripple, and she found no arms as strong- to hold her, and no one as patient to amuse her, as Uncle Todd. There came a day when there was not a penny in the house — now remember this was a Southern lady, who would have starved before she would have gone in debt. Then Uncle Todd came to the rescue. He applied at a woodyard and got an order for sawing wood. He hung around the big hotels and was always ready to run an errand. And every night when he came home he handed his day's earnings to " Miss " Stuart, and there was always, in addition, a red apple or a few sweets that Uncle Todd had bought, or that had been given to him, and which was his tribute to the delicate child. Out of the little money a tiny bit was laid by every day toward the rent, but the husband, the brute who was permitting Stuart and the children to be supported by this old gentleman, got up one night, took that money and told his wife that he needed it to get a new hat and a new pair of gloves, for he must not look shabby among his friends. And the people whom he sinned against both forgave him. One day Uncle Todd suggested that a little money be taken and spent for materials for some of the dainty cakes that " Miss " Stuart used to make 24 " UNCLE TODD." for her mother's afternoon tea; and Uncle Todd spread them on a tray, covered them with a clean white napkin and went down town and sold them here and there, wherever he could find a customer. You wonder that Stuart did not try to do some- thing for herself? What can a woman do wdien she has three little children pulling not only at her skirts, but at her heartstrings? Two or three years passed, the cake industry flourished, but Uncle Todd was growing weaker and weaker, and Stuart wondered with horror what they would do without him. But God never for- gets. One day there came a message, that, await- ing Stuart down in the South-land, was a home and a sufBcient income for all their needs; it had been left her by an uncle of her husband's, and so ar- ranged that it was impossible for the man who had ill-treated her to touch it. They waited here for a little while, waited for Uncle Todd to get some strength and rest. Prosperity had been too much for him, and he had fallen vmder it. By his bed the other night there stood the woman and the chil- dren he had loved and cared for, and it was to the music of the children's voices that his soul went out to stand before God, and he to join his dear " missus." EGO ET ECHO. 25 EGO ET ECHO. By John Godfrey Saxe, Poet. B. 1816, Vermont; d. 1887, New York. I ASKED of Echo, t'other clay (Whose words are few and often funny), What to a novice she could say Of courtship, love, and matrimony? Quoth Echo, plainly: " Matter-o'-money! " Whom should I marry? Should it be A dashing- damsel, gay, and pert, — A pattern of inconstancy; Or selfish, mercenary flirt? Quoth Echo, sharply: " Nary Flirt! " What if aweary of the strife That long has lured the dear deceiver, She promised to amend her life, And sin no more, can I believe her? Quoth Echo, very promptly: " Leave her! " But if some maiden with a heart, On me should venture to bestow it, Pray, should I act the wiser part To take the treasure, or forego it? Quoth Echo, with decision: " Go it! " Suppose a billet-doux (in rhyme). As w^arm as if Catullus penned it, Declare her beauty so sublime That Cytherea's can't transcend it, Quoth Echo, very clearly: " Send it! " 26 WOMAN'S EIGHTS. But what if, seemingly afraid To bind her fate in Hymen's fetter, She vow she means to die a maid — In answer to my loving letter? Quoth Echo, rather coolly: " Let her! " What if, in spite of her disdain, I find my heart entwined about With Cupid's dear, delicious chain, So closely that I can't get out? Quoth Echo, laughingly: " Get out! " But if some maid with beauty blest, As pure and fair as Heaven can make her, Will share my labor and my rest, Till envious death shall overtake her? Quoth Echo {sotto voce): " Take her! " WOMAN'S RIGHTS. By George Wh.t.iam Curtis, Author, Orator, Lecturer, Editor. B. 1824, Rhode Island; d. 1892. The woman's-rights movement is the simple claim that the same opportunity and liberty that a man has in civilized society shall be extended to the woman who stands at his side — equal or unequal in special powers, but an equal member of society. She must prove her power as he proves his. When Rosa Donheur paints a vigorous and admirable picture of Normandy horses, she proves that she WOMAN'S RIGHTS. 27 has a hundred-fold more right to do it than scores of botchers and bunglers in color who wear coats and trousers, and whose right, therefore, nobody questions. When the Misses Blackwell or Miss Hunt, or Miss Preston or Miss Avery, accomplish- ing themselves in medicine, with a firm hand and a clear brain carry the balm of life to suffering men, women, and children, it is as much th^ir right to do it — as much their sphere — as it is that of any long- haired, sallow, dissipated boy in spectacles, who hisses them as they go upon their holy mission. And so when Joan of Arc follows God and leads the army; when the Maid of Saragossa loads and fires the cannon; when Mrs, Stowe makes her pen the heaven-appealing tongue of an outraged race; when Grace Darling and Ida Lewis, pulling their boats through the pitiless waves, save fellow- creatures from drowning; ... do you ask me whether these are not exceptional women? Flor- ence Nightingale demanding supplies for the sick soldiers in the Crimea, and, when they are delayed by red-tape, ordering a file of soldiers to break down the doors and bring them, — which they do, for the brave love bravery — seems to me quite as womanly as the loveliest girl in the land, dancing at the gayest ball in a dress of which the embroidery is the pinched lines of starvation in another girl's face, and whose pearls are the tears of despair in her eyes. Jenny Lind enchanting the heart of a nation; Anna Dickinson pleading for the equal liberty of her sex; Lucretia Mott publicly bearing 2 8 DAVID SHAW, HERO. her testimony against the sin of slavery, are doing what God, by his great gifts of eloquence and song, appointed them to do. And whatever generous and noble duty, either in a private or public sphere, God gives any woman the will and the power to do, that, and that only, for her, is feminine. DAVID SHAW, HERO. By James Buckham, Poet, Editor. B. 1858, Vermont. The savior, and not the slayer, he is the braver man. So far my text, but the story? Thus, then, it runs: from Spokane Rolled out the overland mail train, late by an hour; in the cab David Shaw, at .your service, dressed in his blouse of drab, Grimed by the smoke and the cinders. " Feed her well, Jim," he said; Jim was his fireman. "Seattle sharp on time!" So they sped; Dust from the wheels uptlying; smoke rolling out behind; The long train thundering, swaying; the roar of the cloven wind; Shaw with his hand on the lever, looking out straight ahead. How she did rock, old Six-forty! How like a storm they sped! DAVID SUA IV, HERO. 29 Leavenworth: thirty minutes gained in the thrilHng race. Now for the hills; keener lookout, or a letting down of the pace. Hartlly a pound of the steam less! David Shaw straightened back, Hand like steel on the lever, face like flint to the track. God! Look there! Down the mountain, right ahead of the train, Acres of sand and forest sliding down to the plain! What to do? Why, jump, Dave! Take the chance, while you can. The train is doomed; save your own life! Think of the children, man! Well, what did he, this hero, face to face with grim death? Grasped the throttle, reversed it, shrieked " Down brakes! " in a breath. Stood to his i)ost, without flinching, clear-headed, open-eyed, Till the train stood still with a shudder, and he went down with the slide. Saved? Yes, saved! Ninety people snatched from an awful grave. One life under the sand, there. All that he had, he gave. o THE CONSTITUTIOiV. Man, to the last inch! Hero? Noblest of heroes, yea! Worthy the shaft and the tablet, worthy the song and the bay! THE CONSTITUTION. By William Wirt Henry, Law^^er, Orator ; grandson of Patrick Henry. B. 1S31, Virginia Delivered at Washington, D. C, September 18, 1893. at the exercises in commemoratit)n of the laying of the corner stone of the National Capitol one hundred years before by President George Washington. JMr. Wirt's oration was entitled by him, "The Voice of History," and in it he traced the origin of the Constitution of the United States through English laws and institutions. The problem before the convention which framed the Federal Constitution was new and difB- cult indeed, and by many deemed insoluble. It was the creation of a nation out of the citizens of the several States without destroying the autonomy of the States. It was to divide the sovereign power between the nation and the States, so as to invest the nation with ample supreme powers to conduct national affairs, and to leave with the States enough of sovereignty to conduct State affairs. It was to cause both governments to operate directly on the citizen, invested with a double citizenship, without a conflict in his allegiance. It was to perpetuate Republican governments for both the nation and the States, each supreme in its functions and so firmly fixed in its allotted sphere that they would THE CONSTITUTION. 3^ never clash. The able men who solved this prob- lem were statesmen of the hig-hest order as well as patriots of the greatest purity. They thought that they understood clearly their work, but they builded better than they knew. The form of gov- ernment that they constructed has excited the admiration of the world. It has stood every test in peace and in war, and under it a great and ever- growing nation has developed, which rejoices more and more, as the years roll around, in the incalcula- ble blessings it secures. So jealous were the people of their personal liberty, and so determined to have their rights secured, that, without delay, they engrafted upon the Constitution ten amendments. At the close of the Civil War another step forward was taken in the amendments which abolished slavery and se- cured equal privileges and immunities to all citizens throughout the Union. Our forefathers trusted the permanency of the government they founded to the virtue and intelli- gence of the people. Virtue and intelligence, divine attributes given to man when he was made in the image of God! As tlic two cherubim, with outstretched wings covered and guarded the holy oracle in which was deposited the ark of the covenant, so may these guard and protect our Con- stitution, in which has been deposited the priceless jewel of liberty, as it is transmitted from generation to generation, till time shall end. 32 LITTLE BLUE RIBBONS. LITTLE BLUE RIBBONS. By Henry Austin Dobson, Poet. B. 1840, England. " Little Blue Ribbons ! " We call her that From the ribbons she wears in her favorite hat; For may not a person be only five, And yet have the neatest of taste alive? As a matter of fact, this one has views Of the strictest sort as to frocks and shoes; And we never object to a sash or bow, When " Little Blue Ribbons " prefers it so. " Little Blue Ribbons " has eyes of blue, And an arch little mouth, when the teeth peep through ; And her primitive look is wise and grave. With a sense of the weight of the word " behave," Though now and again she may condescend To a radiant smile for a private friend; But to smile forever is weak, you know, And '' Little Blue Ribbons " regards it so. She's a staid little woman ! And so as well Is her ladyship's doll, " Miss Bonnibelle "; But I think what at present the most takes up The thoughts of her heart is her last new cup; For the object thereon, — be it understood, — Is the " Robin that Buried the ' Babes in the Wood ' "— It is not in the least like a robin, though. But " Little Blue Ribbons " declares it so. A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL. ZZ " Little Blue Ribbons " believes, I think, That the rain comes clown for the birds to drink; Moreover, she holds, in a cab vou'd g-et To the spot where the suns of yesterday set; And I know that she fully expects to meet With a lion or wolf in Regent Street! We may smile, and deny as we like — but, no; For " Little Blue Ribbons " still dreams it so. Dear " Little Blue Ribbons! " She tells us all That she never intends to be " great " and " tall " (For how could she ever contrive to sit In her " own, own chair," if she grew one bit!); And, further, she says, she intends to stay In her " darling home " till she gets '' quite gray "; Alas! we are gray; and we doubt, you know, But " Little Blue Ribbons " will have it so! A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL. By Dk. John Watson (" Ian Maci.arf.n "). Clergyman, Novelist, Lecturer. B. 1850. Essex. England. Pastor of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, Liverpool.