CHAPTER XII.

“Shall not that Western Goth of whom we spoke,So fiercely practical, so keen of eye,Find out some day, that nothing pays but God?”(Cathedral.)Lowell.(Extract from the “Chicago Inter-Ocean.”)

“Shall not that Western Goth of whom we spoke,So fiercely practical, so keen of eye,Find out some day, that nothing pays but God?”(Cathedral.)Lowell.

“Shall not that Western Goth of whom we spoke,

So fiercely practical, so keen of eye,

Find out some day, that nothing pays but God?”

(Cathedral.)Lowell.

(Extract from the “Chicago Inter-Ocean.”)

GOOD CITIZENSHIP! HOW A BOSTON BEAUTY PROPOSES TO BRING IT ABOUT! ANTIDOTE FOR ANARCHISM!

In the arrival in our city last week of the rich Miss Brewster of Boston, society has naturally felt a warm interest. First, because she is young and charming; secondly, because she is reputed fabulously wealthy; and thirdly, because she adds to these attractions a decided mind of her own, which has fortunately turned itself in the direction of alleviating some of the woes of human-kind.

But the pertinacious reticence maintained by herself and the ladies and gentlemen who are her traveling companions, and are understood to been routefor Alaska, has given our reporter more than one fruitless trip to the Grand Pacific Hotel. It is currently rumored that more than one

EUROPEAN CORONET

has been laid at the feet of the bonny belle fromBeacon Hill, but, like the sensible little Puritan maiden that she is, she prefers to keep the reins in her own hands a little longer, and her millions will not at present pass to any of the bloated aristocracy of an effete despotism of the Old World.

It was ascertained yesterday from the waiters that the great parlors of the hotel had been engaged by Miss Brewster for a large reception to some of our most eminent citizens, chiefly in the clerical walks of life. So a reporter in a ministerial rig presented himself, was admitted, and taking refuge in a camp-chair at the rear of perhaps two hundred and fifty ladies and gentlemen, had a fair opportunity to report proceedings.

He soon discovered that the reception was nothing more than a business meeting convened for the purpose of listening to some address or discussion, the guests being seated facing a slightly raised platform.

The assemblage seemed to be chiefly composed of gentlemen, and every profession and sect was represented by some of its most eminent members.

At precisely eight o’clock Miss Brewster, conducted by Rev. Dr. T——, entered at a side door. They proceeded to the platform and took seats in two velvet armchairs which were placed in readiness.

Miss Brewster was simply dressed in white, with a corsage bouquet of yellow roses and a yellow rose in her dark hair.

As Dr. T—— rose to speak, the chatter ceased, and he said:

“Ladies and Gentlemen:

“Each one of you present has received a note of invitation requesting your presence here this evening for the consideration of a plan which shall be of benefit to our city. This plan, as it will be unfolded to you

BY ITS ORIGINATOR,

will, I think, command your heartiest sympathy and coöperation. I consider it a peculiar privilege to present to you this evening one whose noble father was my valued friend, and who in her earliest years was well known to me; and now that she returns to what was for a few months the home of her childhood, it is with great pleasure that at her request I have summoned here to-night so many representatives of the thought and the moral force of this great city to listen to what she has to propose, and in return to give her the benefit of their united wisdom.

“I have the honor to present to you Miss Mildred Brewster of Boston.”

Every eye was fixed in admiration on the slender, girlish form that had something queenly in its bearing, and there was a rustle of expectancy as Dr. T—— ceased and Miss Brewster rose to speak.

There was a slight tremor in her voice as with deepening color and drooping eyes she uttered her first words.

“Good friends,” she said, “I have asked you here to-night for a specific purpose.

“In the providence of God there has been placed in my hands within the last few months the means to do much that for years I have felt ought to be done, but have been powerless to do. And fearing lest my stewardship be short, and I be called to give account and return with empty hands and no fruit garnered, I have dared not delay, no, not for a day, except to more seriously and wisely prepare for my task.”

Miss Brewster gained courage as she proceeded, and in a clear, unshaken voice continued:

“In all lands on which the sun ever shone, probably there was never a time when money wisely expended could set in play so many and such powerful forces for good as it can do now and here. For here, in this western land of unlimited possibilities, is the young giant born whose savage strength may prove our nation’s weakness if we leave his infant years to the guidance of his own wayward will.

“Here, then, is the sorest present need in our land to-day, for here in our hands lies the power to mould the influences which shall shape the destiny of millions yet unborn. One hundred dollars now may prevent the evil which, a century hence, one hundred thousand dollars could not undo.

