The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1862-07-19

without zest, flat, stale and improbable.
While the other nations have contributed |
freely, the American department is but a
beggarly account of empty boxes. What
John sees. though much of it is very nice,
possesses little interest for him, for he has
seen it, or something very much like it,
before. It amounts, after all, to little else
than s.Monsieur Tonson come again" The
originality, the inventiveness, the mechan- |
ical genius which so dumbfounded him ten
years ago, and enlightened him too, are rep
resented now only by an aching void. He
now experiences neither sensation nor an
idea; and gets no chance either of venting
his bile or of playing the fool, which at
times is his peculiar privilege. We all re-
member how, ten years ago, John fairly
cudgeled his brains week in and week Out,
for abuse of the American contributions
when the show first opened. He exhaust
ed his wind and bottom in showing up the
ridiculous, grotesque, tawdry, clumsy,
gingerbread patchwork, journeyman made,
mongrel constructions that belong to peo-
pie who would be centaurs and mermen if
they would, and are always rebelling agains!
the trammels of unity" After John had
pretty we'll let off his spleen the time came
for some of these ridiculous Yankee notions
to be put to the test. The plows, whose
! lightness and fragllity made them fit only
for fancy gardening, were set in motion in
the stiffest soil, before an agricultural jury,
draught and efficiency of execution, was
| quite amazed; and the very next thing he
did was to buy all he could lay his hands
upon, and to order score or more to be
shipped at New York at his own risk. A
reaping machine, which John, in his bill
ious Righteousness, had characterized as ga
cross between an Astley's chariot, tread
mill, and flying machine was taken in
to grain field and put into operation.
John looked on as pompous as King Cam
byses, but thousand times more innocent
of the real science of reaping than the
greenest Yankee pumpkin. AS he saw
! clean swath, ten feet wide, opening before
him as fast as span of horses could walk,
and work done by single American in an
hour which twenty Englishmen could not
have done in day, he gave his skull
scratch or two, sent back word that the
| thing would ''secure to English farming
protection against climate and an economy
of labor which must prove of incalculable
advantage" and could hardly restrain his
eagerness to get some of them over the wa
ter in time for the next harvest. A Yankee
picked the crack lock of England in TWEEN
ty-four minutes and half. Another Yam
kee brought in an American lock, with a
thousand-dollar bill under it and English
men of every breed tried their hands at it
for forty-fve days in vain, even though the
real keys were given them with which to
operate. John thus began to find out the
meaning and the use of some of the Yam
kee ''gimcracks," and it is to his credit
that he turned them to excellent account.
He will freely admit that his ten years use
of the Yankee inventions, which were sent
to his Crystal Palace, has been worth to
him more than that whole exhibition cost,
a hundred times over. They have saved
him mint of money and a world of trouble.
Of course, then, Brother Jonathan must
be sadly missed on the present occasion.
The whole affair threatens to be downright
Jfasco without him. Yet, after all, his alb
sence, under the circumstances, is no real
misfortune. He is engaged in teaching an
other lesson, which, if John Bull will
rightly lay at heart, will be infinitely more
valuable to him than all the labor-saving
machines Yankee wit ever devised. 1t is
time that John should feel that man lives
not by bread alone. We are showing him
the power that lies in democratic institu-
tons to inspire a nation with immortal faith
and courage in darkest times, enabling it to
rise triumphant and glorifed when he was
sure it was sinking into an abyss Of ruin.
We are showing him how to raise volunteer
armies, how to construct extemporaneous
navies, how to maintain efficient blockades,
how to keep full exchequers. how to crush
colossal rehellion-how to do all those
things which he has over and over again
pronounced absolutely and utterly impossi
BILE. We are glad to perceive that John
bids fair to prove an apt scholar in this case
as in the other. He has already got well
out Of his vituperative vein, and just as il
used to be when the real meaning of the
reaping machines began TO dawn upon
him, he is now IN dead maze. AS his
organ, the Times, expresses it, .'The whole
history is a mystery as well as marvel. It
is almost as hard to believe what has oc-
Cured as to imagine what will ultimately
happen" This marks progress-frst the
unreasoning stolid abuse, then the blank
beWilderment that comes from practical
demonstration, and incipient conviction; in
due time we shall have distinct recognition,
and In the end, percbance-who knows p
positive imitation. When John s eruptions
of spite subside into a silent middle of
wonder. it is sure sign that, anon, his
wits will clarity, and that he will talk and
act like a rational being. This is Johns
way of getting wisdom. He is thus learn
ing to respect democratic ideas; and, sensi-
bic fellow that he is, after all, in the long
run, be viii finally turn them to practical
account himself-a long while hence, per-
haps, but all the more surely in the end.
/ Yes, John, the lesson we taught you ten