^ Dr. "Weelum" I\IacLure is' a creation of the author's imagination. It' is interesting to remember that " Annie " recovered, after all. From "A Doctor of the Old School." Copyright, 1894. by Dodd, Mead & Co. Doctor MacLure did not lead a solemn proces- sion from the sick bed to the dining room, and give 34 A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL. his opinions from the hearthrug with an air of wis- dom bordering- on "^he supernatural, because neither the Drumtochty houses nor his manners were on that large scale. He was accustomed to deliver himself in the yard, and to conclude his directions with one foot in the stirrup; but when he left the room where the life of Annie Mitchell was ebbing slowly away, our doctor said not one word, and at the sight of his face her husband's heart was troubled. He was a dull man, Tammas, who could not read the meaning of a sign, and labored under a per- petual disability of speech; but love was eyes to him that day, and a mouth. " Is't as bad as yir lookin', doctor? tell's the truth; wull Annie no come through?" and Tam- mas looked MacLure straight in the face, who never flinched his duty or said smooth things. " A' wud gie onything tae say Annie hes a chance, but a' daurna; a' doot yir gaen' tae lose her. Tammas." MacLure was in the saddle, and as he gave his judgment, he laid his hand on Tammas' shoulder with one of the rare caresses that pass between men. " It's a sair business, but ye 'ill play the man and no vex Annie." . . Tammas hid his face in Jess's mane, who looked round with sorrow in her beautiful eyes, for she had seen many tragedies, and in this silent A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 35 sympathy the stricken man drank his cup, drop by drop. " A' vvesna prepared for this, for a' aye thocht she wild Hvc the langest. . . She's younger than me by ten years, and never wes ill. . . We've been mairit twal year laist Martinmas, but it's juist like a year the day. . . An' we never hed ae cross word, no ane in twal year. . . We w-ere mair nor man and wife; we were sweethearts a' the time. . . Can naethin' be dune, doctor? . . . Can ye no think o' somethin' tae help Annie, and gie her back tae her man and bairnies? " and Tammas searched the doctor's face in the cold, weird light. . . " Ye needna plead wi' me, Tammas, to dae the best a' can for yir wife. . . Man, a' kent her lang afore ye ever luved her; . . . Tammas, ma puir fellow, if it could avail, a' tell ye a' wud lay doon this auld worn-oot ruckle o' a body o' mine juist tae see ye baith sittin' at the fireside, an' the bairns roond ye, couthy an' canty again ; but it's no tae be, Tammas, it's no tae be." . . . "When a' lookit at the doctor's face," Marget Howe said, " a' thocht him the winsomest man a' ever saw. He was transfigured that nicht, for a'm judging there's nae transfiguration like luve." 36 - VICTORIA. VICTORIA. By Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate of England. B. 1835, England. An extract from the poem written for the Diamond Jubi- lee of Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria has reigned longer than any other English sovereign. And panoplied alike for war or peace, Victoria's England furroweth still the foam, To harvest empire wiser than was Greece, Wider than Rome. Therefore, with glowing hearts and proud, glad tears. The children of her island realm to-day- Recall her sixty venerable years Of virtuous sway. Now, too, from where St. Lawrence winds adown 'Twixt forests felled and plains that feel the plow, And Ganges jewels the imperial crown That gilds her brow; From Afric's Cape, where loyal watchdogs bark. And Britain's scepter ne'er shall be withdrawn, And that young continent that greets the dark When wc the dawn; From steel-capped promontories, stern and strong, And lone isles mounting guard upon the main, COUNTRY LIFE. 37 Hither her subjects wend to hail her long, Resplendent reign. And ever, when mid-June's musk roses blow, Our race will celebrate Victoria's name, And even England's greatness gain a glow From her pure fame. COUNTRY LIFE. By Robert Green Ingersoll, Lawyer, Orator ; B. 1833, Dresden, N. Y. This selection formed a part of the eulogy on President Lincoln delivered in the Auditorium, Chicago, February 12, 1892. In a new country a man must possess at least three virtues — honesty, courage, and generosity. In cultivated society cultivation is often more im- portant than soil. A well-executed counterfeit passes more readily than a blurred genuine. In a new country character is essential; in the old reputation is suf^cient. In the new they find what a man really is; in the old he generally passes for what he resembles. People separated only by dis- tance are much nearer together than those divided by the walls of caste. It is no advantage to live in a great city, where poverty degrades and failure brings despair. The fields are lovelier than paved streets, and great forests than walls of brick. Oaks and elms are more poetic than steeples and chimneys. oVo*x^i> 3^ MARMARA. In the country is the idea of home. There you see the rising and setting sun; you become ac- quainted with the stars and clouds; the constella- tions are your friends; you hear the rain on the roof, and listen to the rhythmic sighing of the winds. You are thrilled by the resurrection called spring, touched and saddened by autumn — • the grace and poetry of death. Every field is a picture, a landscape; every landscape a poem; every flower a tender thought, and every forest a fairyland. In the country you preserve your iden- tit)' — your personality. There you are an aggrega- tion of atoms ; but in the city you are only an atom of an aggregation. MARMARA. By Clara Barton, Philanthropist, Author. B. 1830, Massachusetts ; resides at Washiiij^ton, D. C. Miss Barton is President of the Red Cross Society. The following poem was written at Constantinople, Jul}'- 4, 1896, while Miss Barton was in Turkey superintending the work of Armenian relief for the Red Cross Society. Published in the I7idepe7tdent, November 26, 1896. It was twenty and a hundred years, O blue and rolling sea! A thousand in the onward march of human liberty, Since on its sunlit bosom, wind-tossed and sails un- furled, Atlantic's mighty billows bore a message to the world. MARMARA. 39 It tlmndcrs down its rocky coast, and stirs its frugal homes: The Saxon hears it as he toils, the Indian as he roams ; The buffalo upon the plains, the panther in his lair, And the eagle hails the kindred note, and screams it through the air. " Make way for liberty," it roared, " here let the oppressed go free; Break loose the bands of tyrant hands, this land is not for thee! The Old World in its crusted grasp grinds out the souls of men; Here plant their feet in freedom's soil, this land was made for them! " The mother slept in her island home, but the chil- dren heard the call. And, ere the western sun went down, had answered, one and all; For Briton's thirteen colonies had vanished in ? day, And six and half a hundred men had signed their lives away. And brows were dark, and words were few, the steps were quick and strong. And firm the lips as ever his who treasures up a wrong; 40 MARMARA. And Stern the tone that offered up the prayer beside the bed. And many a MolHe Stark, that night, wept silent tears of dread. The bugles call, and swords c.re out, and armies march abreast, And the Old World casts a wondering glance to the strange light in the West; Lo! from its lurid lightning's play, free tossing in the wind. Bursts forth the star-gemmed flag that wraps the hopes of all mankind. And weary eyes grew brighter then, and fainting hearts, grew strong, And hope was mingled in the cry, " How long, oh, Lord, how long? " The seething millions turn and stir, and struggle toward the light; The free flag streams and morning gleams where erst was hopeless night. And grim Atlantic thunders still, adown its rocky shores, And still the eagle screams his note, as aloft he sails and soars; And hope is born, that even thou, in some far day to come, (; blue and rolling Marmara, shall bear the mes- sage home. THE NEW AMERICANISM. 41 THE NEW AMERICANISM. By Henry Watterson, Orator, Journalist. B. 1840, Washington, D. C. Editor of the Louisville Coiirier- Joicruat. An extract from an address delivered at the Eighty-ninth annual festival of The New England Society, held in New York City, December 22, 1894. Henry W. Grady told us, and told us truly, of that typical American, who, in Talmage's mind's eye, was comini:^, but who in Abraham Lincoln's actuality had already come. In some recent studies into the character of that great man I have encountered many startling" confirmations of this judgment; and from that rugged trunk, drawing its sustenance from gnarled roots, interlocked with Cavalier sprays and Ptiritan branches deep beneath the soil, shall spring, is springing, a shapely tree — symmetric in all its parts — under whose sheltering boughs this nation shall have the new l)irlh of free- dom Lincoln promised it, and mankind the refuge which was sought by the forefathers when they fled from oppression. The ax, the gibbet, and the stake have had their day. It has been demonstrated that great wrongs may be redressed and great reforms be achieved without the shedding of one drop of human blood; that vengeance does not purify, but brutalizes; and that tolerance, which in private transactions is reckoned a virtue, becomes in pub- lic afTairs a dogma of the most far-seeing states- manship. So I appeal from the men in silken hose who 42 THE NEW AMERICANISM. danced to music made by slaves — and called it free- dom; from the men in bell-crowned hats, who led Hester Prynne to her shame — and called it religion, to that Americanism which reaches forth its arms to smite wrong with reason and truth, secure in the power of both. I appeal from the patriarchs of New England to the poets of New England; from Endicott to Lowell; from Winthrop to Longfellow; from Norton to Holmes; and I appeal in the name and by the rights of that common citizenship, of that common origin — back both of the Puritan and the Cavalier — to which all of us ow^e our being. Let the dead past, consecrated by the blood of its martyrs, not by its savage hatreds — let the dead past bury its dead. Let the present and the future ring with the song of the singers. Blessed be the lessons they teach, the laws they make. Blessed be the eye to see, the light to reveal. Blessed be Tolerance, sitting ever on the right hand of God to guide the way with loving word; as blessed be all that brings us nearer the goal of true religion, true republicanism, and true patriotism, — distrusts of watclnvords and labels, shams and heroes, — belief in our country and ourselves. It was not Cotton Mather, but John Greenleaf Whittier, who cried: " Dear God and Father of us all, Forgive our faith in cruel lies, Forgive the blindness that denies. " Cast down our idols — overturn Our bloody altars — make us see Thyself in Thy humanity ! " WASHINGTON. 