Omaha daily bee., 1885-03-31

had come to regard her as q kind OF ideal
lady for the white house; one who, In her
enlarged sphere, would spread q benign
influence In all the circles In which she
might move; when 10, there came floating
along In the newspapers an item like
this: "Miss Cleveland delivered q lee.
ture last summer (befors some institute)
an "Altr ulstic Faith" ''There there, the
ideal is broken" 1 muttered to MYSELF,
"she must be a blue.stoekihg. AltruiStic,
AltruiStio; too much for me; where Is
Webster2" Notifying to confess it, but
l was relieved when 1t was not to be
found In the main dictionary, and was
only found In the latest SUPPLEMENT. Gal.
truistic,-regard for the rights of others,
opposite selhshness, that Is good.
"THE HIGHEST, GROWING, VIRTUE
in the school of Positive philosophy"
That is better. l then remembered nav
Ing looked up the word once before, but
it had gone fro1 my memory. The prin-
ciple is the expression Of the highest, and
noblest development in the true life of
man or m 1t Ia the very essence of
beneicence, of real brotherhood; 1t Is the
very spirit and the essence of the teach.
ings of that matchless code Of morals and
of laws proclaimed by Him, who, while
IN earth, sake words of comfor5 and OF
hope to all, If Miss @. illustrates her
faith In this principle In the presidential
mantion, and l do not she will, she
will be in her Appropriate sphere. There
is reason to believe the house will be q
good American home, with homelike in.
f~luences surrounding 1t; no modelling
after Anglican customs aud styles, no en-
~coursgement to snobbish aristocracy, and
post midnight suppers will be things of
the past. Miss Cleveland is, evidently,
a good, very sensible, christian lrdy.
THE TREATIES.
The withdrawal of the Spanish and
Nicaragua treaties indicates that this
administration does not intend to take
things second hand, that 1t intends to In
augurate tic own polity In such matters.
Whether they will return to the senate
at the next session il doubtful. 1t did
seem to me that by the Nicaragua treaty
an opportunity was presented to the
Uni,ed States to accomplish something In
a field to which their attention should
have been given long ago. Its %ratifica-
ton would have given US a controlling In
terest In the canal, though, of course, 1t
would have been open to the commerce
of ali nations; but the United States
would have been the dominant power
there. 1t would have planted American
interests In that quarter-it would have in
expanding American commerce-it would
have given us water communication with
u extensive Pacific coast, and with our
faraway Alaska possessions; and it would
have been an additional pillar In support
of our American Monroe doctrine. If
we have lost the opportunity,
it will be only a repetition
of what has occurred before, when we
have let slip from US opportunities for
obtaining valuable acquisitions, by
H sUrINENEss OF OUR DIPLOMACY,
and when q secretary of state does stiffen
up his yertibrae enough to take a for
ward step without taking off bis hat to
the nations of Europe and asking their
permission, the senate is likely to take a
step in the opposite direction. Timidity
has been too much of a feature of our
foreign policy. Our secretaries of state
have been hampered by that bugbear of
the Clsyton-Bulwer treaty, which was a
blunder from the start on our part, and
which now belongs to the diplomatic rub
bish of the dead past, and which Great
Britain has, time and sgain, violated, |
and has thus released us from all obliga-
tion to be bound by IL. What this nation
needs is a firm, decided, American for
eign policy-in other words, America
must assert heraelf.
N SCARCELY REALIZES NOW
without looking at the map, that the
United States border on the north, or
one portion Of 1t on the Arctic seas, and
on the west upon Behring Strait
1t stretches from q point
where one can stand and look across the
channel, thirty-Heven miles, into Asia,
and then fix his glance IN the Arctic cir.
Gle, to the southern most part of Florida
In the Gulf of Mexico.
The treaty negotiated by VIM. H.. Sew
ard with the Russian minister, for the
purchase of the Russian possession. was
Alaska, on the north coast, excited much
ridicule at the time. 1t was regarded as
a vast expanse of wild, desolate, waste,
over the most of wbichno foot of civilized
man had aver trod; as valueless as the
of the sea that washed Its coast,
bringing to us only walrus, icebergs,
polar bears, and a few miserable eaqui-
maux Indians. 1t was a part of the
great belt reaching from Behring Strait,
the Frozen Ocean, to Baffings
Bay, unexplored md unexplorable; lay.
Ing there as an impossible bearer between
that ocean and that portion of the North
continent, susceptible of sus.
human life. The seal fishery was
developed; no one then really
comprehended what that might amount
to in the future. In the executive sss.
sion Senator Sumner made one of
the abless, most learned and
most elaborate speeches he over
uttered. He made exhaustive inves!iga.
and researches into all the histories,
and In all the languages, where anything
to be found bearing on that region
of the world, from the earliest discoveries
down to the then present time, and por-
In vivid colors the advantages to
result from the possession Of that terri
tory. 1t Is not saying too much, to
state that his speech undoubtedly carried
the senate, and gave success to what, at
first, seemed a hopeless task. The treaty
was ratified. The Russian exchequer be-
came riohsr by the addition of 81, 000,-
900, the price agreed upon by the nego-
ttoto,. Nd ave. H. tbo TT,l+oJ Ct.to. |