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Show ANNIVERSARY. Monday next will be the anniversary of two notable events. One of the battle of Waterloo, the other of the adoption of the American flag. The first is attracting more and more attention as the years go by. It was tho close, amid flame and death and wreck, of the career of a marvelous man. It was, too, a right about face of the methods meth-ods of centuries. Sometimes the human system becomes so covered with abcesses that only the surgeon's knife can give promise of continued life to the sufferer. So, too, nations become so bowed by wrongs that there is nothing to be done save through the heroic surgery of war. Europe was that way and Napoleon was sent as tho surgeon. sur-geon. When his work was finished Europe, the patient on which he had been operating, was so exhausted by loss of blood that she was wellnigh in collapse. But when recovery Vegan, there was a healthier life than there had been before for a thousand years; hereditary titles were at a sorry discount, the manhood of men was in fuller evidence. evi-dence. The meteor-like flight of Napoleon through the twenty years of splendor was after all, but a notice no-tice that when national oppressions become too great, there must be 'an atonement, the innocent with the guilty suffering. But the other event, the adoption of the flag, was a difforent thing, A litle band occupying fl but a narrow fringe of land along the Atlantic fl shore, after five generations of trial had gathered fl the resolution to determine to be free; they had fl hurled their defiance at the foremost nation of fl the earth, and in poverty and amid hardships un- B speakable, -were waging out a war for freedom, fl and to single them out from other nations adopt- fl ed an ensign. H It was a pitiable thing then. It represented H little save the courage and self-devotion of a lit- B tie band who had raised the cry of "Give us Lib- fl erty or give us Death." But that cry had thrilled fl the universe and awakened flashes in the sky fl which reflected back gave a strange splendor to B the stars on that flag. The years have gone on. fl After Waterloo the old despotism, with enfeebled fl hold, took possesion again of ,France, but it could fl not maintain itself and France is free. On our fl side the stars have been growing until they num- B ber now three and a half times as many as when B the flag was adopted; the fringe of settlement fl along the Atlantic has expanded until all the con- fl tinent is occupied from sea to sea; the four mil- fl lions of people have expanded to ninety millions fl and the flag is now the standard of the mightiest fl nation that ever occupied this earth. And the fl tree of Liberty, planted in unpropitlous soil, has fl expanded until boneat,h its branches a nation fl rests, and the perfume of Its blooms fill tho worl fl with a fragrance which is a joy to the world's fl ends and the Nation has become so great that H marvelous things happen almost without notice. fl For instance, when Napoleon started for Russia H and the numbers of his host were counted, the fl world trembled at the mighty presentation. But H of the world's poor twice that number will this fl year land under the flag that in the old day was fl adopted, land almost without comment and will fl merge with our people -without friction. That I fl simple statement is enough. It In Itself is suffi- H cient for a theme on which to talk on Flag day. I This anniversary of two events, momentous in fl the world's history should cause a passing word, fl especially in our land, for one is a symbol that i no Imperial power is safe, the other that there Is something immortal in the love of liberty, and I when planted in poor soil, if watered by the blood I of heroes, it will expand until it fills the world I with fragrance and shade. I |