43 WASHINGTON. By John Paul Bocock. From "Twinkles." " FIRST IN WAR." Those g-lorioiis wars are long since sped, The votive marble shrines their dead, The memory of their hopes and fears. Their gallant deeds, their blood and tears, And of the patriots' noble rage Has faded into history's page; We have them, heroes all, and one, The " first in war " was Washington. " FIRST IN PEACE. ii Lo! " victories no less renowned " The long, bright century have crowned; Beneath the fostering hands of peace. Science, invention, wide increase. The power that sways a continent, The pride to Heaven alone that's bent Are thine, Columbia, and thy son, Still " first in peace " is Washington! FIRST IN THE HEARTS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN New crises to new men impart The sturdy arm, the faithful heart; But, while the old flag waves above The land he gave to us to love, jj 44 THE ATLANTIC CABLE. Greater than king or emperor We'll honor Washington : in war, In peace, the first, and now, as then, In all our hearts " his countrymen." THE ATLANTIC CABLE. By James Thomas Fields, Author, Publisher. B. 1817, New Hampshire ; d. iSSi, Boston. On the 27th of July, 1866, telegraphic communication was established between Europe and America, and has not since been interrupted. All great leaders have been inspired with a great belief. There is a faith so expansive, and a hope so elastic, that a man having them will keep on be- lieving and hoping till all danger is past and victory is sure. Such a man was Cyrus Field, who spent so many years of his life in perfecting a communi- cation second only in importance to the discovery of this country. It was a long, hard struggle. Thirteen years of anxious watching and ceaseless toil were his. Think what that enthusiast accom- plished by his untiring energy! He made fifty voyages across the Atlantic. And when every- thing looked darkest for his enterprise, his courage never flagged for an instant. Think of him in those gloomy periods pacing the decks of ships on dark, stormy nights in mid-ocean, or wandering in the desolate forests of Newfoundland in pelting rains, comfortless and forlorn! Public excitement had grown wild over the mysterious workings of those flashing wires. And when the first cable THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 45 ceased to throb, the reaction was intense. Stock- holders and the pubhc grew exasperated and suspi- cious; unbcHevers sneered at the whole project and called the telegraph a stupendous hoax. At last day dawned again, and another cable was paid out. Twelve hundred miles of it were laid down, and the ship was just lifting- her head to a stiff breeze, when, without a moment's warning, the cable suddenly snapped short off and plunged into the sea. Field returned to England defeated. But his energy was even greater than before. In five months, by the blessing of Heaven, another cable was stretched from continent to continent. Then came that never-to-be-forgotten search in four ships for the lost cable. In the bow of one of these ships stood Cyrus Field day and night, in storm and fog, in squall and calm, intently watch- ing the quiver of the grapnel that was drag-ging two miles down on the bottom of the deep. The spirit of this brave man was rewarded. All felt as if life and death hung on the issue. It was only when the cable was broug^ht over the bow and on the deck that men dared to breathe. Even then they hardly believed their eyes. Some crept toward it to see, feel of it, to be sure it was there. Then they carried it along to the electrician's room, to sec if the long- sought treasure was alive or dead. A few minutes of suspense, and a flash told of the lightning current again set free. Some turned away and wept, others broke into cheers, and the cry ran from ship to ship, while rockets lig^hted u]) the darkness of the sea. 46 THE "BEST ROOM." THE "BEST ROOM." By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Poet, Author, Professor. B. 1809, Massachusetts ; d. 1894. There was a parlor in the hou:e, a room To make you shudder with its prudish gloom, The furniture stood round with such an air. There seemed to be a ghost in every chair; Each looked as it had settled to its place And pulled extempore a Stmday face, So snugly proper for a world of sin, Like boys on whom the minister comes in. The table, fronting you with icy stare, Strove to look witless that its legs were bare. While the black sofa, with its horse-hair pall. Gloomed like a bier for comfort's funeral. Two pictures graced the vsall in grimmest truth — Mister and Mistress W. in their youth, New England youth, that seemed a sort of pill. Half wished I dared, half " Edwards on the Will," Bitter to swallow, and which leaves a trace Of Calvinistic colic on the face. Between them o'er the mantel hung in state Solomon's temple, done in copperplate, Invention pure, but meet, we may presume To give some Scripture sanction to the room. Facing this last two samplers you might see. Each with its urn and stiffly weeping tree. Devoted to some memory long ago More faded than their lines of worsted woe. ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES. 47 Cut paper decked the frames against the flies, Though none e'er dared an entrance who were wise; And bushed asparagus, in fading green, Added its shiver to the FrankUn clean. When first arrived, I chilled a half hour there, Nor dared deflower with use a single chair. I caught no cold, yet flying pains could find For weeks in me — a rheumatism of mind. ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES. By Edmund Burke, Statesman, Orator. B. 1729, Ire- land; d. 1797, England. From speech on Moving Resolutions for Conciliation with the American Colonies, March 22, 1775. England's hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and ecjual protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government; they will cling and grapple to you ; and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it once be understood that your government may be one thing and their privileges another; that these two things may exist without any mutual relation — the cement is gone; the cohesion is loosened; and everything hastens to decay and dissolution. As 48 ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES. long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of Hberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our com- mon faith; wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces toward you. The more they multipl}', the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. But, until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of price, of which you have the monopoly. Deny them this partici- pation of freedom, and you break that sole bond which originally made, and must still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain so weak an imagination as that your registers and your bonds, your affidavits and your sufferances, are what form the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your letters of office, and your instruc- tions, and your suspending clauses, are the things that hold together the great contexture of the mys- terious whole. These things do not make your government. Dead instruments, pa.:sive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English constitution which, in- fused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every {xirt of the empire, even down to the minutest member. MONA'S WATERS. 49 Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here in England? Do you imagine, then, that it is the land tax act which raises your revenue? that it is the annual vote in the committee of supply which gives you your army? or that it is the nuitiny bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? No! surely no! It is the love of the people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, wdiich gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber. MONA'S WATERS. ANONYMOUS. Oh! Mona's waters are blue and bright When the sun shines out like a gay young lover; But Mona's waves are dark as night When the face of heaven is clouded over The wild wind drives the crested foam Far up the steep and rocky mountain, And booming echoes drown the voice, The silvery voice, of Mona's fountain. Wild, wild against that mountain's side The wrathful waves were up and beating, When stern Glenvarloch's chieftain came; With anxious brow and hurried greeting 5° MONA'S WATERS. He bade the widowed mother send (While loud the tempest's voice was raging) Her fair young son across the flood, Where winds and waves their strife were waging. And still that fearful mother prayed, " Oh! yet delay, delay till morning, For weak the hand that guides our bark, Though brave his heart, all danger scorning." Little did stern Glenvarloch heed: " The safety of my fortress tower Depends on tidings he must bring From Fairlee bank, within the hour. " See'st thou, across the sullen wave, A blood-red banner wildly streaming? That flag a message brings to me or which my foes are little dreaming. The boy must put his boat across (Gold shall repay his hour of danger). And bring me back with care and speed. Three letters from the light-browed stranger." The orphan boy leaped lightly in; Bold was his eye and brow of beauty, And bright his smile as thus he spoke: " I do but pay a vassal's duty; Fear not for me, O mother dear! See how the boat the tide is spurning; The storm will cease, the sky will clear, And thou wilt watch me safe returning." MONA'S WATERS. 5^ He reached the shore — the letters claimed; Triumphant heard the stranger's wonder That one so young should brave alone The heaving lake, the rolling thunder. And once again his snowy sail Was seen by her — that mourning mother; And once she heard his shouting voice — That voice the waves were soon to smother. Wild burst the wind, wide flapped the sail, A crashing peal of thunder followed; The gust swept o'er the water's face, And caverns in the deep lake hollowed. The gust swept past, the waves grew calm, The thunder died along the mountain; But where was he who used to play, On sunny days, by Mona's fountain? His cold corpse floated to the shore, Where knelt his lone and shrieking mother; And bitterly she wept for him, The widow's son, who had no brother! She raised his arm — the hand ■ as closed; With pain his stiffened fingers parted, And on the sand three letters dropped! His last dim thought — the faithful-hearted! Glenvarloch gazed, and on his brow Remorse with pain and grief seemed blending; A purse of gold he flung beside That mother, o'er her dead child bending. 52 MONA'S WATERS. Oh! wildly laughed that woman then. " Glenvarloch ! would ye dare to measure The holy life that God has given Against a heap of golden treasure? " Ye spurned my prayer, for we were poor; But know, proud man, that God hath power To smite the king on Scotland's throne, The chieftain in his fortress tower. Frown on! frown on! I fear ye not; We've done the last of chieftain's biddinsf. And cold he lies, for whose young sake I used to bear your wrathful chiding. " Will gold bring back his cheerful voice, That used to win my heart from sorrow? Will silver warm the frozen blood. Or make my heart less lone to-morrow? Go back and seek your mountain home. And when ye kiss your fair-haired daughter, Remember him who died to-night Beneath the waves of Mona's water." Old years rolled on, and new ones came — Foes dare not brave Glenvarloch's tower; But naught could bar the sickness out That stole within fair Annie's bower. The o'erblown flowerlet in the sun Sinks languid down, and withers daily, And so she sank — her voice grew faint, Ikr laugh no longer sounded gayly. Al^ OCTOBER MORNING. 53 Her step fell on the old oak floor As noiseless as the snow-shower's drifting; And from her sweet and serious eyes They seldom saw the dark lid lifting. " Bring aid! luring aid! " the father cries; " Bring aid! " each vassal's voice is crying; " The fair-haired beauty of the isles, Her pulse is faint — her life is flying ! " He called in vain ; her dim eyes turned And met his own with parting sorrow, For well she knew, that fading girl. That he must weep and wail the morrow. Her faint breath ceased ; the father bent And gazed upon his fair-haired daughter. What thought he on? Tlie widow's son, And the stormy night by Mona's water. AN OCTOBER MORNING. By Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Novelist. B. 1825, England. An extract from his most famous novel, " LornaDoone." I w.