Chapter I: Front Matter

“My Country, ’Tis of Thee!”
OR,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA;
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.

A PHILOSOPHIC VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND OF OUR PRESENT
STATUS, TO BE SEEN IN
THE COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION.

BY
WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON, A. M.,

AUTHOR OF “STANLEY’S ADVENTURES IN AFRICA,” “HISTORY OF THE JOHNSTOWN
FLOOD,” “A LIFE OF GENERAL SHERMAN,” ETC.

GREAT ISSUES OF THE FUTURE,
AS VIEWED BY
OUR MOST PROMINENT EDITORS AND EMINENT MEN OF
OUR COUNTRY,
INCLUDING
PRESIDENT HARRISON, EX-PRESIDENT CLEVELAND, SENATOR SHERMAN,
JUDGE THURMAN, CARDINAL GIBBONS, BISHOP FOSS, BISHOP
POTTER, T. V. POWDERLY, GENERAL SCHOFIELD,
ADMIRAL PORTER, AND MANY OTHERS.

BY
JOHN HABBERTON,

AUTHOR OF “A LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON,” ETC., AND EDITOR OF
“THE SELECT BRITISH ESSAYISTS.”

ILLUSTRATED.

INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING CO.,
44 N. 4th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 134 E. Van Buren St., Chicago, Ill.
1892.

Copyright, 1892, by B. W. URIAN.

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT.
BOARD OF LADY MANAGERS.
WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

GENTLEMEN:

With reference to your request for an introductory note, allow me to assure you that it affords me great pleasure to speak to the masses through the medium of your excellent book.

Thanking you for the courtesy, I am,

Yours most truly,

Pres. B. L. M.]

THE PURPOSES

OF THE

BOARD OF LADY MANAGERS

OF THE

WORLD’S COLUMBIAN COMMISSION.

The Board of Lady Managers of the World’s Columbian Commission, having been created and authorized by the concurrent action of Congress and the Columbian Commission, to take entire charge of the interests of women at the coming Exposition, desires to develop to the fullest extent the grand possibilities which have been placed within its reach.

The Board wishes to mark the first participation of women in an important national enterprise, by preparing an object lesson to show the progress made by women in every country of the world, during the century in which educational and other privileges have been granted her, and to show the increased usefulness that has resulted from the enlargement of her opportunities.

The Board of Lady Managers invites the women of all countries to participate in this great exhibit of woman’s work, to the end that it may be made not only national, but universal, and that all may profit by a free comparison of methods, agencies, and results.

It is of the first importance that such a representative collection be secured from every country as will give an adequate idea of the extent and value of what is being done by women in the arts, sciences, and industries.

We will aim to show to the breadwinners, who are fighting unaided the battle of life, the new avenues of employment that are constantly being opened to women, and in which of these their work will be of the most distinct value by reason of their natural adaptability, sensitive and artistic temperaments, and individual tastes; what education will best enable them to enjoy the wider opportunities awaiting them and make their work of the greatest worth, not only to themselves but to the world.

The Board has decided that at the coming Exposition it will not attempt to separate the exhibit of woman’s work from that of men, for the reason that as women are working side by side with men in all the factories of the world, it would be practically impossible, in most cases, to divide the finished result of their combined work; nor would women be satisfied with prizes unless they were awarded without distinction as to sex, and as the result of fair competition with the best work shown. They are striving for excellence, and desire recognition only for demonstrated merit. In order, however, that the enormous amount of work being done by women may be appreciated a tabulated statement will be procured and shown with every exhibit, stating the proportion of woman’s work that enters into it. The application blanks now being sent out to manufacturers contain this inquiry.

The Board of Lady Managers has been granted by Act of Congress the great and unusual privilege of appointing members of each jury to award prizes for articles into which woman’s work enters. The number of women on each jury will be proportionate to the amount of work done by women in the corresponding department of classification. The statement as to the amount of their work will therefore be of double significance, for in addition to the impressive showing of how large a proportion of the heavy labor of the world is being performed by the weaker sex, it will also determine the amount of jury representation to which the Board is entitled.