“As I have driven about your magnificent boulevards and marked your towers and palaces, I have been impressed even more than I expected to be, and my expectations were great, with your wealth, and its solid, satisfactory embodiment in enduringarchitecture and fine parks and streets. But not only has your material advancement amazed me. I have been most profoundly impressed with the seriousness of mind and the depth of patriotic feeling that was shown in your notable celebration of the centennial of the beginning of our constitutional government.

“Historic old Boston, that of all other cities should have appreciated the significance of the occasion, gave hardly a thought to the day. New York gave herself to ostentatious pageantry and a glorification of Washington alone; but in this new city of the West, unlinked by historic ties with the past, have I found in press and people a deeper sentiment and

A MORE THOUGHTFUL READING

of the lessons of the century.

“I have been studying this wonderful city of yours that buys more of Browning’s poems than any other city in the world, and is fast drawing to itself not only the wealth and fashion of the land, but that culture of which our older cities have fancied themselves the almost exclusive possessors.

“I have been looking at your schools, your churches, your philanthropies, and, above all, at your poor, and that class from which your

ANARCHISTS AND CRIMINALS

are recruited.

“I have found, as I need not say, much to admireand much to deplore. And it is to consider those tendencies which I deplore that I ask your attention this evening.

“Of all the dangers that threaten us as a nation, I find but two unrepresented in this city, namely, Mormonism, and the amalgamation of the white and other races. But against intemperance, licentiousness, political corruption, and all the evils incident to a vast foreign population, this city, with its numbers increasing by gigantic strides, presents a field for work scarcely exampled on the continent. Not that Chicago is a sinner above all other cities. In some respects, notably its comparative freedom from the close crowding in tenement houses which exists in New York, it is fortunate.

“But, so far as I can learn, not another great city on the continent contains so large a proportion of people of

FOREIGN PARENTAGE.

In driving through your beautiful avenues one can scarcely credit the statement that only nine per cent. of your people are of strictly native parentage; but in going through that section on the North side where your Poles and Bohemians live—in seeing the Irish, Swedes, Germans, and more recently the Italians, who are flocking to your city, one is made to realize this in a measure. It is to this point that I chiefly wish to call your attention.

“This city is growing prodigiously; it is destined to grow. More and more, as means of communication and transportation are increased, as you wellknow, are the people of this age flocking to the cities. One hundred years ago one in thirty lived in a city; now one in four is the number which the census gives us. Especially is it true that foreigners prefer city life. In far greater numbers proportionately to the native population do they congregate in the centre of wealth, influence, and political power, and often for the purpose of obtaining that political power which through the negligence and indifference of our better class of men is readily yielded to their demands.

“Now that the municipal government in our great cities is largely in the hands of the foreign-born, for which we have only ourselves to thank, we are beginning to awaken to the fact, and the indignant cry ‘America for Americans’ is heard. With this I cannot wholly sympathize. We have opened our doors to the world, we have invited to our highest municipal offices whoever could buy them, we have been eager to get rich, we have had no time or interest in anything beyond satisfying our imperious appetite for wealth and luxury and social position.

“We have put behind us simplicity and calmness, the plain living and high thinking which engendered all that we count best in our history, and now we cry with ever-increasing wail, ‘Let us eat our cake and have it.’ ‘Let us spend our whole life in selfish indifference to the public weal; let us turn over our most sacred trusts into the hands of ignorance and incompetence, and then let us reapwhat we have not sowed and garner where we have not planted.’

“No, not America for the Americans, if it be such Americans! Rather let those who have been willing slaves

FEEL THE WHIP AND THE SHACKLES

until they learn that justice and peace and righteousness within our borders are not to be, except as the fruit of their love, their labor, and their eternal vigilance. [Applause.]

“No, not America for Americans, but America for American ideas and institutions! And welcome be he, whether of our own land or any other, who, seeing what God has destined this fair land to be as leader of the nations, seeing it as its early Founders saw it, shall give heart and brain and hand to purifying and redeeming it, lest indeed it be the land of ‘Broken Promise.’