\s up the next morning before the October sunrise, and away through the wild and the wood- land toward the Bag\vorthy water, at the foot of the long cascade. The rising of the sun was noble in the cold and warmth of it; peeping down the spread of light, he raised his shoulder heavily over the edge of gray mountain and wavering length of 54 AN OCTOBER MORNING. Upland. Beneath his gaze the dew-fogs dipped and crept to the hollow places; then stole away in line and column, holding skirts, and clinging subtly at the sheltering corners, where rock hung over grass-land; while the brave lines of the hills came forth, one beyond other gliding. Then the woods arose in folds, like drapery of awakened mountains, stately with a depth of awe and memory of the tempests. Autumn's mellow hand was on them, as they owned already, touched with gold, and red, and olive; and their joy toward the sun was less to a bridegroom than a father. Yet before the floating impress of the woods could clear itself, suddenly the gladsome light leaped over hill and valley, casting amber, blue, and purple, and a tint of rich red rose, according to the scene they lit on, and the curtain flung around; yet all alike dispelling fear and the cloven hoof of darkness; all on the wings of hope advancing, and proclaiming, "God is here!" Then life and joy sprang reassured from every crouching hollow; every flower, and bud, and bird had a fluttering sense of them; and all the flashing of God's gaze merged into soft beneficence. The bar of rock, with the water-cleft breaking steeply tiirough it, stood bold and bare, and dark in shadow, gray with red gullies down it. But the sun was beginning to glisten over the comb of the eastern highland, and through an archway of the wood hung with old nests and ivy. Tlie lines of many a leaning tree ^\•crc thrown, from the cliffs LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE. 55 of the foreland, down upon the sparkling grass at the foot of the western crags. And through the dewy meadow's breast, fringed with shade, but touched on one side with the sun-smile, ran the crystal water, curving in its brightness like diverted hope. So perhaps shall break upon us that eternal morning, when crag and chasm shall be no more, neither hill and valley, nor great unvintaged ocean; when glory shall not scare happiness, neither hap- piness envy glory; but all thiftgs shall arise and shine in the light of the Father's countenance, be- cause itself is risen. LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE. By JAMES Whitcomb Riley, Poet. B. 1852, Indiana. Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay, An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away. An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep, An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep; An' all us other children, when the supper things is done, We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun 56 LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE A-list'nin' to the witch tales 'at Annie tells about, An' the gobble-uns 'at gits you Ef you Don't Watch Out! Onc't they was a httle boy wouldn't say his pray'rs — An' when he went to bed 'at night, away upstairs, His mammy heerc^him holler an' his daddy heerd him bawl, An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all! An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby- hole, an' press, An' seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an' ever' wheres, I guess. But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout ! An' the gobble-uns '11 git you Ef you Don't Watch Out! An' one time a little girl 'ud alius laugh an' grin, An' make fun of ever' one an' all her blood-an'-kin, An' onc't when they was " company," an' ole folks was there. She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care! LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIR. 57 An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide, They was two j^ireat big Black Things a-standin' by her side, An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'fore she know'd what she's about! An' the gobble-uns '11 git you Ef you Don't Watch Out! An' little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue, An' the lampwick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo ! An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray, An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away. You better mind your parents, an' yer teachers fond an' dear. An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear. An' help the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about, Er the gobble-uns '11 git you Ef you Don't Watch Out! 58 THE CARDINALS SOLILOQUY, THE CARDINAL'S SOLILOQUY. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Novelist, Statesman. B. 1805, England; d. 1873. Armand Jean Du Plessis, Cardinal, Due de Richelieu, was born at Paris, France, 1585, and died in 1642. He be- came the Minister of State under Louis XIII., and virtual ruler of France. From the drama, " Richelieu; or. The Conspiracy." Richelieu (reading). " In silence, and at night, the Conscience feels That life should soar to nobler ends than Power." So sayest thou, sage and sober moralist! But wert thou tried? Sublime Philosophy, Thou art the Patriarch's ladder, reaching heaven, And bright with beckoning angels — but, alas! We see thee, like the Patriarch, but in dreams. By the first :tep, dull-slumbering on the earth. When I am dust, my name shall, like a star. Shine through wan space, a glory, and a prophet Whereby pale seers shall from their aery towers Con all the ominous signs, benign or evil, That make the potent astrologue of kings. But shall tjie Future judge me by the ends That I have wrought, or by the dubious means Through which the stream of my renown hath run Into the many-voiced unfathom'd Time? • • • • • Yet arc my sins not those of Circumstance, That all-pervading atmosphere, wherein Our spirits, like the unsteady lizard, take THE CARDINALS SOLILOQUY. 59 The tints that color, and the food that nurtures? O! ye, whose hour-glass shifts its tranquil sands In the unvex'd silence of a student's cell; Ye, whose untcmpted hearts have never toss'd Upon the dark and stormy tides where life Gives battle to the elements, — and man Wrestles with man for some slight plank, whose weight Will bear but one, while round the desperate wretch The hungry billows roar, and the fierce Fate, Like some huge monster, dim-seen through the surf, W^aits him who drops; — ye safe and formal men, Wlio write the deeds, and with unfeverish hand Weigh in nice scales the motives of the Great, Ye cannot know what ye have never tried! History preserves only the fleshless bones Of what we are, and by the mocking skull The would-be wise pretend to guess the features. Without the roundness and the glow of life How hideous is the skeleton! Without The colorings and humanities that clothe Our errors, the anatomists of schools Can make our memory hideous. I have shed blood, but I have had no foes Save those the State had; if my wrath was deadly, 'Tis that I felt my country in my veins, And smote her sons as Brutus smote his own. And yet I am not happy: blanch'd and sear'd Before my time; breathing an air of hate. And seeing daggers in the eyes of men. 6o THE CARDINALS SOLILOQUY. And wasting powers that shake the thrones of earth In contest with the insects; bearding kings And brav'd by lackeys; murder at my bed; And lone amidst the multitudinous web, With the dread Three, that are the Fates who hold The woof and shears — the Monk, the Spy, the Headsman. • • ■ • • • Would fortune serve me if the Heaven were wroth? For chance makes half my greatness. I was born Beneath the aspect of a bright-eyed star, And my triumphant adamant of soul Is but the fix'd persuasion of success. Ah! — here! — that spasm! — again! How life and Death Do wrestle for me momently ! And yet The King looks pale. I shall outlive the King! And then, thou insolent Austrian — who didst gibe At the ungainly, gaunt, and daring lover, Sleeking thy locks to silken Buckingham, Thou shalt — no matter! I have outliv'd love. O beautiful, all golden, gentle youth! Making thy palace in the careless front And hopeful eye of man, ere yet the soul Hath lost the memories which (so Plato dream'd) Breath'd glory from the earlier star it dwelt in — Oh, for one gale from thine exulting morning, Stirring amidst the roses, where of old Love shook the dew-drops from his glancing hair! Could I recall the past, or had not set THE NATURE OF TRUE ELOQUENCE. t)I The prodig-al treasures of the bankrupt soul In one shght bark upon the shoreless sea; The yoked steer, after his day of toil, Forgets the goad, and rests; to nie alike Or day or night — Ambition has no rest! THE NATURE OF TRUE ELOQUENCE. By Daniel Wf.bster, Jurist, Statesman, Orator. B. 1782, New Hampshire ; lived in Massachusetts after 1804 and in Washington, D. C; d. 1852, Massachusetts. True eloquence does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshaled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected pas- sion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it-— they cannot reach it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the costlv ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then words have lost tluir power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in 62 AN ORDER FOR A PICTURE. the presence of higher qualities. Then patriotism is eloquent; then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the daunt- less spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward, to his object — this, this is eloquence; or, rather, it is something greater and higher than all eloquence: it is action, noble, sublime Godlike action. AN ORDER FOR A PICTURE. By Alice Gary, Poet. B. 1820, Ohio ; d. 1871, New York City. O, GOOD painter, tell me true, Has your hand the cunning to draw Shapes of things that you never saw? Ay? Well, here is an order for you. Woods and cornfields a little brown, — The picture must not be overbright, — Yet all in the golden and gracious light, Of a cloud when the summer sun is down. . . • • • Listen closer. When you have done With woods and cornfields and grazing herds, A lady, the loveliest ever the sun Looked down upon, you must paint for me; Oh, if I only could make you ree AN ORDER FOR A PICTURE. 63 The clear blue eyes, the tender smile, The sovereign sweetness, the gentle grace, The woman's soul and the angel's face That are beaming on me all the while! I need not speak these foolish words : Yet one word tells you all I would say, — She is my mother: you will agree That all the rest may be thrown away. Two little urchins at her knee You must paint, sir; one like me, — The other with a clearer brow, And the light of his adventurous eyes Flashing with boldest enterprise: At ten vears old he went to sea, — God knoweth if he be living now, — He sailed in the good ship Commodore, Nobody ever crossed her track To bring us news, and she never came back. Ah, 'tis twenty long years and more Since that old ship went out of the bay With my -great-hearted brother on her deck: I watched him till he shrank to a speck, And his face was toward me all the way. Bright his hair was, a golden brown. The time we stood at our mother's knee; That beauteous head, if it did go down, Carried sunshine into the sea! Out in the fields one summer night We were together, half afraid, 64 AN ORDER FOR A PICTURE. Of the corn-leaves' rustling, and of the shade Of the high hills, stretching so still and far, — Afraid to go home, sir; for one of us bore A nest full of speckled and thin-shelled eggs, — Tlie other a bird, held fast by the legs. Not so big as a straw of wheat; The berries we gave her she wouldn't eat, But cried and cried, till we held her bill, So slim and shining, to keep her still. At last we stood at our mother's knee. Do you think, sir, if you trv', You can paint the look of a lie? If you can, pray have the grace To put it solely in the face Of the urchin that is likest me; I think 'twas solely mine, indeed: But that's no matter, paint it so; The eyes of our mother — (take good heed) — Looking not on the nest full of eggs, Nor the fluttering bird, held so fast by the legs, But straight through our faces, down to our lies, And oh, with such injured, reproachful surprise, I felt my heart bleed where that glance went, as though A charp blade struck through it. You, sir, know, That you on the canvas are to repeat Things that are fairest, things most sweet, — LABOR. t)5 Woods and cornfields and mulberry tree, — The mother, the lads, with their birds, at her knee. But, oh, that look of reproachful woe! High as the heavens your name I'll shout. If you paint the picture, and leave that out. LABOR. By Thomas Carlyle, Philosopher, Historian, Essayist. B. 1795, Scotland ; d. 1881, England. There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacred- ness, in work. Were a man ever so benighted, or forg-etful of his high calling, there is always hope in him who actually and earnestly works; in idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Consider how, even in the meanest sorts of labor, the whole soul of a man is composed into real harmony. He bends himself with free valor against his task; and doubt, desire, sorrow, remorse, indignation, despair itself, shrink murmuring far ofif into their caves. The glow of labor in him is a purifying fire, where- in all poison is burnt up; and of smoke itself there is made a bright and blessed flame. Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness; he has a life purpose. Labor is life. From the heart of the worker rises the celestial force, breathed into him by Almighty God, awaken- ing him to all nobleness, to all knowledge. Hast 66 DAISY. thou valued patience, courage, openness to light, or readiness to own thy mistakes? In wrestling with the dim, brute powers of Fact, thou wilt continu- ally learn. For every noble work, the possibilities are diffused through immensity — undiscoverable, except to Faith. Man, son of heaven! is there not in thine inmost heart a spirit of active method, giving thee no rest till thou unfold it? Complain not. Look up, wearied brother. See thy fellow-workmen surviv- ing through eternity — the sacred band of im- mortals! DAISY. By Emily Warren. From Good Housekeeping. Could you have seen the violets That blossomed in her eyes, Could you have kissed that golden hair And drunk her baby sighs, You would have been her tiring maid As joyfully as I, Content to deck vour little queen, And let the world go by. Could you have seen those violets Hide in their graves of snow. Drawn all that gold along your hand, While she lay, smiling so, — WHAT IS A MINORITY? 67 O, you would tread this weary earth As heavily as I, Content to clasp her little grave, And let the world go by. WHAT IS A MINORITY? By J jhn Bartholomew Gough, Lecturer. B. 1817, Kent, England ; d. 1886, Pennsylvania. What is a minority? The chosen heroes of this earth have been in a minority. There is not a social, political, or religious privilege that you en- joy to-day that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient sufferings of the minority. It is the minority that have vindicated humanity in every struggle. It is a minority that have stood in the van of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world. You will find that each generation has always been busy in gathering up the scattered ashes of the martyred heroes of the past, to deposit them in the golden urn of a nation's history. Look at Scot- land, where they are erecting monuments — to whom? To the Covenanters. Ah! they were in a minority! Read their history, if you can, without the blood tingling to the tips of your fingers. These were the minority that, through blood and tears and hootings and scourgings — dyeing the w^aters with their blood, and staining the heather 68 CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN [ with their g^ore — fought the glorious battle of re- ligious freedom. Minority! If a man stand up for the right, though he eat, with the right and truth, a wretched crust; if he walk with obloquy and scorn in the by- lanes and streets, while falsehood and wrong parade in silken attire, let him remember that wherever the right and truth are, there are always " Troops of beautiful, tall angels " gathered round him; and God himself stands within the dim future and keeps watch over his own! If a man stands for the right and truth, though every man's finger be pointed at him, though every woman's lip be curled at him in scorn, he stands in a majority, for God and good angels are with him, and greater are they that are for him than all that be against him! O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! By Walt Whitman, Poet. B. 1819, New York ; d. 1892, New Jersey. The poem refers to Abraham Lincoln, who was assassi- nated April 14, 1865. O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; O CAPTAIN I MY CAPTAIN I 69 But O licart! heart! heart! O the bleeding' drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain Hes, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain ! my Captain ! rise up and hear the bells : Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills; For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths — for you the shores a-crowding; For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here, Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will. The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done. From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with ob- ject won: Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! • But I, with mournful tread. Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. 70 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN. HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN. B}' Chaunxey Mitchell Depew, Lawyer, Orator, Rail- road President. B. 1834. New York. From an address delivered at Troy, N. Y., May 17, 1895, at the unveiling of the statue of Mrs. Emma Hart Willard, who established the first permanent seminary in America for the advanced education of women. Every country and every period must be judged by its treatment of women. By this stand- ard the measure of praise for the past is very Hmited. The centuries and the countries where woman was a toy were distinguished for paganism and immoraHty; the centuries and the countries where woman was a slave or subordinate to men were characterized by ignorance and brutahty. It is the mother, with her culture, or with the lack of it, who makes the family and marks the state. It is a lamentable fact that it requires two thou- sand years from Calvary to enforce the truths there taught of equal opportunity for the sexes. It is less than one hundred years since higher education for women was possible. At the close of the eighteenth century Mrs. Barbauld, who was almost the only educated woman of her time, and educated only because her father was a school-teacher and needed her assistance, sang in her poetry that " Woman's sphere was to please." Her thought was an apology for her own education and a defer- ence to the prejudices of the period against a HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN. 7 1 woman of reading and culture. Abigail Adams, the brainiest and most widely read of the mothers of the Revolution, said in one of her letters that the only education deemed necessary for a woman at that time was that she should be able to read and write and know enough of arithmetic for domestic accounts. Sidney Smith, a quarter of a century afterward, in opening the battle in England for the education of woman, declared that the opinion in the highest circles of Great Britain was that her usefulness and her charms were in proportion to her possession of " nimble fingers and an empty head." That Mrs. Somerville should lead in the sciences of her day, and that Miss ITerschel should win equal fame with her famous brother in the field of astronomy, were regarded simply as extraordi- nary phenomena and fraught with equally extraor- dinary dangers. The whole literature, and the teachings of books, pamphlets, the press, and the pulpit of the early part of our century were that woman was physically and mentally unequal to a liberal education. Now we have Vassar and Smith, and Wellesley and liolyoke, and Wells and Radcliffe, and Barnard and other institutions, all of them doing magnificent work, and demonstrating the capacity of women for equal intellectual effort and development with men; presenting a corps of superb alumna?, who in every sphere of womanly activity have demonstrated the infinite superiority of the educated to the uneducated woman. 72 HIGHER EDUCATION- FOR WOMEN. We must especially recognize the debt which the women of the United States, and the men as deeply, owe to Emma Willard. She was an apostle, an evangel, of the higher education of woman; she had the courage to undertake and the genius to see the success of the effort. When there was naught but ridicule or denunciation for an enterprise which it was predicted would break up the family and destroy the fireside, she, with serene faith and un- faltering purpose, set out to educate the girls who should dignify, adorn, and elevate the home. She struggled for a quarter of a century before her efforts received recognitio'U and applause beyond the boundaries of her own alumnge. She stood with her seminary for a quarter of a century before the country was aroused to the importance of the movement, and the sentiment had materialized in these great seminaries of learning for women which are now the ornament and hope of our period. Her influence did not stop here. It crossed the ocean; it broke down the prejudices and the con- ditions of the most conservative of nations; it created Girton and Newnham colleges under the shadows of Oxford and Cambridge, and it earned for them and their students equal advan- tages in the curriculums of these historic seats of learning. The most interesting book which could be issued from our press would be one which detailed the re- sults of higher education for women in the last HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN. 73 quarter of a century. It has opened for them opportunities for a livelihood beyond the dreams of the past. It has emancipated them from the needle, with its conditions of slavery and of pauper- ism. It has given them numberless fields where brains and training receive their reward. Not only has the community been relieved from dan- gers, not only has the state been saved from bur- dens, not only has the world had its distress enormously alleviated, but industry and art and in- vention have been stimulated and quickened by woman's touch and genius. Journalism and litera- ture have been broadened and vivified by the efforts of the alumn?e of these great institutions. The American home has found in educated woman a more attractive wife and a mother who is also a teacher. The educated woman has arrived, and her coming has done as much for the beauty and the splendor and the loveliness of American civiliza- tion as the discovery of America by Columbus under the auspices of Queen Isabella did for the world. 74 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. By Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, Poet, Author, Editor of Harper's Young People. B. 1838, New York. A poem published in Harper's Round Table, February, 1897. 'Tis splendid to live so grandly That, long after you are gone, The things you did are remembered, And recounted under the sun; To live so bravely and purely That a nation stops on its way, And once a year, with banner and drum, Keeps its thought of your natal day. 