Beside the extensive exhibit in the general Exposition buildings, women will have another opportunity of displaying work of superior excellence in a very advantageous way in the Woman’s Building, over which the Board of Lady Managers will exercise complete control. In its central gallery it is intended to have grouped the most brilliant achievements of women from every country and in every line of work. Exhibits will be admitted only by invitation, which will be considered the equivalent of a prize. No sentimental sympathy for women will cause the admission of second-rate objects, for the highest standard of excellence is to be there strictly maintained. Commissions of women organized in all countries, as auxiliaries to the Board of Lady Managers, will be asked to recommend objects of supreme excellence produced by women, and producers of such successful work will be invited to place specimens in the gallery of the Woman’s Building.

Not only has woman become an immense, although generally unrecognized factor in the industrial world, but hers being essentially the arts of peace and progress, her best work is shown in the numberless charitable, reformatory, educational, and other beneficent institutions which she has had the courage and the ideality to establish for the alleviation of suffering, for the correction of many forms of social injustice and neglect, and for the reformation of long-established wrongs. These institutions exert a strong and steady influence for good, an influence which tends to decrease vice, to make useful citizens of the helpless or depraved, to elevate the standard of morality, and to increase the sum of human happiness; thus most effectively supplementing the best efforts and furthering the highest aims of all government.

All organizations of women must be impressed with the necessity of making an effective showing of the noble work which each is carrying on. We especially desire to have represented, in the rooms reserved for that purpose, the educational work originated or carried on by women, from the Kindergarten organizations up to the highest branches of education, including all schools of applied science and art, such as training-schools for nurses, manual training, industrial art and cooking schools, domestic economy, sanitation, etc. When not practically exhibited, the work of all such organizations should be shown by maps, charts, photographs, relief models, etc.; but it is earnestly hoped that one, at least, the most representative institution in each of these branches, will be shown from every country, in order that a comparison may be made of methods and results.

BERTHA M. H. PALMER.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE AGE OF DISCOVERY.

Classic legends of Atlantis--Chinese and Japanese accounts of early voyages to America--Prince Madoc and the Welsh legends--The voyages of the Vikings--Eric and Leif and their adventures--Columbus and his schemes--The most memorable voyage in history--Post-Columbian voyagers and explorers--Many men from many lands flocking to the newly-discovered continent--A new world opened to the civilization and to the greed of Europe.....17

CHAPTER II.

“IN THE GOOD OLD COLONY TIMES.”

Parcelling out the country--Foundation of the earliest colonies--Jamestown and its settlers--Strange improvidence of the colonists--Troubles with the Indians--John Smith and Pocahontas--The Pilgrims and Puritans--Substantial growth of the New England Colonies--New York--Troubles with the Mother Country--Growth of the spirit of independence--The War of the Revolution and its results.....60

CHAPTER III.

THE STORY OF THE NATION.

Establishing a constitutional government--Disputes with other powers--A second war with England--Territorial acquisitions--Settlement and admission of new States--The slavery question--War with Mexico--The rush for gold in California--The Kansas troubles--How the great war was precipitated--The campaigns from Bull Run to Appomattox--Political results of the war--Rapid growth of the country since--The present state of the nation.....105

CHAPTER IV.

WORLD’S FAIRS.

The origin and object of universal exhibitions--New York’s Crystal Palace--Spirit and hopes of its projectors--Its display of the nation’s greatness--The Centennial Exposition of 1876--Magnitude of the enterprise--Description of its hundred buildings--Calendar of events--An impressive exposition of national development.....146

CHAPTER V.

THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

Preparations for a celebration of the quartercentenary of Columbus--Chicago chosen as the site--Marvelous history of the Western Metropolis--How the Columbian Exhibition was organized--Sketches of its promoters--The principal buildings and grounds--Financial arrangements--An exhibition surpassing all its predecessors and fittingly commemorating the birth of a new world.....204

CHAPTER VI.

SOCIETY’S FOUNDATION-STONE.

Marriage Customs in the United States--Shiploads of women disposed of as wives to the earlier Virginia Planters--The Marriage Relation should be closely guarded--Divorced people, have they _moral_ right to remarry?--A rich man and a stupid wife--Drifting apart--Duty of the Church--Views of a happy wife--Novels, love and marriage--“Beauty and the Beast”--An insulting imputation--_Is it_ the “best match?”--Marriage blunders.....247

CHAPTER VII.

THE DEMON OF DIVORCE.

Marriage _not_ a failure--Rev. David Swing’s caustic comment--Views of Rabbi Silverman--Heartlessness of Divorce Court proceedings--Divorced persons debarred by the Queen of England--Sufferings of the children--“Vice is a monster of such hideous mien”--Shall we have a Constitutional Amendment restricting divorce?--Views of Bishop Foss and Bishop Whittaker--Position of the Catholic Church and of the Hebrews--“Church union cannot be combated”--“Burn the bridges”.....260

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FARMER’S TROUBLES.

Encumbered with mortgage--Energy of the farmer--Lack of capital--Labor--The farmer’s children and city life--“The borrower is servant to the lender”--The census valuation of farm lands--Hiram Sibley, the millionaire farmer--Twelve Vermont farms--The Western farmer and the railroads--Co-operative stores--“Land-poor”--Government aid for the farmers.....272

CHAPTER IX.

THE RUM POWER.

Harm done by the liquor traffic--Views of Bishop Warren, of the Methodist Church--Miss Frances Willard’s views--“Petroleum” Nasby--Rum in politics--Channing’s aphorism--Rev. Theodore Cuyler’s summary of statistics--Causes of drunkenness--Ways to reclaim the unfortunates--Control the demon by law--Public opinion--Bishop Foss’ reply--Restrictive measures.....288

CHAPTER X.

NATIONAL DEFENCE.

Our harbors useless--Caught napping by England--Troops and the Indians--General Sheridan’s last report--General Sherman’s protests--Congressional inactivity--Admiral Porter hammering at Congress--A blast from the late Samuel J. Tilden--Desertions from the army--Statistics from General Schofield’s report--Frontier life for the soldier--Major Sumner’s plan.....303

CHAPTER XI.

LABOR.

Laboring men--Their mistakes and their grievances--Labor sure to be imposed upon--Driving a sharp bargain--Low wages resulting from competition--A laborer in chains recently brought for sale into the market-place of a New England town--But the people rise in their wrath--Does _practical_ slavery exist in the United States?--Coal miners and factory hands compared with the _consistados_ of South America--The store system of credits--Resulting evils to the laborers.....318

CHAPTER XII.

SELF-HELP FOR LABOR.

The importance of being a “full-handed workman”--_Successful_ mechanics know more than one branch of business--This quality developed in new countries--Votes of laborers controlled by corporations--A curious experience in the West.....336

CHAPTER XIII.

IMMIGRATION.

America is a home--Not an asylum--Liberty is not license--No paupers need apply--Nor any contract laborers--Skilled labor welcome, if it comes to stay--Immigrant farmers will do us good--Too much hurry in granting citizenship--Foreign faction fights must not be kept up here--Transplanted stock improves rapidly.....351

CHAPTER XIV.

ANNEXATION.

We don’t want the earth--We need more neighbors--Not more children--Non-assimilative races would weaken us--The Old World’s experience at land-grabbing--Let Canada alone till she wants us--Likewise Mexico--We have enough discordant interests now--We don’t want to pay other nations’ debts.....368

CHAPTER XV.

THE INDIAN.

