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Show OVERTURES OF PEACE. The American battleship squadron, under Ad-, Ad-, miral Badger, after having had a deuce of a time at Kiel, has finally sailed for home. Last year an American squadron visited France and Great Britain Brit-ain and tried every quality of wine and ale, and TheOermang and fcHimlmavianwylMl notikeitrbut assumed to think they had been slighted, apparently apparent-ly not considering that there was a limit to human endurance, and that "mixing drinks" too much was more deadly than actual war. But this year tha strained relations have been reconciled. The Badger fleet went to Copenhagen, where the kings of Sweden and Denmark did them honor, then on to the Neva, where the emperor of all the "bears . that walk like men" received the squadron ami Icoked it over; then Kiel was called at and the kaiser, more appreciative of what . real fighting ships are than any other sovereign, came down from his capital to greet and visit the squadron, and all the honors which the German sovereign and people could pay were lavished upon the admiral ad-miral and his officers and crews. Victor Hugo once reduced the cost of the salutes sa-lutes which are fired through courtesy among the ostium aunually to dollars and cents, treated it as absolute waste and estimated how much good thnt amount would do the poor, forgetting that poor men wade the powder thus burned and that the more of it waa burned the more poor men would be given wages for making "the villainous saltpetre." But it is a pity that there ia no Hugo to figure ui how much beer the crews of that Badger squal ron have consumed during the past six weeks, and to state the secial brand which tha crews will recommend to tha crews of other ships if they evei yh.it those porta. . The bill would be larger than the one Victor Hugo computed. But there is an economical side lo even that. - When men get property insured they pay a percentage per-centage of the amount for their policies. Now let any one figure up what the cost of one day's war between the United States, on the one band, and Germany, Deumark, and Russia ou the other would be, and it will be seen how cheap the policies have been, for after that visit there will be no chance for l war with those countries for at least a year to come. They aang all the songs of all the countries, and if the American crews made a bad stsgger . with the . German and 'Scandinavian tongues, they did as well as their hosts did when they tried to render the "Star 8. angled Banner" hi English. And that fraternizing of lighting ships and fighting men ia good, for it awakens mutual esteem and hastens the day when civilized nations will advance to the thought that for men to kil each otlwr ic battle is. simply a relic of barbarism and ignorance ; that it ia time for reason and justice jus-tice to rule among nations as among meu; time for the thunders of war to be hushed, that the anthems an-thems of peace be heard. So it ia neither wicked nor extravagant for the nations to burn powder and drink beer in honor f each other and in the powder burniug and bejr drinking to pledge their mutual friendship. . |