'Tis splendid to have a record So white and free from stain That, held to the light, it shows no blot, Though tested and tried amain; That age to age forever Repeats its story of love, And your birthday lives in a nation's heart. All other days above. And this is Washington's glory, A steadfast soul and true, Who stood for his country's honor When his country's days were few. And now when its days are many. And its flag of stars is flung To the breeze in defiant challenge, His name is on every tongue. LITTLE BOY BLUE. Yes, it's splendid to live so bravely, To be so great and strong. That your memory is ever a tocsin 'o" rally the foes of the wrong; To live so proudly and purely. That your people pause in their way. And year by year, with banner and drum, Keep tl-iptVjr^ng-ht of Yf"^ "^^^^ ^^g. N LITTLE BOY BLUE. By EuGKNE Field, Poet, Humorist. B. 1850, St. Louis Mo.; d. 1895, Chicago, 111. The little toy dog is covered with dust. But sturdy and stanch he stands; And the little toy soldier is red with rust, And his musket molds in his hands. Time was when the little toy dog was new And the soldier was passing fair, And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue Kissed them and put them there. " Now, don't you go till I come," he said, " And don't you make any noise! " So toddling otf to his trundle-bed He dreamt of the pretty toys. And as he was dreaming, an angel song Awakened our Little Boy Blue, — Oh, the years are many, the years are long, But the little toy friends are true. 76 TENDENCIES OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand, Each in the same old place, Awaiting the touch of a little hand, The smile of a little face. And they wonder, as waiting these long years through, In the dust of that little chair, What has become of our little Boy Blue Since he kissed them and put them there. THE TENDENCIES OF SELF-GOVERN- MENT. By Lyman Abbott, Clergyman, Author. B. 1S35, Massa- chusetts ; Hves in Brooklyn, N. Y., and is pastor of Plym- outh Church. An extract from " The Place of the Individual in Ameri- can Society," an article contributed to " The United States of America," published in 1S94, by D. Appleton & Co. Since the final end of life is the development of character, government is to be tested, not by the temporal and immediate advantages which it may afford, but by its power to promote the develop- ment of true men and women. No government accomplishes this end so efifectivcly as democratic government. Since democratic government is self-government, it introduces every man into a school of experience — of all schools the one in which the training is most thorough and the prog- ress most rapid. The first appeal of democracy is to the self-esteem of a people who have thought TENDENCIES OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 77 but meanly of themselves, or not thou.f^ht at all. Its first effect is to throw the responsibility of life upon men who have not been prepared for that responsil)ility by any previous education. Its first results, therefore, often seem disadvantageous and even disastrous. It produces self-conceit, irrever- ence, disregard of the experience of the past as embodied in historical traditions, self-will and con- sequent lawlessness, and an eager and restless spirit of ambition. And since under self-government the nation is guided by men without experience, national history under a democracy is always liable to be marred by grave and even dangerous blun- ders. But these are the incidental evils which necessarily accompany the first stages in evolution from a state of pupilage, if not of serfdom, to a state of liberty and manhood. The beneficial re- sults of that education which self-government alone can afford are, on the contrary, both fundamental and enduring. This school awakens in its pupils faith, first in themselves, then in their fellow-men; that lethargy which is akin to despair is supplanted by a great hope which becomes the inspiration to great achievements. Responsibility sobers the judgment and steadies the will of the growing man; his blunders and their consequences teach him les- sons which, learned in the school of experience, he never forgets; and the faith and hope which have been aroused in hini bring faith in and hope for humanity, not merely for himself. A public opin- ion is thus created which is stronger than standing 78 PAUL REVERE' S RIDE. armies, and a spirit of mutual confidence and mutual good will is fostered, which, though not disinterested benevolence, and still less a substi- tute for it, te- ds to its development. Thus the gradual and increasing effect of democracy is to give to its pupils, in lieu of a faith in some unknown God, faith first in humanity and then in God, as wit- nessed in the life and experience of humanity; in lieu of a reverence for a few elect superiors, respect for all men ; in lieu of a lethargic counterfeit of con- tentment, a far-reaching and inspiring though sometimes too eager hopefulness ; and in lieu of an often servile submission to accidental masters, a spirit of sturdy independence and mutual fellow- ship. So does democracy, though by very gradual and often conflicting processes, produce the liberty of a universal brotherhood, and possess the secret of public peace, the promise of. public prosperity, the hope of social righteousness, and inspiration to illimitable progress. PAUL REVERE'S RIDE. By Hknry Wadsworth Longfkllow, Professor, Poet. B. 1807, Maine ; d. 1882, Massachusetts. Paul Revere, Patriot, was born in Boston in 1735 and died there in 181 8. Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in seventy-five: Hardly a man is now alive PAUL REVERE' S RIDE. 79 Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, — " If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang- a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North-Church tower, as a signal-light, — One, if by land, and two, if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country-folk to be up and to arm." Then he said, " Good-night! " and with muffled oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where, swinging wide at her moorings, lay The Somerset, British man-of-war: A phantom ship, with each mast and spar Across the moon, like a prison bar, And a huge black hulk that was magnified By its own reflection in the tide. Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street . Wanders and watches with eager ears. Till, in the silence around him, he hears The muster of men at the barrack door, The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, And the measured tread of the grenadiers Marching down to their boats on the shore. Then he climbed to the tower of the Old North church. Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, 8o PAUL REVERE' S RIDE. To the belfry chamber overhead, And startled the pigeons from their perch On the somber rafters, that round him made Masses and moving shapes of shade, — Up the trembling ladder, steep and tall, To the highest window in the wall, Where he paused to listen, and look down A moment on the roofs of the town. And the moonlight flowing over all. Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead In their night encampment on the hill, Wrapped in silence so deep and still That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, The watchful night-wind, as it went Creeping along from tent to tent. And seeming to whisper, " All is well! " A moment only he feels the spell Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely belfry and the dead ; For suddenly all his thoughts are bent On a shadowy something far away, Where the river widens to meet the bay, — A line of black, that bends and floats On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats. Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. Now he patted his horse's side, Now gazed at the landscape far and near, PAUL REVERE' S RIDE. 8 1 Then impetuous stamped the earth, And turned and tightened his saddle-girth; But mostly he watched with eager search The belfry tower of the old North Church, As it rose above the graves on the hill, Lonely and spectral and somber and still. And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height A glimmer, and then a gleam, of light! He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry burns ! A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet: That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light, The fate of a nation was riding that night; And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat. It was twelve by the village clock, When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. He heard the crowing of the cock. And the barking of the farmer's dog. And he felt the damp of the river-fog, That rises after the sun eroes down. t!5^ It was one by the village clock, When he galloped into Lexington. 82 PAUL REVERE' S RIDE. He saw the gilded weathercock Swim in the moonHght as he passed, And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, Gaze at him with a spectral glare. As if they already stood aghast At the bloody work they would look upon. It was two by the village clock. When he came to the bridge in Concord town. He heard the bleating of the flock, And the twitter of birds among the trees, And felt the breath of the morning breeze Blowing over the meadows brown. And one was safe and asleep in his bed Who at the bridge would be first to fall, Who that day would be lying dead. Pierced by a British musket-ball. , . . • • So through the night rode Paul Revere; And so through the night went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm, — A cry of defiance and not of fear, — A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo forever more! For. borne on the night-wind of the Past, Through all our history, to the last. In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, And tlic midnight message of Paul Revere. THE UNKNOWN SPEAKER. 83 THE UNKNOWN SPEAKER. ANONYMOUS. It is the Fourth day of July, 1776. In the old State House in the city of Philadelphia are gathered half a hundred men to strike from their limbs the shackles of British despotism. There is silence in the hall — every face is turned toward the door where the committee of three, who have been out all night penning a parchment, are soon to enter. The door opens, the committee ap- pears. That tall man with the sharp features, the bold brow, and the sand-hued hair, holding the parchment in his hand, is a Virginia farmer, Thomas Jefferson. That stout-built man with stern look and flashing eye, is a Boston man, one John Adams. And that calm-faced man with hair drooping in thick curls to his shoulders, that is the Philadelphia printer, Benjamin Franklin. The three advance to the table. The parchment is laid there. Shall it be signed or not? A fierce debate en- sues. Jefiferson speaks a few bold words. Adams pours out his whole soul. The deep-toned voice of Lee is heard, swelling in syllables of thundcrlike music. But still there is doubt, and one pale-faced man whispers something about axes, scaffolds, and a gibbet. "Gibbet?" echoes a fierce, bold voice through the hall. " Gibbet? They may stretch our necks 84 THE UNKNOWN SPEAKER. on all the gibbets in the land; they may turn every rock into a scaffold; every tree into a gallows; every home into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment there can never die! They may pour our blood on a thousand scaffolds, and yet h'om every drop that dyes the ax a new champion of free- dom will spring into birth. The British King may blot out the stars of God from the sky, but he can- not blot out His w^ords written on that parchment there. The works of God may perish. His words, never ! " The words of this declaration will live in the world long after our bones are dust. To the mechanic in his w'orkshop they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom ; but to the coward-kings, these words will speak in tones of warning they cannot choose but hear. "Sign that parchment! Sign, and not only for yourselves, but for all ages, for that parchment will be the text-book of freedom — the Bible of the rights of men forever. Nay, do not start and whis- per with surprise! It is truth, your own hearts witness it; God proclaims it. Look at this strange history of a band of exiles and outcasts, suddenly transformed into a people — a handful of men weak in arms — but mighty in God-like faith ; nay, look at your recent achievements, your Bunker Hill, your Lexington, and then tell me, if you can, that God has not given America to be free! " It is not given to our poor human intellect to climb to the skies, and to pierce the councils of the THE UNKXOIVN SPEAKER. 