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Show i 'j 1 . The end of the ye.tr and such a year! Tho 8aMo-:t year in the history his-tory of the world. And the.new year pons lu such clrcumstaiicf-s that the Herd "happy" pie!i.':e 1 to our greetings greet-ings will seem like the gloomiest mockery, for the horrors and distress dis-tress and hate that are rii'e in what we terra the civilized world bid fair to Increase before the close of another anoth-er December. We have no heart to review in do- j the record of 1'jlfj. Indeed, the f . " has been the one prolonged event i4,1'"1)' puts every other event into ob-,i ob-,i jrtvyi- -and the Kitry of the war an almost uubidievable record or 'fresh nation:) joining in the fray, -"' S of great ba,ttles and l;e .rtrending destruction des-truction of life, of advance and retreat re-treat on many battle fronts all without with-out any decisive action to foretell victory for either side or an end to the bloodshed. Even in our own country tho war overshadows all e lse almost as com pletely as if we were a party to it. The one comforting fact in, that we have not been drawn into it. But our very neutrality has made us unpopular un-popular with the pe.i;de of every belligerent bel-ligerent nation. From both sides we have Buffered grievous and unredressed unredres-sed 'wrongs wrongs on the sea and on the land, p. I home and abroad: the drowning of peaceable and helpless help-less civilian travelers, interference 'ith our legitimate commerce, and destruction of our industrial plant? by domestic enemies who have acted either upon their own impulse or upon the inrvfenievl. of governments beyon-:t (lie oco;"i. What the iutu'o lir.?. in store for Europe. ;h v:h:U for ut, no man knows. The countries at war are increasing; the:r armies and. extending extend-ing the'r nclivies. Our government still lv:r. nwy unsettled and sev'om diffrrences with the governments of belligerent countries; and the beginning be-ginning of the new year finds us with our patience strained almost to the breaking point. May God grant that a righteous pone may soon put an end to the rtrife and anxiety that now prevail all o'er the globe! |
