it has also taught them fraternity. That word has gone out of fashion in the Old World, and no wonder, considering what was done in its name in 1793, considering also that it still figures in the programme of assassins. Nevertheless, there is in the United States a sort of kindliness, a sense of human fellowship, a recognition of the duty of mutual help owed by man to man, stronger than anywhere in the Old World, and certainly stronger than in the upper or middle classes of England, France, or Germany. The natural impulse of every citizen in America is to respect every citizen, and to feel that citizenship constitutes a certain ground of respect. The idea of each man's equal rights is so fully realized that the rich or powerful man feels it no indignity to take his turn among the crowd, and does not expect any deference from the poorest. An employer of labor has, I think, a keener sense of his duty to those whom he employs than employers have in Europe. He has certainly a greater sense of responsibility for the use of his wealth. The number of gifts for benevolent and other public purposes, the number of educational, artistic, literary, and scientific foundations, is larger than even in England, the wealthiest and most liberal of European countries. Wealth is generally felt to be a trust, and exclusiveness condemned not merely as indicative of selfishness, but as a sort of offense against the public. No one, for instance, thinks of shutting up his pleasure grounds; he seldom even builds a wall round them, but puts up low railings or a palisade, so that the sight of his trees and shrubs is enjoyed by passers-by. That any one should be permitted either by opinion or by law to seal up many square miles of beautiful mountain country against tourists or artists is to the ordinary American almost incredible. Such things are to him the marks of a land still groaning under feudal tyranny. It may seem strange to those who know how difficult European states have generally found it to conduct negotiations with the government of the United States, and who are accustomed to read in European newspapers the defiant utterances which American politicians address from Congress to the effete monarchies of the Old World, to be told that this spirit of fraternity has its influence on international relations also. Nevertheless, if we look not at the irresponsible orators, who play to the lower feelings of a section of the people, but at the general sentiment of the whole people. we shall recognize that democracy makes both for peace and for justice as between nations. Despite the admiration for military exploits which the Americans have sometimes shown, no country is at bottom more pervaded by a hatred of war, and a sense that national honor stands rooted in national fair dealing. The nation is often misrepresented by its statesmen, but although it allows them to say irritating things and advance unreasonable claims, it has not for more than forty years permitted them to abuse its enormous strength, as most European nations possessed of similar strength have in time past abused theirs. The characteristics of the nation which I have passed in review are not due solely to democratic government, but they have been strengthened by it, and they contribute to its solidity and to the smoothness of its working. As one sometimes sees an individual man who fails in life because the different parts of his nature seem unfitted to each other, so that his action, swayed by contending influences, results in nothing definite or effective, so one sees nations whose political institutions are either in advance of or lag behind their social conditions, so that the unity of the body politic suffers, and the harmony of its movements is disturbed. America is not such a nation. It is made all of a piece; its institutions are the product of its economic and social conditions and the expression of its character. The new wine has been poured into new bottles; or to adopt a metaphor more appropriate to the country, the vehicle has been built with a lightness, strength, and elasticity which fit it for the roads it has to traverse. THE HAND OF LINCOLN.1 BY E. C. STEDMAN. [EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN, poet and critic, was born in Hartford, Conn., October 8, 1833. Having finished his course at Yale College, he edited successively the Norwich Tribune (1852-1853) and the Winsted Herald (1854-1855). After remaining a year on the staff of the New York Tribune, he became war correspondent of the World (1861-1863), and from 1864 to 1883 was a banker and a member of the New York Stock Exchange. He has published: "Poems Lyric and Idyllic,” “Alice of Monmouth," "The Blameless Prince," "Hawthorne," ," "Lyrics and Idylls," "Victorian Poets," "A Library of American Literature," and "A Victorian Anthology."] 1 Copyright, 1897, by Edmund Clarence Stedman. Look on this cast, and know the hand What Lincoln was,- how large of mold The man who sped the woodman's team, This was the hand that knew to swing The ax since thus would Freedom train Her son- and made the forest ring, And drove the wedge, and toiled amain. Firm hand, that loftier office took, A conscious leader's will obeyed, And, when men sought his word and look, With steadfast might the gathering swayed. No courtier's, toying with a sword, Nor minstrel's, laid across a lute; A chief's, uplifted to the Lord When all the kings of earth were mute! The hand of Anak, sinewed strong, For here in knotted cord and vein I trace the varying chart of years; Again I see the patient brow That palm erewhile was wont to press; And now 'tis furrowed deep, and now Made smooth with hope and tenderness. For something of a formless grace This molded outline plays about; A pitying flame, beyond our trace, Breathes like a spirit, in and out, The love that cast an aureole Round one who, longer to endure, Called mirth to ease his ceaseless dole, Lo, as I gaze, the statured man, What better than this voiceless cast Since through its living semblance passed THE ERIE RAILWAY SCANDAL.1 BY HENRY ADAMS. [HENRY ADAMS: An American historian and grandson of J. Q. Adams; born in Boston, February 16, 1838. His principal work is "The History of the United States.' Among his other writings are: "Document relating to New England Federalism" (1877), "Life of Albert Gallatin" (1879), and "John Randolph" (1882).] THE Civil War in America, with its enormous issues of depreciating currency and its reckless waste of money and credit by the government, created a speculative mania such as the United States, with all its experience in this respect, had never before known. Not only in Broad Street, the center of New York speculation, but far and wide throughout the Northern States, almost every man who had money employed a part of his capital in the purchase of stocks or of gold, of copper, of petroleum, or of domestic produce, in the hope of a rise in prices, or staked money on the expectation of a fall. To use the jargon of the street, every farmer and every shopkeeper in the country seemed to be engaged in "carrying" some favorite security "on a margin." Whoever could obtain twenty-five dollars sent it to a broker with orders to buy two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of stocks, or whatever amount the broker would consent to purchase. If the stock rose, the speculator prospered; if it fell until the twenty-five dollars of deposit or margin were lost, the broker demanded a new deposit, or sold the stock to protect himself. By means of this simple and 1 From "Historical Essays, 1891." By permission of Mr. T. Fisher Unwin. (Large Crown 8vo. Price 78. 6d.) |