85 Almighty One. But methinks I stand among the awful clouds which veil the brightness of Jehovah's throne. " Methinks I see the recording angel come trem- bling up to that throne to speak his dread message. ' Father, the old world is baptized in blood. Father, look with one glance of thine eternal eye, and behold evermore that terrible sight, man trod- den beneath the oppressor's feet, nations lost in blood, murder and superstition walking hand in hand over the graves of their victims, and not a single voice to whisper hope to man ! ' " He stands there, the angel, trembling with the record of human guilt. But hark! The voice of Jehovah speaks out from the awful cloud: 'Let there be light again ! Tell my people, the poor and oppressed, to go out from the old world, from op- pression and blood, and build my altar in the new! ' " As I live, my friends, I believe that to be His voice! Yes, were my soul trembling on the verge of eternity, were this hand freezing in death, were this voice choking in the last struggle, I would still with the last im])ulse of that soul, with the last wave of that hand, with the last gasp of that voice, implore you to remember this truth — God has given America to be free! Yes, as I sank into the gloomy shadows of the grave, with my last faint whisper I would beg you to sign that parch- ment for the sake of the millions whose very breath is now hushed in intense expectation as they look up to you for the awful words, ' You are free ! ' " 86 GARETH. The unknown speaker fell exhausted in his seat; but the work was done. A wild murmur runs through the hall. " Sign! " There is no doubt now. Look how they rush for- ward! Stout-hearted John Hancock has scarcely- time to sign his bold name before the pen is grasped by another, another, and another. Look how the names blaze on the parchment! Adams and Lee, Jefiferson and Carroll, Franklin and Sher- man! And now the parchment is signed. Now, old man in the steeple, now bare your arm and let the bell speak! Hark to the music of that bell! Is there not a poetry in that sound, a poetry more sublime than that of Shakspere and Milton? Is there not a music in that sound that reminds you of those sublime tones which broke from angel lips when the news of the child Jesus burst on the hill- tops of Bethlehem? For the tones of that bell now come pealing, pealing, pealing, " Independence now and Independence forever! " GARETH. By Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet. B. 1809, England ; d. 1892. An extract from " Gareth and Lynette,"onc of the " Idylls of the King," published between 1858 and 1886. The last tall son of Lot and Bellicent, And tallest, Gareth, in a showerful spring Stared at the spate. A slender-shafted Pine Lost footing, fell, and so was whirl'd away. GARETH. 87 " How he went down," said Gareth, " as a false Knight Or evil king before my lance, if lance Were mine to use — O senseless cataract, Bearing- all down in thy precipitancy — And yet thou art but swollen with cold snows And mine is living blood: thou dost His will, The Maker's, and not knowest, and I that know, Have strength and wit, in my good mother's hall Linger with vacillating obedience, Prison'd, and kept and coax'd and whistled to — Since the good mother holds me still a child ! " And Gareth went, and hovering round her chair Ask'd, " Mother, tho' ye count me still a child, Sweet mother, do ye love the child? " She laugh'd, *' Thou art but a wild-goose to question it." " Then, mother, an ye love the child," he said, " Being a goose and rather tame than wild, Hear the child's story." " Yea, my well-beloved. An 'twere but of the goose and golden eggs." And Gareth answer'd her with kindling eyes, " Nay, nay, good mother, but this tgg of mine Was finer gold than any goose can lay; For this an Eagle, a royal Eagle, laid Almost beyond eye-reach, on such a palm As glitters gilded in thy Book of Hours. And there was ever haunting round the palm A lusty youth, but poor, who often saw The splendor sparkling from aloft, and thought 88 GARETH. ' An I could climb and lay my hand upon it, Then were I wealthier than a leash of kings/ But ever when he reach'd a hand to climb, One, that had loved him from his childhood, caught And stay'd him, ' Climb not, lest thou break thy neck, I charge thee by my love,' and so the boy, Sweet mother, neither clomb, nor brake his neck, But brake his very heart in pining for it, And past away." Then Bellicent bemoan'd herself and said, " Hast thou no pity upon my loneliness? Lo, where thy father Lot beside the hearth Lies like a log, and all but smolder'd out! Stay therefore thou ; " . . . Then Gareth, " An ye hold me yet for child. Hear yet once more the story of the child. For, mother, there was once a King, like ours. The prince his heir, when tall and marriageable, Ask'd for a bride; and thereupon the King Set two before him. One was fair, strong, arm'd — But to be won by force — and many men Desired her; one, good. lack! no man desired. And these were the conditions of the King: That save he won the first by force, he needs Must wed that other, whom no man desired, A red-faced bride who knew herself so vile. That evermore she long'd to hide herself. Nor fronted man or woman, eye to eye — ZENOBIA'S DEFENSE. 89 Yea — some she cleaved to, but they died of her. And one — they call'd her Fame; and one, O Mother, How can ye keep me tether'd to you — Shame! Man am I grown, a man's work must I do. Follow the deer? follow the Christ, the Kins^, Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King- Else, wdierefore born?" ZENOBIA'S DEFENSE. By Wn.LTAM Ware, Novelist, Critic. B. 1797, Massa- chusetts ; d. 1852, Massachusetts. I AM charged with pride and ambition. The charge is true, and I glory in its truth. Who ever achieved anything great in letters, art, or arms, who was not ambitious? Caesar was not more ambi- tious than Cicero. It was but in another way. All greatness is born of ambition. Let the ambition be a noble one, and who shall blame it? I confess I did once aspire to be queen, not only of Palmyra, but of the East. That I am. I now aspire to re- main so. Is it not an honorable ambition? Does it not become a descendant of the Ptolemies and of Cleopatra? I am applauded bv you all for what I have already done. You would not it should have been less. But why pause here? Is so much ambition praiseworthy, and more criminal? Is it fixed in 9© ZENOBIA'S DEFENSE. nature that the hmits of this empire should be Egypt on the one hand, the Hellespont and the Euxine on the other? Were not Suez and Ar- menia more natural limits? Or hath empire no natural limits, but is as broad as the genius that can devise, and the power that can win? Rome has the West. Let Palmyra possess the East. Not that nature prescribes this and no more. The gods prospering, I mean that the Mediterranean shall not hem me in upon the west, or Persia on the east. Longinus is right, I would that the zvorld were mine. I feel within the will and the power to bless it, were it so. Are not my people happy? I look upon the past and the present, upon my nearer and remoter sub- jects, and ask, nor fear the answer, Whom have I wronged? What province have I oppressed; what city pillaged; what region drained with taxes? Whose life have I unjustly taken, or whose estates have I coveted or robbed? Whose honor have I wantonly assailed? Whose rights, though of the weakest and poorest, have I violated? I dwell, where I would ever dwell, in the hearts of my people. It is written in your faces, that I reign not more over you than within you. Tlie foundation of my throne is not more power than love. . . This is no vain boasting; receive it not so, good friends. It is but the truth. He who traduces himself sins in the same way as he who traduces another. He who is unjust to himself, or less than just, breaks a law, as well as he who hurts his CONSIDER. 91 neighbor. I tell you what I am, and what I have done, that your trust for the future may not rest on ignorant grounds. If I am more than just to myself, rebuke me. If I have overstepped the modesty that became me, I am open to your cen- sure, and I will bear it. But I have spoken that you may know your queen, not only by her acts, but by her admitted principles. I tell you then that I am ambitious, that I crave dominion, and while I live I zi^'ill reign. Sprung from a line of kings, a throne is my natural seat. I love it. But I strive too, you can bear me witness that I do, that it shall be, while I sit upon it, an honored and unpolluted seat. If I can, I will hang a yet brighter glory around it. CONSIDER. By Christina Georgina Rossetti, Poet. B. 1830, Lon don ; d. 1894. Consider The lilies of the field, whose bloom is brief — We are as they; Like them we fade away, As doth a leaf. Consider The sparrows of the air, of small account: Our God doth view Whether they fall or mount — He guards us too. 92 THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST. Consider The lilies, that do neither spin nor toil, Yet are most fair — What profits all this care, And all this coil? Consider The birds, that have no barn nor han'est-weeks; God gives them food — Much more our Father seeks To do us good. THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST. By RuDYARD Kipling, Poet, Author. B. 1864, Bombay ; resides in England. Copyright by Macmillan & Co. Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth! Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border sid^e, And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride: He has lifted her out of the stable-door between the dawn and the day, THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST. 93 And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away. Then up and spoke the Colonel's son that led a troop of the Guides: " Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides? " Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar, " If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are. At dusk he harries the Abazai — at dawn he is into Bonair, But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare, So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly, By the favor of God ye may cut him ofif ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai, But if he be passed the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye then, For the length and the breadth of that grisly plain is sown with Kamal's men. There is rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between. And ye may hear a breech-bolt snick where never a man is seen." The Colonel's son has taken a horse, and a raw lough dun was he. . . The Colonel's son to the Fort has won, they bid him stay to eat — 94 THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST. Who rides at the tail of a Border thief, he sits not long at his meat. He's up and away from Fort Bukloh as fast as he can fly, Till he was aware of his father's mare in the gut of the Tongue of Jagai, Till he was aware of his father's mare with Kamal upon her back, And when he could spy the white of her eye, he made the pistol crack. He has fired once, he has fired twice, but the whis- tling ball went wide. "Ye shoot like a soldier!" Kamal said. "Show now if ye can ride." The dun he leaned against the bit and slugged his head above. But the red mare played with the snaffie-bars, as a maiden plays with a glove. There was rock to the left and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between. And thrice he heard a breech-bolt snick tho' never a man was seen. They have ridden the low moon out of the sky, their hoofs drum up the dawn. The dun he went like a wounded bull, but the mare like a new-roused fawn. The dun he fell at a water-course — in a woeful heap fell he, And Kamal has turned the red mare back, and pulled the rider free. THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST. 95 He has knocked the pistol out of his hand — small room was there to strive — " 'Twas only by favor of mine," quoth he, " ye rode so long alive: There was not a rock for twenty mile, there was not a clump of tree, But covered a man of my own with his rifle cocked on his knee. If I had raised my bridle-hand as I have held it low, The little jackals, that flee so fast, were feasting all in a row." Lightly answered the Colonel's son: — " Do good to bird and beast. But count who come for the broken meats before thou makest a feast. If there should follow a thousand swords to carry my bones away, Belike the rice of a jackal's meal were more than a thief could pay. They will feed their horse on the standing crop, their men on the garnered grain. The thatch of the byres will serve their fires when all the cattle are slain. But if thou thinkest the price be fair, — thy brethren wait to sup, The hound is kin to the jackal-spawn, — howl, dog, and call them up! And if thoii thinkest the price be high, in steer and gear and stack, Give me my father's mare again, and I'll fight my own wa"^ back! " 96 THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST. Kamal has gripped him by the hand and set him upon his feet. " No talk shall be of dogs," said he, " when wolf and gray wolf meet." Lightly answered the Colonel's son : " I hold by the blood of my clan: Take up the mare for my father's gift — by Heaven. she has carried a man ! " The red mare ran to the Colonel's son, and muzzled against his breast, " We be two strong men," said Kamal then, " but she loveth the younger best. So she shall go with a lifter's dower, my turquoise- studded rein. My broidered saddle and saddle-cloth, and silver stirrups twain." The Colonel's son a pistol drew and held it muzzle- end; " Ye have taken the one from a foe," said he; " will ye take the mate from a friend? " "A gift for a gift," said Kamal straight; "a limb for the risk of a limb. Thy father has sent his son to me, I'll send my son to him!" With that he whistled his only spn, that dropped from a mountain-crest — He trod the ling like a buck in spring, and he looked like a lance in rest. " Now here is thy master," Kamal said, " who leads a troop of the Guides, MO USE-HUNTING. 