“I have nothing to say against foreigners as foreigners, but I look into our criminal reports and find by a careful search that the proportion of criminals to the foreign population is just about twice that to the native. I learn that among our foreigners we find about two thirds of our brewers, distillers, and liquor-sellers, and among these varied nationalities, who have sustained the breaking up of old ties and transplanting to utterly new conditions, a far greater tendency to insanity than among the native stock. I see that the causes which tend to immigration will in all probabilitycontinue, and the influx into our great cities, especially your own favorably situated one, advance indefinitely. Therefore, it has seemed to me that of all places in this land Chicago was the best one in which to begin a concerted action for the Americanization of its foreigners and for promoting the

GOOD CITIZENSHIP

of all its citizens whether native or foreign. It seems to me we must do this in self-preservation.

“In Boston, as you know, where we have had to learn some sad lessons from our careless indifference in regard to municipal matters, we have begun to arouse ourselves and have established a Society for Promoting Good Citizenship whose object is to further in all thinking people, mothers, voters, teachers, and students, a higher ideal of citizenship and an active, unpartisan effort for its realization.

“This work is done in various ways: by free lectures given by prominent citizens, by suggestions for study in schools and colleges, and by the encouragement of a deeper interest in the community in the study of history, civil government, and political economy. The society is yet in its infancy, and has thus far produced little perceptible effect; but, in addition to the well-known Old South work in history, it shows a step in the right direction.

“Long before it was started it had been

MY DREAM

to see something of a similar tendency establishedin every large city in our land, and it is because I wish to suggest to you certain measures which have in view the attainment of good citizenship in your midst that I am here to-night.

“A Chicago gentleman recently said to me, ‘The fact is, we get careless here. We are so busy about our own private affairs that we let our voting go by for a year or two, till finally about once in seven years things get so bad we can’t stand it, and then we all get mad and roll up our sleeves and go in and have a general clearing out. After that, things work well for a year or two, and then are as bad as ever.’

“I understand that at present you have a fairly good city government, that your leading officials for the most part are not corrupt. But even if this were sure of lasting, of what a thing to boast!

“In the minds of too many I find the idea seems to prevail that so long as taxation is not raised, and there is a police force competent to quell turbulent strikers, and no infamous scandal at the City Hall, so long there is nothing else to be done in the line of good citizenship than to cast one’s vote, pay one’s taxes, and keep one’s sidewalk clean.

“Now I hold that such a conception of the duties of citizenship is unworthy a Christian and a patriot, and it is as Christians and patriots that I am addressing you.

“I am not here to remind you of the unequaled folly and expense of bad government, and to point out to you the material benefits accruing to a citywhere there is a pure and economical city government and an incorruptible court.

“I am not here to speak to you on the ground of mere utility and expediency, though with a different audience such arguments might hold the first place. But I speak to you as scholars, as men and women of insight who need not to be reminded that the state, as one of the three great human institutions by which civilized man has differentiated himself from the savage, has higher functions than those which appeal most forcibly to the ordinary man and woman of to-day.

“We live in a

MATERIALISTIC ATMOSPHERE,

where the things of the senses allure far more than the things of thought, where a man of ideals is laughed at by the majority as an unpractical theorist, and shrewdness is esteemed the highest virtue.

“I have been looking over your school reports and have been noting the disproportionate number of girls who are graduated.

“Your boys and young men are impatient for business. Even those in well-to-do families leave school very early. I find thatninety-two per cent. of your children leave school before they ever study any text-book of history, and that seventy-five per cent. leave before they reach the grade where a little historic information is given through the aid of biographical sketches and stories.

“Think of it! Seventy-five per cent., the majorityof them our future voters, who have never so much as heard of the Pilgrim Fathers or the war of the Revolution, and who have far too feeble an educational equipment to lead to much further study!

“But even of those who have some smattering of history we find thousands appearing at the polls every year, having heard a little of the cant and the bluster of partisan politics, and having nothing more to fit them for their duties as citizens in a land whose national and state and city governments they have never studied.

“Moreover, they have the wildest notions in regard to those great questions of labor, wages, and reform which are agitating our country. Such are the men who hold the ignoble conviction that every man is selfish at heart, that to the victors belong the spoils, and that desire for office is inevitably ambition for personal gain.

“You have learned in the past somewhat of the cost to this city and state of the presence of anarchists within your midst. But what are you doing to make good citizens of the thousands of men, women, and children who are said to be enrolled in anarchist Sunday-schools here in this city?

“What is being done to prevent the children of the mob that tears up your horse-car tracks when you have a strike from following ten years hence their fathers’ example?

“But I am not speaking merely of rumsellers or anarchists, or of ignorant foreigners or men who sell their votes. I am speaking of the banker’s sons as well as the blacksmith’s.

