THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. xv 



CHICAGO, FEBRUARY, 1901. 



NO. 5 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA, 



Victoria When the great bell of St. 



the Great. Pauls proclaimed to London 

 the passing- of Queen Victoria, and later 

 when the sad news was transmitted over 

 continents and under seas to all quarters 

 of the globe, there was only one feeling in 

 all hearts that of love and admiration 

 and tenderest regret and sorrow for one 

 whose life and name stood not alone for 

 the sceptered majesty of a great kingdom 

 and empire, but also for one of the noblest 

 and purest ideals of womanhood. 



Kindred in race and blood, speaking 

 the same tongue and claiming part of the 

 same glorious heritage of ancient renown, 

 A.merica today stands side by side with 

 Britania at Victoria's bier. 



Americans have warm hearts and recog- 

 nize their friends whoever they may be. 

 And in Queen Victoria, throughout her 

 long life, this country always had a firm 

 friend. In the dark days of civil strife 

 and war, when some of her statesmen 

 faltered and declared the union was about 

 to be dissolved, Queen Victoria was stead- 

 fast and never ceased to uphold the side 

 and cause she believed to be for the right 

 and whose triumph would .mean most for 

 advancing humanity. It is matter of his- 

 tory that but for her influence England 

 probably would have gone to war with the 

 United States, o/er the Slidell and Mason 

 affair, and in the early days of the Spanish 

 American trouble it is now known that 



Queen Victoria also expressed to the 

 president of the United States 'her belief 

 in the righteousness of America's cause, 

 and assured him of England's friendship 

 and sympathy. ' ; 



In Europe, also, her name was a bulwark 

 of peace. Connected by ties of relation- 

 ship with most of the crowned heads of 

 Europe, all European rulers were ready 

 to strain a point, if need oe ? to keep on 

 terms of peace 1 with the empire over which 

 Victoria ruled.. Like Alexander III. of 

 Russia, "the peacemaker of Europe." 

 Queen Victoria's counsel and influence al- 

 ways were cast on the side of peace. That 

 events which were too strong for 'her to 

 overrule led to the South 'African war and 

 its many disasters was the greatest sorrow 

 of the closing days of her life. This tra- 

 gic finale to her reign adds a pathos to 

 her death, which was probably hastened 

 by worry and . sorrow : over' the South 

 African tragedy and events she felt her- 

 self powerless to control. And it is signi- 

 ficant of the place Victoria held in the 

 world ? s heart that not 'one, 1 hot ' even the 

 embattled Boers' of South' Africa, held her 

 responsible for the mistakes which precip- 

 itated England's most disastrous war of 

 the century, or for 'the" cruelties with 



which, in part at least, 'it has 'been con- 

 , .'>j BVfffife ' vj.:rr <) ; . , 

 ducted. 



'-' ' > l[ ' /l i A! 1 " (3* flcr.a.i_ii i 



As to her epitaph, that is characteris- 

 tic and was written by herself against the 

 time, now 1 at hand, when ' she 1 should be 



