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Show i MS- Not So Awlully Bad. j$jjK There ought to bo a good reason for seeing ij 11 Hp America first this year', because it ought to be a 111 Wft! little trying for an American to go abroad. That jljjjj h is if he is the least bit sensitive. There is a club ' i imi", n Philadelphia and another in Chicago, at the (im W ' banquets of which the whole company try to down im ' any speaker who has the temerity to try to make 'ill 8b a sPeecn At tlle Red Clover club of Philadelphia 1P n0 snarP men the nd have been repeatedly ''"liljM worsted. Tom Reed did not last three minutes, ia i Chauncoy Depew did not last two minutes, ana 1 Tom Ochletree, who was sure he could stand oif tlff!; tne savages, was able to pronounce only four liiimyg. words. He began by saying, "One (of my ances- liJIfir tors," when from up and down the table a slmul- " t!bJ1' taneous shout arose, "Ananias, you son of a gun," XI !f'f an xe Colonel subsided. Pat Donan was able to Ififfl'' complete his speech. He described some linpos-flUBf linpos-flUBf toWn ln the west that he was booming, and 'jflMf flre(1 adjectives and metaphors and bits of descrlp- tBj tIon ancl maSnfletl possibilities, when the latent ''Tf'W resources were developed and the natural location was taken advantages of; pictured the scenery, ;'ilr told how of old the red man made a last heroic i'Eil! stand to save the place from the palefaces, ln . sucl1 a volIey an( punctuated with so mucu elo- Ifflwl' quence and with such startling changes from the ' imffli exalted to the pathetic, and with such an air of jjf jj' sincerity that the club sat spellbound under the i IjS-'Hl display of Donan's pyrotechnics. JiflK But suPPse ere is such a club in London, rail Hill and an American abroad should this year be in- lilrlB vited to one of its banquets and called upon for a S Muff speech. How long would he last? If he referred fi to Now York would he not be instantly asked if B JR'! ie was a shareholder in one of those New York B insurance companies; or of Chicago, if he had any B i if shares in the packing houses of the Windy City; fi 1 iwil" r E Bos;on' ie iad any shares In the copper Bjj 4sff: stocks which Mr. Lawson describes; or if of Hj f Washington, if he was one of those Senators or K Congressmen who was a timber thief or a de- I ffflW'-! fender of thieving trusts; or of Philadelphia, if B 'iPflJli- 10 was ono coal h?rons along the line of K i JShII ne Pennsylvania road, or whether he was In with B 'ifjgrfir' the oil trust or sugar trust or steel trust? fl Mnw' n woul(l not the porters and waiters and B IHPm' barmaids expect double tips from him? And B fnH would not all the detectives of all the cities be on H b Swflp, his track? And would not all the art dealers I rl ( double and quadruple prices on him on the double J ' ground that he stole his money and that he was j if' a sucker when it came to art? And if he had a II ' Ip letter of credit, would not the president of the I1 !' !! bank entertain him until a clerk could 'phone the j Ejl police station for a description of a purported Mr. jii j, I Smith, or Jones, or Rogers, from the United I J (! 1(' States? And if he went over to Constantinople, l vl ! I would not the sultan have his harem locked and H I; '.S;t guarded lest he might steal it? H j If he wont over with a prepared speech and I;.-; ?ffl: intended to tell effete Europe that his country, ; while receiving and assimilating a million of. their I 'f tWi poor annually, at the same time supplied them J : .!H"! with textiles and food and lumber and gold and I silver and lead and capper, and that were we to close our gates against them for a single year, i Jtf nL llalf of tliem woul(1 starve and the rest be bank- iifftB vupt, could he get a chance to make his speech? nffW And if he tried to tell them of Yosemite, or the I'lw 1 Yellowstone Park, or the Columbia, or the Colo- jj rado canyon, or the forests on the Sierras, or the fj I Coast range, or the majesty of old Shasta or. I I', j Ranier, and someone in the crowd were to ask I f f; him whether he hud ever seen any of these splsn.- . fm u- dors' or was m0roJy speaking from hearsay, what would he answer? It will be seen that there are several reasons why Americans should see America Amer-ica first this year. Our country stands well abroad, but we fear that just now our countrymen have something like a black eye in foreign estimation. And yet it is not quite fair, because while in their race for wealth a few men have by their position been able to cast temporary reproach upon our Republic, how do our countrymen and their ways compare with the Old World? Do tha songs of school children in free schools in those lands, beginning with the dawn, "follow the sun and keep company with the hours," and fill the air with melody while the sun makes ons-elghth of its daily round? Is there any land beyond the sea where eighty millions of free men, all speaking speak-ing one tcngue, all nursing the same hopes, all in accord chanting the same hymns to Freedom can be found? How do the lazarones, the canaille and the mendicants of the old world show by comparison? compar-ison? Then in the forward march of the great industries in-dustries how does the old world compare with what is going on in ours? How does Its charities compare with ours? Surely we can measure up with the best ot them in both self-respect and integrity of purpose. |