“There is among many of the hard-headed young business men of our time whom I have met a

TERRIBLE SKEPTICISM.

They are skeptical of humanity, of virtue. There is a belief that every man has his price, that politics is a machine, to be run for the benefit of those who have it in charge. There is, even among honorable men, a tendency to joke at public scandals, to sneer at Sunday-school politics and womanish ideals.

“Now, to me, this hard and cold skepticism betokens a rottenness and a corruption in the body politic scarcely less terrible to contemplate than the open, high-handed peculation which occasionally startles the community and forms a nine days’ wonder.

“For, as I need not say, a sick man is as sure to die from blood-poisoning as from an open cancer. The latter may shock us more, but the former is just as deadly. And the danger to this great city to-day is not so much from the dynamite of the anarchist as from the indifference and inactivity of the men and women who have your brains, your wealth, your culture, and many of them your nominal Christianity.

“Pardon me if I seem to be addressing you, my elders and betters, as if I were presuming to tell you anything new or anything which you could not state quite as forcibly as I may do.

“It is not that I have anything new to say that Iventure to speak thus, but that I may clearly state my own position and grounds for action in the matter which I shall soon present to you.

“You have observed that I have used the more comprehensive term ‘citizen’ instead of ‘voter,’ and it is for this reason that I have used it. The duties of the citizen apply to every one who is a recipient of the benefits of the state, and this includes that half of the community whom their own indifference and the

PREJUDICES AND TRADITIONS

of the majority of voters still exclude from their rightful share in this matter of public housekeeping which we call municipal government.

“It is the duty of the male citizen to vote, and not only to vote, but to attend the caucuses which alone insure the possibility of having a worthy candidate. It is also his duty to pay his taxes and keep his sidewalk clean, but his duty does not end here. It is his imperative duty as an honorable citizen to see that this subtle poison, which, bred from germs of selfishness and ignorance, is creeping through the veins of our people, shall be arrested ere a complete social upheaval teach us the painful lesson that vigilance alone is the price of liberty.

“It seems to me that the duty of the citizen is coextensive with life and opportunity. It is not a duty which the man or woman of conscience can lay aside between election days. The good citizenmust be always a refuter of error, an initiator of reform, in short, a person whose conscience gives him no rest until what ought to be has been substituted for what is.

“The good citizen must, above all, have such a lofty conception of the state and of statesmanship as shall lift it forever above the moral plane where it has been allowed to rest by the average conscience dulled to all the finer moral perceptions by the force of custom and conventionality.

“There are such citizens. I see many of them before me as I speak, but that there shall be a thousand where there is now but one, am I here to-night to speak to you.

“And now, after this lengthy prelude, permit me to ask your attention to the scheme which I suggest for helping to bring about in this city a higher standard of good citizenship. Pardon a bit of personal experience.

“Scarcely a day goes by in which I am not importuned by various worthy beggars to give thousands and even millions to endow this and that college, hospital, and asylum.

“The last project which was proposed to me was to put a million dollars into a college to be devoted to fitting poor boys for the ministry free of expense. And my importunate beggar was greatly offended when I said that I should consider this one of the best means for promoting hypocrisy and dependence, and that I thought a few scholarships wisely distributed in colleges of repute would helpthe ministry more than a million dollars expended chiefly on brick and mortar.

“‘But what are you going to do with your money? Don’t you think you ought to give it to the

LORD’S POOR?’

I was asked with that delightful assumption of authority which certain people who have the assurance of infallibly knowing the mind of the Lord always adopt.

“‘Certainly,’ I answered; ‘but the Lord has commissioned me to spend what is intrusted to me where it will effect the best results, and I prefer to put the next money that I spend into brains rather than into bricks.’

“Now I propose to devote one hundred and fifty thousand dollars during the next ten years to stimulating thought in this city in the direction of Good Citizenship. [Applause.]

“I shall ask a committee of twenty-five ladies and gentlemen, which you shall choose from the number present, to select for me a man of ripe experience, of scholarship, and disinterested devotion to the cause of which I have spoken—a man of good presence and address, who can combine the functions of business manager and orator, to whom I shall pay five out of the fifteen thousand dollars which I propose to devote yearly for the promotion of good citizenship in your city.

“By the advice and consent of this same committee, which shall constitute itself a board of directors,he shall spend the remaining ten thousand for the best interests of the work in hand.

