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Show Still Progressing FIERCE debates are going on in the Senate; strikes are dislocating bjuiness north and south, and every morning's news brings stories of fearful crimes being perpetrated in evory port'on of the country, and when these stories are told beyond the seas, there must be a feeling abroad that the United States Is a turbulent tur-bulent country, Inhabited by a hot-tempered, undisciplined un-disciplined race. It is true, too, in a measure, we suspect. Absolute freedom Is prone sometimes some-times to crystallize into something akin to acts which are quito unlicensed; it is true that our courts, crippled by court practice which ought to be revised, are slow in reaching conclusions, which has the effect of causing men to lose rever- I ence for the law; then multitudes of Immigrants I are every year pouring in upon us, and the last H few years immigrations have been in great major- ! ity from lands where tho poor are so poor that jl they are desperate from childhood up, so that when they reach a land where perfect freedom Is i'l extended to them they are, many of them, prone -.H to construe that freedom into license. 'H And so our country is just now passing through H a troublous period; it is as when shifting winds at ' sea produce confused seas and ships rock and l pitch and mariners are disturbed. Then extieme H poverty on the one hand and Inordinate wealth H on the other are having their effects and it is H true that the nation is passing through a disturb- H ed period. We think that a war for a few months H with a first-class power would be, . despite its H cost in blood and. treasure, a good thing for the American people, for It would kindle anew their iH patriotism and give them back the respect for H order and law which they seem to be losing. But I without any war, it will right itself. The liar- H vests are ripening, the mines are yielding their H treasure, multitudes are at work at generous H Avages. and the land will be richer by probably two H thousand millions on next New Year's day than it H was on the last new year, and down deep there settles deeper and deeper the conv'ction in the hearts of all classes, that there is not, after all, H any other land that offers so much to its ohll- H dren, or is half as worthy ofdefendlng and pre- H serving, as our own. yf M This is manifest in many ways. We see im- migrants from many nations of southern Europe H among us. They cling to their own old world lH customs and habits; they talk among them- H selves the languages of their childhood; they eat H the food of the'r native countries and apparently feel that they aro in a sense exiles. fl But accounts from Europe tell of these same H people when they return to their old homes for H a visit, as thousands of them do every year. They dress in American clothing, If they have H learned a few words of English, they speak them ,H Ip and out of season, they affect an American ;H bearing and tell their old acquaintances that they M would not live In any land save the United M States. We suspect they are much the better for M the visit home. While here tho first time their IH dreams aro all of the old homes, their imagina"- IH tlons picture those lands in exaggerated colors. j When they return to them and see how hard is M the grind of poverty there, how pitiable are the !H wages, how necessary is the utmost thrift In or- 'H der to live, and then recall what this countiy is H to the energetic imm'grant, tho old dreams van- M ish away and they return all ready to be hence- ,H forth real Americans. So the disturbances aro slowly adjusting themselves and meanwhile tho H light of our flag is advancing and our country on lM its sublime mission is lifting up tho souls of the H world's people into the light which w 11 be whop IM Liberty shall bo the rule of the earth. ill |