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27 chapters
THE PURPOSES OF THE BOARD OF LADY MANAGERS OF THE WORLD’S COLUMBIAN COMMISSION.
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
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CHAPTER I. THE AGE OF DISCOVERY.
CHAPTER I. THE AGE OF DISCOVERY.
B EGINNING with the year 1492, the date of the first voyage of Columbus, necessarily leaves a great part of American history untold. Every nation’s story begins in the middle; back of Leonidas are the Homeric heroes; Romulus and Remus antedate the Tarquins. So, centuries before the clear glory of Columbus, we have tradition of various shadowy explorers whose strange barques visited our shores. Unless we grant the earliest inhabitants of America an autochthonic origin, it seems most reasonable to
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CHAPTER II. “GOOD OLD COLONY TIMES.”
CHAPTER II. “GOOD OLD COLONY TIMES.”
T HE history of the United States may be said to have begun with the formation in England of a company for the purpose of forming colonies in America. This was called the Virginia Company, and to it was given the right to hold all the land from Cape Fear to the St. Croix River. The Company had two divisions—the London Company, with control over the southern territory, and the Plymouth Company, controlling the northern. It was the London Company who founded the first colony. Three vessels, under
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CHAPTER III. THE STORY OF THE NATION.
CHAPTER III. THE STORY OF THE NATION.
F OLLOWING the exultation of victory came a period of uncertainty and apprehension. Financially the country was in a state of utter collapse. The result of the war was a foreign debt of eight millions, and a domestic debt of thirty millions of dollars. The army was unpaid and mutinous; only the tact and energy of Washington prevented an outbreak. The Articles of Confederation, ratified March 1st, 1781, were insufficient to the emergencies which arose on every hand. Congress could obtain no reven
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CHAPTER IV. WORLD’S FAIRS.
CHAPTER IV. WORLD’S FAIRS.
D URING the past half century a favorite and effective method of displaying and recording the industrial progress of the world has been found in the holding of World’s Fairs, or Universal Exhibitions. Almost every important capital of the world has now held one or more of these interesting displays, each in succession striving to outdo its predecessors in extent and magnificence, until the latest of them truly present in epitome the invention, industry, art, science, and general progress of the
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CHAPTER V. THE COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION.
CHAPTER V. THE COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION.
T HE New York World’s Fair of 1853 was the third universal exposition ever held, and was almost exactly contemporaneous with the second. That in Philadelphia in 1876 was the eighth. That in Chicago in 1893 will be the fourteenth, and will surpass in size and interest all its predecessors. As a rule, such exhibitions have been held simply to stimulate commerce and manufactures and educate the public in the progress of art and industry. One notable exception to this rule was observed in 1876, when
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CHAPTER VI. SOCIETY’S FOUNDATION-STONE.
CHAPTER VI. SOCIETY’S FOUNDATION-STONE.
T HERE ought to be a radical change in marriage customs in the United States, if we would avoid a terrible deterioration of social life. In the early days of our country, when most of the inhabitants were representatives of the classes which have supplied populations for all new countries, marriage, as among the lower order of peasantry everywhere else in the world, and among the savages besides, was a mere mating of male and female. Women were brought over by shiploads to be disposed of, as wiv
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CHAPTER VII. THE DEMON OF DIVORCE.
CHAPTER VII. THE DEMON OF DIVORCE.
I N one of the older theological periods, yet not so very old, there was a theory that Satan was a necessary part of the godhead. At present there seems to be a theory like unto it. It is that divorce is a necessary feature of the marriage system. This notion is working fully as much mischief in morals and manners as Satan could do if he were part of Omnipotence. Divorce is popular with certain classes, because married life—not marriage—is sometimes a failure, but the fault is not with the insti
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CHAPTER VIII. THE FARMER’S TROUBLES.
CHAPTER VIII. THE FARMER’S TROUBLES.
T HE average American farmer is one of the best fellows in the world. He also is one of the most unfortunate. He generally comes to his profession by accident. He may not have meant to become a farmer, but through death, or change of family, or some other circumstance entirely out of his own control, he comes in possession of the family estates, almost certainly encumbered with mortgages, and must continue the family business to secure a living for himself. From the first he is doomed to lonelin
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CHAPTER IX. THE RUM POWER.