“I put no restrictions on this expenditure and lay down no rules of conduct beyond making the work of the organization absolutely unpartisan and unsectarian. The superintendent elected by the directors shall be free to use such methods as shall seem fit to him, being however held responsible to the directors and removable at their option.

“Although I leave everything to the judgment of the directors, I wish to make a few suggestions which they are quite free to accept or reject.

“First I suggest that for this work the city be divided into various districts, and that each church constitute itself a centre for effective work in some district, so that workers may be somewhat equally distributed, and no part of the city neglected. These districts need not be based necessarily upon the numbers of their inhabitants, but upon their needs.

“I would urge every minister either in or out of the pulpit, as he may prefer, to make clear to his congregation the purpose of this organization which is to be formed, and himself lead his people into hearty coöperation with it.

“I know that there are some well-meaning, religious people who might object to this, dreading the preaching of politics from the pulpit and the diversion of the attention of the young from strictly religious work. They prefer to have everything pertaining to secular education debarred from the church-building.

“To me such people seem

SADLY IRRELIGIOUS.

I wonder that they can read their Bibles and fail to learn from the examples of the Hebrew prophets what God would have man say concerning the government and wise ordering of a backsliding people. Those brave men of old were not afraid of preaching politics; and how can one, the follower of him who taught us to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ dare to make this but mere lip-service? Surely they will be the first to give the influence of their Christian manhood to bring that kingdom here and now in this city of Chicago. The clergyman who fails to teach his people that God as truly leads this nation now as in the days of old is recreant to his trust, is unworthy of his calling, as it seems to me.

“I would have our church vestries, which are closed and vacant a great part of the week, thrown open at least one evening in a week for discussions, lectures, debates, or small classes grouped together for the study of subjects that will promote good citizenship.

“I suggest that all classes of people, whether church-goers or not, who are willing to join in this work, be divided into four sections.

“First and largest of all would be the section containing those who know little of American history, civil government, and political economy.These would form themselves into bands for studying a well-selected course of reading, beginning with elementary work, and proceeding from such books as Mr. Dole’s ‘The Citizen and the Neighbor,’ to profound works like Mulford’s ‘The Nation,’ or perhaps Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of History.’

“I see no reason why with a proper system and the natural interest which I think the subject will awaken there should not eventually result as widespread and beneficent a work as that which the Chatauqua classes have done.

“There should be a secretary for each little centre of study to whom reports of work should be made, and certificates or diplomas should be bestowed by the directors on those who have successfully passed through different courses.

“I also suggest public debates and dissertations by members of both sexes. It is not so difficult a matter as you may think to interest young people in such work. I know of a teacher in Somerville, Massachusetts, who for years has been the means of carrying on a historical club of about seventy-five boys and girls under fifteen years of age. These children meet regularly, conducting their meetings themselves according to Cushing’s ‘Manual of Parliamentary Rules,’ and girls as well as boys take part in a modest, fearless way. They get not only much historical information on the subjects they discuss, but also a very valuable discipline which renders them self-possessed in manner, and discriminating in their thought, and isthe best of training for many duties of good citizenship.

“All these results take time and patience and tact in the planners of the classes, lest rivalry and jealousy and short-sightedness defeat the end in view. But when a

SCHEME IS ONCE THOUGHT OUT

in its main features it is comparatively easy to follow, especially when it is as flexible as the one I present to you, and when the leaders are disinterested men and women.

“The second of the four classes which I have suggested would contain a much smaller number of persons, and would be those who have the time and ability to teach. This would bring forth much latent talent for home missionary work which does not find vent in our mission Sunday-schools.

“The work should be especially prosecuted among the foreign population.

“Let a course of say twenty-five weekly lectures be arranged to be illustrated by the stereopticon, and treating in a simple way of the growth of our nation from its beginning until the present time. I would not have very much attention paid to the campaigns of the wars. It matters little to the Bohemian who cannot read English or to the Irishman who cannot write his name whether Braddock or King Philip fought in the war of 1812 or not.

“But it does matter that he should understand something of the early life of the colonists, somethingof the dangers from which they fled, the causes of the Revolution, the growth of slavery, the meaning of our republican institutions, our great industrial development, and the significance of such names as Franklin, Washington, Lincoln, Grant.

“A cornet leading a chorus of school-children, who should sing national airs, would add zest to such a lecture, the price of which should be merely nominal. I think you will generally find it better to have a price.

“In such matters people usually undervalue and are a little suspicious of what is given them freely. If a ticket costs ten cents, or if it is given as a reward of merit to the children at school, it will be vastly more appreciated.