He has stopped fighting--Let us stop robbing him--The Indian will work--He has plenty of brains--Capacity for education abundantly proved--Records of the experiment at Hampton--He knows a good thing when he sees it--The beneficent effects of the Dawes bill--Even the Apaches have worked as good as white men.....385

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PRESS.

The editor is the nation’s schoolmaster--Also the most trusty advocate of the people’s rights--He brings the people together in spirit and purpose--Always ahead of Congress and the government--Rapid improvement of the newspaper--Independence in journalism--Trial by newspaper.....399

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SCHOOL-ROOM.

Boys and girls who are to be men and women--The schools are behind the times--Too much fuss and too little gain--Discipline which costs too much--Heads stuffed, but hands and hearts neglected--Faults of teaching--About faculties benumbed by routine work--What has been done can be done--The country boy ahead.....410

CHAPTER XVIII.

RAILROADS.

Rights and wrongs of the great transportation corporations--What they have done for the country and what the country has done for them--Era of construction closed and an era of restriction and regulation begun--Why railroad officials become millionaires--Watering stock--A curious question which will be raised one of these days.....431

CHAPTER XIX.

BANKS AND BANKING.

New York no longer the sole dictator in the money market--Why Western business men are now independent of metropolitan money-lenders--The increase of “reserve cities”--Banking methods to dodge the laws--How unscrupulous bank directors get rich--Why so many cashiers go to Canada and how to stop them--Noted living bankers.....455

CHAPTER XX.

OUR CITIES.

Cities are necessary evils--But greatly to be avoided--City life is dangerous to most persons--Unnatural influences are inevitable--Hard on the purse and hard on the heart--Poverty’s last refuge--The home of the thief--The touch of nature lost--Temptations innumerable--Restraints few--No place for country boys and girls--City forms of government must change--THE DARKER SIDE--The sorrows of the city poor--Friendless and alone--Miserable homes--Health and morals menaced--All depends on one life--Chances and misfortunes--Sickness and death--The story of the Ganges paralleled--The majority are industrious--An army of heroes--Religion and rum their only comforts--Child work and child ruin--Benevolence wearied and despairing.....481

CHAPTER XXI.

RELIGION.

Religion is in no danger--The letter suffers but the spirit grows--Essentials were never more prominent--The tree is judged by its fruit--Proselyting has gone out of date--Denominations have ceased to fight--A life as well as a faith.....509

CHAPTER XXII.

WOMAN AND HER WORK.

One “woman’s right” secured--She has a chance almost everywhere--The liberation of man--Woman’s wits sharpen quickly--Advantages over male workers--Woman need not marry for a home--The tables turned--Some effects upon society--Never enslaved unless stupid--The “Song of the Shirt”--The coming generation.....517

CHAPTER XXIII.

OUR LITERATURE.

A nation of readers--Books to be found everywhere--The Sunday-School library--Chautauqua’s great work--The American author is a busy man--Good books make their way, sooner or later--Abler men should go into authorship--Our literature making its way abroad--American writers’ characteristics--Our literature is clean, earnest and hopeful.....531

CHAPTER XXIV.

AMERICAN HUMOR.

The salt that will save us--A nation of jokers--Our Puritan and cavalier ancestors were fond of fun--President Lincoln’s jokes--Humor in the pulpit--Fun in the newspapers--Prentice--Mark Twain--Nasby--Nye and Riley--Miles O’Reilly--“Uncle Remus”--John Hay--“Bob” Burdette--All healthy fun--No malignity in our jokes--The best-natured people alive.....547

CHAPTER XXV.

THE HIGHER EDUCATION.

A land full of colleges--How these institutions began to exist--Tributes to American regard for intelligence and education--Something better needed--No lack of money--Views of Presidents Dwight of Yale, Eliot of Harvard, McCosh of Princeton, White of Cornell, Bartlett of Dartmouth, and Gilman of Johns Hopkins--Bishop Potter on the place of the scholar in America.....566