9 7 And thou must ricle at his left side as shield on shoulder rides. Till death or I cut loose the tie, at camp and board and bed, Thy life is his — thy fate it is to guard him with thy head. So thou must eat the White Queen's meat, and all her foes are thine. And thou must harry thy father's hold for the peace of the Border-line, And thou must make a trooper tough and hack thy way to power — Belike they will raise thee to Ressaldar when I am hanged in Peshawur." MOUSE-HUNTING. By Mary Abigail Dodge ("Gail Hamilton "), Author. B. 1830, Massachusetts; d. 1S96. Here we stop for the night. You are shown into a room that has not been opened since its occu- pant left it, and is unsavory and untidy to the last degree. An appeal to the gentlemanly clerk secures a chancre for the better; but there is a hole bv the fireplace in Number Two that looks suspicious. You cross-examine the porter, who assures you that it has no significance whatever. A mouse in that room is an event of which history gives no record. Nevertheless, you take the precaution to stufY the hole with an old newspaper, and are awak- 98 MOUSE-HUNTING. ened at midnight by the dreadful rustling- of paper. A dreadful gnawing succeeds the dreadful rustling, and away goes a boot in the direction of the sound. There is a pause broken only by heart-throbs! Then another gnawing, followed by a boot till the supply is exhausted. Then you begin on the pillows. A longer pause gives rise to the hope that order is about to reign in Warsaw, and you are just falling asleep again, when a smart scratching close to your ear shoots you to the other side of the room, w'ith the conviction that the mouse is run- ning up the folds of the curtain at the bead of your bed. In a frenzy you ring violently, and ask through the door for a chambermaid. " Can't have no chambermaid this time o' night," drawls the porter sleepily. " Then send up a mouse-trap." " Aint no mouse-trap in the house." " Then bring a cat ! " " Dunno nothin' about it," and he scufifs his slip- pered feet down the long gallery, growling audibly, poor fellow, half suspecting evidently that he is the victim of a joke; but alas! it is no joke. You mount sentry on the foot of the bed, facing the enemy. He emerges from the curtain, runs up and down the slats of the blind in innocent glee, flaunts across the window-seat, flashing every now and then into obscurity; and this is the worst of all. When you see him he is in one place, but when you do not sec him he is everywhere. You hold fast your umbrella, and from time to time make vigor- BRIER-ROSE. 99 ous raps on the floor to keep him out of your imme- diate vicinity, and so the night wears wearily away. Your refreshing sleep turns into a campaign against a mouse, for which agreeable entertainment you pay in the morning three dollars and a half; and the gentlemanly clerk, with a pitying smile, informs you, " Oh, we cannot help that! There are mice all over the house ! " BRIER-ROSE. By HjALMAR HjORTH BoYESEN, Novclist', Tcacher. B. 1848, Norway ; d. 1895, New York. Said Brier-Rose's mother to the naughty Brier- Rose : " What zi'ill become of you, my child, there is no- body knows. You will not scrub the kettles, and you will not touch the broom; You never sit a minute still at spinning-w'heel or loom." Thus grumbled in the morning, and grumbled late at eve. The goodwife, as she bustled with pot, and tray, and sieve; But Brier-Rose, she laughed and she cocked her dainty head: " Why, I shall marry, mother dear," full merrily she said. L^' lOO BRIER-ROSE. " You marry, saucy Brier-Rose! The man, he is not found To marry such a worthless maid, these seven leagues around." But Brier-Rose, she laughed, and she trilled a merry lay: " Perhaps he'll come, my mother dear, from seven- tccn leagues away ! " The goodwife, with a " humph ! " and a sigh, for- sook the battling, But threw her pots and pails about with much vin- dictive rattling. " Alas ! what sin did I commit in youthful days and wild, That I am punished in my age with such a way- ward child?" Up stole the girl on tiptoe, so that none her step could hear, And, laughing, pressed an airy kiss behind the goodwife's ear. And she, as e'er relenting, sighed: "Oh, Heaven only knows \\niatcver will become of you, my naughty Brier- Rose." Whene'er a thrifty matron this idle maid espied, She shook her head in warning, and scarce her wrath could hide; A y. BKIER-ROSE. loi For girls were made for housewives, for spinning- wheel and loom, And not to drink the sunsliine and w'ild-flower's perfume. Thus flew the years light-winged over Brier-Rose's head, Till she w^as twenty summers old, and yet remained unwed. And all the parish wondered: " If anybody knows, Whatever will become of that naughty Brier- Rose?" And while they wondered came the Spring a-danc- ing o'er the hills; Her breath was warmer than of yore, and all the mountain rills With their tinkling, and their rippling, and their rushing filled the air, \^'ith the misty sounds of water forth-welling every- where. It was a merry sight to see the lumber as it whirled Adown the tawny eddies, that hissed, and seethed, and swirled; Now shooting through the rapids, and, with a reel- ing swing, Into the foam-crests diving like an animated thing. But in the narrows of the rocks, where o'er a steep incline The waters plunged, and wreathed in foam the dark boughs of the pine, I02 BRIER-ROSE. The lads kept watch with shout and song, and sent each straggHng beam A-spinning down the rapids, lest it should lock the stream, • • • • • And yet — methinks I hear it now — wild voices in the night, A rush of feet, a dog's harsh bark, a torch's flaring light, And wandering gusts of dampness, and round us far and nigh, A throbbing boom of water like a pulse-beat in the sky. The dawn just pierced the pallid east with spears of gold and red. As we, with boat-hooks \\\ our hands, toward the narrows sped. And terror smote us: for we heard the mighty tree-tops sway, And thunder, as of chariots, and hissing showers of spray. " Now, lads," the sheriff shouted, " you are strong, like Norway's rock; A hundred crowns I give to him who breaks the lumber-lock! For if another hour go by, the angry waters' spoil Our homes will be, and fields, and our weary years of toil." BRIER-ROSE. 103 We looked each at the other ; each hoped his neigh- bor would Brave death and danger for his home, as valiant Norsemen should. But at our feet the brawling tide expanded like a lake, And whirling beams came shooting on, and made the firm rock quake. "Two hundred crowns!" the sheriff cried, and breathless stood the crowd. "Two hundred crowns, my bonny lads!" in anx- ious tones and loud. But not a man came forward, and no one spoke or stirred. And nothing save the thunder of the cataract was heard. But as with trembling hands, and with fainting hearts we stood, We spied a little curly head emerging from the wood. We heard a little snatch of a merry little song. And saw the dainty Brier-Rose come dancing through the throng. An angry murmur rose from the people round about. " Fling her into the river! " w-e heard the matrons shout; I04 BRIER-ROSE. " Chase her awav, the sillv thing:; foT-HS ' & C' a«& e knows Why ever He created that worthless Brier-Rose." Sw^eet Brier-Rose, she heard their cries; a little pensive smile Across her fair face flitted that might a stone be- guile; And then she gave her pretty head a roguish little cock: " Hand me a boat-hook, lads," she said; " I think I'll break the lock." Derisive shouts of laughter broke from throats of young and old: " Ho! good-for-nothing Brier-Rose, your tongue was ever bold." And, mockingly, a boat-hook into her hand was flung. When, lo! into the river's midst, with daring leaps, she sprung! We saw her dimly through a mist of dense and blinding spray; From beam to beam she skipped, like a water- sprite at play. And now and thci/lfaint gleams we caught of color through the mist — A crimson waist, a golden head, a little, dainty wrist. BRIER-ROSE. 105 In terror pressed the people to the margin of the hill, A hundred breaths were bated, a hundred hearts stood still. For, hark! from out the rapids came a strange and creaking sound. And then a crash of thunder, which shook the very ground. The waters hurled the lumber mass down o'er the rocky steep. We heard a muftled rumbling and a rolling in the deep ; We saw a tiny form which the torrents swiftly bore And flung into the wild abyss, where it was seen no more. Ah, little naughty Brier-Rose, thou couldst not weave or spin; Yet thou couldst do a nobler deed than all thy mocking kin; For thou hadst courage e'en to die, and by thy deatMto save A thousancT farms and lives from the fury of ^he wave. io6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Melancthon Woolsey Stryker, Orator, President of Hamilton College. B. 1851, New York; resides at Clin- ton, N. Y. Delivered in New York City at a banquet of the Repub- lican Club, February 12, 1897. Thanks, under God, to him whose sing'ular greatness is the token of all these greetings, we have a Republic, undivided and indivisible. Upon this radiant and solemn anniversary you are assembled to relight the torch of the wide-awake and the flambeau of mourning, gazing through all, upon yonder untorn emblem, the guerdon when freedom was re-born and the guidon of our for- ward marching. Beautiful flag! Dearer for his true sake who loved and maintained it! Having beamed over broken manacles may it never blush over broken promises! From fort and fleet, from school and capitol and home, let it float unsullied — the morning bloom of freedom and equal justice to all who hope because they remember. And if by foes without, or direr foes within, its true meaning shall ever be menaced, may it be protected and lifted higher yet by hands that shall take heart of grace in recalling him — knight of the ax and mas- ter of the pen, who held party as his instrument, politics as his opportunity, patriotism his motive, and the people's ultimate truth his goal. What a personality, and what a story! How exhaustlessly fascinating its pathos! At first, as ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 07 we think of his heredity and environment, we won- der how such a man could have issued from such circumstances, but reflecting, we discern that those antecedents were not accidental, but providential, and that the God who intended the result furnished the disciplines. God was the tutor of this great comrhoner, and his career is a standing rebuke of dilettante idleness, and freezes the sneer upon the thin lips of caste. He inherited his father's frame and his mother's heart as his sole fortune. They were enough : they gave him that courage and that sympathy which were the outfit of a peerless man- hoo