CHAPTER IX. THE RUM POWER.
M OST people have heard of the man who in a difficulty with a vicious bull finally got the animal by the tail. He could not hurt the brute, yet he did not dare to let go, so he was slung about most unmercifully, and at last accounts he was still being slung. The bull was in the wrong, the man in the right; still he had the animal only by the tail: instead of quieting or frightening the brute, he merely made him angry and was severely punished for his well-meant efforts. The people of the United
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CHAPTER X. NATIONAL DEFENCE.
CHAPTER X. NATIONAL DEFENCE.
I F Heaven helps only those who help themselves the United States will be deplorably helpless the first time they fall into difficulty with any foreign power. Ever since the late civil war ended the general of the army has annually given us earnest and intelligent warning as to the incomplete state of our fortifications, and the inability of our artillery for offensive and defensive operations against the improved armaments with which other nations have amply supplied themselves. The admiral of
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CHAPTER XI. LABOR.
CHAPTER XI. LABOR.
L ABORING men—this is their own title for themselves—do not work any harder than the remainder of their fellow-beings. But those who come under this title as it is generally understood have some grievances that must be removed before several million men can transverse the long distance between dissatisfaction and comfort. The Labor party, so-called, has made an ass of itself a great many times, but its blunders cannot change the fact that many of its complaints have a great deal of ground to sta
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CHAPTER XII. SELF-HELP FOR LABOR.
CHAPTER XII. SELF-HELP FOR LABOR.
I F the laboring man doesn’t want to be in a state of slavery, he must refrain from putting himself into chains. He is a good deal like the rest of us; he always blames somebody else for his condition. He won’t be able to get out of trouble until he lays most of the blame on himself. If a man feels obliged to enter into business relations with a lion he does not begin by putting his head into the animal’s mouth. If a workingman begins life with the belief, which seems prevalent now, that all emp
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CHAPTER XIII. IMMIGRATION.
CHAPTER XIII. IMMIGRATION.
B ECAUSE this is a land of liberty a great many foreigners imagine it a land of license. To do them justice, they do not know any better. But we do, and it is our duty to teach them the difference. If we don’t, we, not they, will be the principal sufferers. The subject of immigration has been largely discussed by the newspapers of late, and a good deal of demagogy has been got off in Congress on the same subject. But sensible people are pretty well agreed that it is time to put some restriction
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CHAPTER XIV. ANNEXATION.
CHAPTER XIV. ANNEXATION.
T HIS country has many important duties to fulfil in the family of nations, but annexation of other lands is not one of them. The contrary opinion is sometimes expressed, but the sooner we sit down upon it the less likely we are to neglect our own business. Annexation is an old business, and sometimes it has been profitable; but the nations who best understood it have but few of their old possessions left, and they would get rid of some of these, if they could without being laughed at. What nati
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CHAPTER XV. THE INDIAN.
CHAPTER XV. THE INDIAN.
I T was not very long ago that the Indian was the object of a great deal of discussion and alarm in the United States. He had a habit of breaking out at unexpected times and in unexpected places. He might be quiet in winter when the snow was deep and the reservation warehouse was so full of stores there was no possibility of his getting hungry, and consequently angry. When, however, the spring sun melted away the snow and brought the grass to the surface, so that it was cheaper to let a pony fat
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CHAPTER XVI. THE PRESS.
CHAPTER XVI. THE PRESS.
T HE editor is the great American schoolmaster. None other is worthy to be compared with him. He is about as numerous as all other teachers combined. His lessons are given more frequently, they last longer and they cost less than any others. To him forty-nine students in every fifty are indebted for the only post-graduate course they ever receive. Many others would have no education at all if it were not for him. He does not always know his business so well that he could not know it better, but
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CHAPTER XVII. THE SCHOOL-ROOM.
CHAPTER XVII. THE SCHOOL-ROOM.
T HE late lamented Sam Weller once spoke of a schoolboy, who, having learned the alphabet, wondered whether it was worth going through so much to learn so little. The same reflection has come to millions of Americans as they thought of how much time they had spent in schooling and how little they knew when they got out. There are parts of our vast country where the people are lucky enough to have teachers who know so little about the theories of teaching that they impart to their pupils more inf
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CHAPTER XVIII. RAILROADS.
CHAPTER XVIII. RAILROADS.