“These lectures would be given in English wherever possible, but in the foreign districts of the city the same set could be given in translations, the speaker being an intelligent man of the nationality of the audience.

“I think you will find it better among foreigners to give these lectures in a hall rather than in a church, so as not to awaken religious prejudices. With different speakers the same lectures and pictures can be used in different parts of the city every evening in the week, thus having six or seven

SIMULTANEOUS COURSES

of the same lectures.

“After the completion of the first course muchexperience will have been gained in the details of management, and other courses can be formed illustrating the material resources, physical geography of our country, and the biography and literature of our great men.

“With a little music, plenty of pictures, and a speaker with a hearty, ringing voice, I think there can be no question of winning attention among these foreigners. After that, classes and clubs for reading and discussion would easily follow.

“I have spoken of two sections, the students and the teachers; the third might comprise those who could give neither work nor study, but who would give money. This money might go to any one of a dozen fields of work which the organization would help support.

“Each donor could specify the purpose for which he gives his money, whether it be temperance-reform work, free kindergartens, industrial schools, payment for detection and prosecution of law-breakers, or general running expenses. You can readily see that although there may be much voluntary, unpaid service, there will be great need of more money than I have promised to contribute.

“The fourth class would be one of the most important, comprising chiefly the solid business men and practical, public-spirited women, such as I have found here in your remarkably live Woman’s Club and other organizations. These men and women would attend to such practical work as isdone by our Law and Order Leagues in the different states, supplementing the often inefficient police service, and persistently insisting that the existing lawsshall be enforced.

“This branch of the work alone would require more than one paid agent. Another line of work for this fourth class of good citizens would be an organized and ever-increasing vigilance in regard to the work of the city’s servants, and the creation of a strong public sentiment which shall demand a purer, cleaner press and a suppression of the vile literature which is poisoning the imagination of thousands of our youth.

“This class of workers would be the active agents of all reforms, and unwavering in their efforts to make the primary meetings places where the moral force and the intelligence of the city shall be most powerfully felt.

“Let me illustrate what I mean in speaking of the kinds of work which this fourth class of workers can do to promote good citizenship. The successful courses of lectures on history to young people under the auspices of the

COMMERCIAL CLUB

which have been carried on here is just the kind of work which needs to be done. The prizes for essays on historical subjects offered to the school-children by the ‘Daily News’ is another good thing. The courses of lectures by workmen and capitalists under the auspices of the Ethical CultureSociety is just the kind of work which I should like to see multiplied a hundredfold.

“All existing organizations for promoting the welfare of the community can unite in this large organization without abandoning their own methods and field of work.

“Perhaps this scheme as I have outlined it may seem to you somewhat utopian; but you will remember that what I have said is simply suggestion. The methods I leave entirely to your own excellent judgment. But whatever these may be, they will be watched with keen interest by other cities to whom I shall make the same proposition that I have made to you, provided that the results of your efforts shall justify my action in this matter.

“The little plan which I propose is

ABSOLUTELY FLEXIBLE.

One person or one circle may work in one way and one in another, each according to his own tastes and opportunities. While any one of leisure may belong to all four sections, no one need feel excluded from joining in the general good work in some way, if he have but a dollar a year to contribute, or but an hour a week for study or work.

“May I not hope that the life and youth and moral power of Chicago will join hand in hand in making this vast city great, not only in dimensions and numbers and wealth, but great in that kind of greatness which alone shall exalt a nation and give it memory. For

‘The envious Powers of ill nor wink nor sleep:—Be therefore timely wise,Nor laugh when this one steals and that one lies,As if your luck could cheat those sleepless spies,Till the deaf Fury comes your house to sweep.’”

‘The envious Powers of ill nor wink nor sleep:—

Be therefore timely wise,

Nor laugh when this one steals and that one lies,

As if your luck could cheat those sleepless spies,

Till the deaf Fury comes your house to sweep.’”

As Miss Brewster stood a moment with silently bowed head and then sank into her chair there was a hush. Every one had been thrilled by the clear, quiet, intense tones of her voice, and there was an instinctive refrain from applause which marked the deep feeling which her words had created.

Dr. T—— rose to speak, but at this juncture the writer, whose office had been discovered, was politely requested by an usher to withdraw. It was subsequently learned, however, that a committee consisting of seven ladies and eighteen gentlemen was elected from those present, and they are to meet next week for selection of a superintendent, and to establish their organization.

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