The Portland daily press., 1877-02-22
M. l.. A. C0urse.

/ Lho sSAph oau COuCiuUlD2 entertainment IN
the course was given last evening to full and
enthusiastic audience, by Rev. II. M. Gala
her OF New Haven, Conn. The lecturer said in
| beginning he wished to say something about
| the growth and greatness of this country, and
| tne character of those who have made its growth
anu caused Its greatness. One hundred years
ago tne population was three millions, now
twenty times that number would not embrace
all VINO are called Americans. Now American
terrltory knows no limit but the ocean, which
| receives the setting sun. The little band of
Pilgrims which met at that gray rock in the
plymouth, received their judgments in true
submission, it was not fondled and cherished
colony; no, it was rejected one; but from that
little band has come this grand country, whose
CIVILIZATION has swept on and on like grand
forward flowing wave. At New York have ar
rived three millions of Irishmen, to say nothing
OF other nations; think of that! A country
able 70 swallow all that number, digest it, and
so ABSORB them thoroughly that they do not do
muon harm. This country is like the heaven
OF winch the Yankee said he would not be sat-
isneo with it If there were anything further
west Here was the birth-plac of the steam
boat, the telegraph, and above all the effect of
thaG mlghtiest engine ever devised, the daily
PRESS ~nioh compels the ambassador to return
home' the cabinet officer to resign, the swind-
Ter to disgorge his ill gotten gains, which guides
the thoughts OF all the people. The eight thou-
sand newspapers issue two billions of numbers.
How many are two billions! If you had begun
at the time of Adam and Eve and kept count
ing all the time, 60 minute counting all the
time Ike the Louisiana Returning Board, you
Will not have yet counted one million. All the
publications. in Europe are scarcely one third of
the number published here How would the Sc
cluded monk who spent whole Lifetime in
making one copy of prayer book gaze upon
the modern spectacle of printing press The
moral movements Of the present time are found
nowhere in such perfection as here In what
country but this could the Maine Law be pass
ed. Nowhere is there so much money raised
for religious purposes as here. Here woman's
rights flourish so we'll that women have already
more rights than men. Here there is our Az
ricultural College in every state in the Union.
The cities of Boston, Philadelphia and Balti-
more give more money for the support of COM
mon schools in proportion to their valuation
than any other cities in the world. From all
this printing comes the universal passion for
reading in this country, good trait certainly
and better cheap reading than none at all. la
Eng iapd the first purchaser of the London
Times, after reading his sheet re-sells it at a
lower price, and it is again and again re-sold.
just think of the brazen-facodness of my offer
ing my Tribune for sale after have read it,
But in obtaining this reading matter there is
great injustice for want of an International
copy right law, This want should be supplied.
The grandest result Of the great show at Phila-
delpha was not in all the richness of display,
but in its grand exhibition of humanity. There
are not here so many great and profound schol-
ars as in Germany, but on the other hand, there
is nowhere so wide spread intelligence.
Here are the means of life more easily pro-
cured than anywhere IN the world; here are
they more comfortably-not always more taste
fuily-dressed. In most foreign countries cloth
ing is the badge of condition; here the sexton is
more finely dressed than the minister, the
horse Car conductor as well as the wealthiest
stock hOlder. Here are there fewer beggars,
fewer cases of real and pretended want than in
any other country.
Abroad workman out of employment can
not turn his hands to any other work than that
to which he was brought up. The son follows
the trade of his father; here the son will not do
what his father does; ne must improve upon
that condition of things The Yankee, that is,
the typical American, is ahead every where,
rallroading in Russia, engineering in England,
putting down rebellion in China under con-
tract, success ful in everything, ready at any
thing, superior ill verything. The driving, 60
ahead character of this people is seen in the |
grandest enterprises of the age; the famous en- |
glneerng enterprises of the war; and equally |
IN its wit and humor. The character of the |
American humor is exaggeration. like this 60
Ing up a ladder to arrange ones neckte, or
down cellar to pull on ones boots, or the horse
which went up so fast in the circus that there
was horse all round wherever you looked
Then there is the tendency every where to coin |
strange words, slang phrases heard everywhere,
aud perfectly unintelligible to any but native
ear, and of such an immense variety that it al.
most forms a language of its own. The Amer
lean character is little unde rstood abroad, or
rather it is wilfully misunderstood but no.
where is there shown SO much patient endur-
ance Of wrong SO much magnauimity as here,
and the nations reekIng with blood and crime
sneer at the nation which they hate and fear.
1t is impossible to give in brief abstract
of the lecture the rich, racy humor with which
it abounded, and which kept the audience in a
confined ripple of laughter during the even
ing
The present course of entertainments has
been one of the best which was ever given by
the Association, and has been well patronzed
by enthusiastic audiences. who have appreciat.
ed the efforts of the lecture committee to fur.
nish them with the best available talent.