T HE railroad problem is one of the most complicated and vital questions of the day. Nothing, perhaps, is so typical of the ingenuity, skill and colossal power of our modern civilization as the railroad train—a solitary man holding the lever which controls this tremendous mass of wood and metal, with its freight of goods and passengers rushing past us at the rate of a mile a minute. The growth of the railroad is one of the greatest marvels of this wonderful century. England got her first road fr
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CHAPTER XIX. BANKS AND BANKING.
CHAPTER XIX. BANKS AND BANKING.
W E are told by an old chronicler of the quaint and curious that in ancient times a number of Hebrews scattered in the cities along the shores of the Mediterranean conducted a most profitable banking business without the use of capital, by drawing one upon the other, in a perfect circle, the draft upon one being taken up by the next banker in the series, and so on ad infinitum . Perhaps it will not do to scrutinize this story too closely, but there are many instances of almost as odd and ingenio
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CHAPTER XX. OUR CITIES.
CHAPTER XX. OUR CITIES.
A GREAT city is a great sore—a sore which never can be cured. The greater the city, the greater the sore. It necessarily follows that New York, being the greatest city in the Union, is the vilest sore on our body politic. If any one doubts it, let him live in New York awhile and keep his eyes and ears open. The trouble about great cities is not that they have any impetus or influence especially their own, but that every one, from the vilest all the way up to the best, is compelled by circumstanc
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CHAPTER XXI. RELIGION.
CHAPTER XXI. RELIGION.
O URS is the most religious country on the face of the earth. There are more churches to the square mile of city and village area than any other part of the world, not excepting the grand old city of Rome. They may not be all of the same denomination, but their attendants worship the same God. They may quarrel a great deal about points of faith, but on essentials they are, if not exactly one, so closely related that there is room for any amount of hope. About baptism and regeneration and sanctif
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CHAPTER XXII. WOMAN AND HER WORK.
CHAPTER XXII. WOMAN AND HER WORK.
F OR a whole generation the public has been hearing a great deal of woman’s rights. Already, however, woman has secured one of the greatest rights in the world. She has the right to labor in any capacity in which men hitherto have been employed. Some close observers have dignified this change by calling it the liberation of woman. But closer observers realize that it is also the liberation of man. Woman is doing a great deal of work which man used to do and which it was supposed only man was com
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CHAPTER XXIII. OUR LITERATURE.
CHAPTER XXIII. OUR LITERATURE.
A MERICANS are the greatest readers on earth. Any one can tell you this—any one from a college president down to the newsboy on a railway train. They read pretty much everything, and never are at a loss for ways of obtaining something to read. Books are cheaper here than anywhere else in the world, thanks to immunity from arrest and punishment for theft of literary property. We can take the brains of all Europe, as expressed in printed pages on the other side of the Atlantic, and reprint them he
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CHAPTER XXIV. AMERICAN HUMOR.
CHAPTER XXIV. AMERICAN HUMOR.
T HE burden of foreign criticism of the people of the United States may be expressed in the language of the vulgar by saying that we are “too fresh.” Well, if we are, we have the salt that will save us, and that salt is American Humor. Whatever may be the failing of any American, whether native or adopted, he may generally be depended upon for a sense of humor. If there is no other point of contact between him and the stranger who encounters him, it is quite safe to fall back upon humor as a com
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CHAPTER XXV. THE HIGHER EDUCATION.
CHAPTER XXV. THE HIGHER EDUCATION.
A MERICA has more colleges, so called, than all the other civilized nations combined. These institutions of learning are not results of accident, or accretions of church reverences and purposes, like the great universities of older lands. Most of them were founded and have been maintained by the people at large, and these, until recent times, were very poor. They are testimonials to the level-head and tenacity of purpose of the American people. Says President Gilman, of Johns Hopkins University:
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CHAPTER XXVI. OUR GREAT CONCERN.
CHAPTER XXVI. OUR GREAT CONCERN.
O URS is the greatest land in the world, and we, the people of these United States, ought to be the greatest people. At the present time it does not require any great amount of conceit to make us believe that we are superior to our neighbors, but it will not do to forget that the faculty of being up and growing is not one of which we have a monopoly. One of the founders of the Republic said: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” He might have added that it is the price of pretty much ever
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