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pictures in "Punch" of the spirits that rose from its hed, indicate some- 

 thing of the woe and horror of this folly. There is productive power 

 enough in it, if conducted to the land, to feed all the poor of London. 

 Have you read in one of the volumes of " Les Miserables," Victor Hu- 

 go's description of the sewer of Paris, and his reflections on it? Pie 

 tells his countrymen that all that filth is gold, and that they sweep it 

 into the abyss. We fit out convoys of ships at great expense to gather 

 up at the South pole the droppings of petrels and penguins, and the 

 incalculable element of wealth which we have under our own handle 

 send to the sea. All the human and animal manure which the world 

 loses, restored to the land, instead of being thrown into the water, would 

 suffice to nourish'the world. These heaps of garbage at the corners of 

 the stone blocks, these tumbrils of mire jolting through the streets at 

 night, these horrid scavengers' carts, these foetid streams of subterra- 

 nean slime which the pavement hides from you, do you not know what 

 all this is ? It is the flowering meadow ; it is the green grass ; it is mar- 

 joram, and thyme, and sage; it is game; it is cattle; it is the satisfied 

 low of huge oxen at evening; it is perfumed hay; it is golden corn.; it 

 is bread on your table; it is warm blood in your veins; it is health, it 

 is joy, it is life. Thus wills that mysterious creation which is transfor- 

 mation upon earth, and transformation in heaven. 



The English are now fighting Japan. Some of our citizens are eager, 

 I find, that there shall be a regular, open, legitimate rupture between the 

 Tj-coon and the English Government, in which oar Republic shall not. 

 get involved. They want to see Japan recognized by our Cabinet as a 

 belligerent. And then, with the help of a score or two of privateers, 

 built in American ship yards for our dusky neighbors in the Pacific, they 

 want to see America strictly neutral in the contest. If England breaks 

 into Japan and conquers it, there is one thing in which the half-civilized 

 Mongolians can defy their civilized foe to instruct them — the great art 

 of keeping the soil fertile steadily for centuries. Japan is about as large 

 as England and Ireland combined. So much of its area is hilly that 

 hardly more than half is fit for tillage. Great Britain imports food from 

 other countries to the extent of many millions annually. But Japan 

 supports a larger population than England and Ireland. She exports 

 grain now to foreign countries. She maintains the richness of her soil, 

 and has kept it at a high and even rate of productiveness through centu- 

 ries that stretch back beyond the decay of Greece, beyond the birth of 

 Rome, to the days of Solomon — possibly to the age of Moses. She has 

 done it by careful obedience to the laws of restoration which God has 

 written in the soil. She treats the soil as a factory. Wanting cloth from 

 it, she gives the woof out of which the cloth is woven. She finds that 

 nature will toil for man forever, if man will give her the elements for 

 her miracles, She reverently offers to the wand of Providence the filth 

 of cities, that it may be transmuted into flowers and bread. The civil- 

 ized world is now waiting for some method bv which the sewerage of 

 its great capitals and towns can be deodorized and concentrated into 

 solid form, in order that agriculture may advance another stage, and 

 give promise of a perpetual permanence of " seed to the sower and bread 

 to the eater" — that is, give an unyielding basis to civilization. 



California will prove no exception to the general law of nature which 

 enforces economy toward the soil. Our land is rich, but its richness is 

 a limited quantity, and after a few years will show the symptoms of too 

 severe a draft upon its generosity. The Creator does not increase its 

 fatness by the yearly silt of overflow. He gives it to us as a trust, and 



