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science dispels the fog of superstition, world-wide monar- 

 chies give place to the free commonwealth of nations. 

 Men of diverse languages meet in friendly concord, set- 

 tling disputes of sovereignties. The proud aristocrat re- 

 tires before the rising- generation of free men. The Rus- 

 sian serf goes free. The crescent, proud emblem of im- 

 perialism, wanes before the rising cross. The British 

 slave lays down his shackles in the orange groves of the 

 Indies. The dark child of Africa walks through the 

 snowy cotton fields in conscious freedom. The pulse 

 beats strong in the hearts of all the down-trodden of Eu- 

 rope, while multitudes come thronging over the sea, to 

 breathe the air of freedom. It is the grandest of all the 

 centuries. Commerce, "born in the wild-wood, cradled 

 in the deep," spreads its white wings in tempest and calm, 

 bearing evermore over the thoroughfares of the sea the 

 pledges of universal brotherhood, and creates new paths in 

 dark lands before unknown, repeating in the darkest pla- 

 ces of earth the Divine command, "Let my people go," 

 and lo ! the wilderness and the solitary place is glad and 

 the desert blooms as the rose. 



The change is in man. Earth keeps on, ever the same, 

 its sunshine and storm, its rain and dew, its perpetual 

 harvests, giving like a bountiful mother forever, but man 

 has changed ; the transformation has been in character. 



It is inspiring to look at the part which our American 

 life has had in this ongoing and uplifting. We have no 

 peasantry. We hardly know the meaning of the word. 

 We have to go to the dictionary to learn it. 



Fifteen of our Presidents were taken from the farm, 



