Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-03-14


written between Jew and GENTLE, between
Turk and Russian, between English and
French. between Mongolian and anti.
Mongolian. between black and white, and
put up over that grave Tor tombstone some
| scorched and jagged chunk Of scoriR spit
out by some volcanic eruption and chisel
on it for epitaph: ''Here lies the carcass
| of one who cursed the world. Aged, near
six thousand years. Departed this life
for the perdition from whence it came
No peace to its ashesw
Now, in view of this subject, have two
point blank words to utter, one suggest
| ing what foreigners ought to do for us,
the other what we ought to do for foreign
ers. First to foreigners. Lay aside all
apologetic air and realize you have as
much right as any man who was not only
himself born here, but his father and his
| grandfather and greatgrandfatber before
him. Are you an Englishman! Though
during the Revolutionary war your fathers
| treated our fathers roughly, England mas
more than atoned for that by giving to
this country at least two denominations
of Christians, the Church of England and
| the Methodist Church. Witness the mag.
| nifcent liturgy of the one and the ives.
| leyan hallelujahs of the other. And who
shall ever pay England for what Shakes
peare and John Milton and Wordsworth
and thousand other authors have done
| for America? Are you a Scotchman!
| Thanks for John Knox's Presbyterianism;
| the balance wheel of all other denomina-
| tions. And how shall Americans ever pay
| your native land for what Thomas Chal-
| mers and Macintosh and Robert Burns
| and Chris opher North and Robert Nc
Cheyne and Chandlish and Guthrie have
| done for Americans?
Are you Frenchman? We can not for
| get your Lafayette, who in the most des-
| perate time of our American revolution,
| New York surrendered and our armies fly
| ing in retreat, espoused our cause and at
Brandywine and Monmouth and York.
| town put all America under eternal obliga-
tion. And we can not forget coming to
the rescue of our fathers Rochambeau and
his French fleet with 600 armed men.
Are you German? We have moi forgot
| ten the eleven wounds through which
| your Baron De Kalb poured out his life
| blood at the head of the Maryland and
Delaware troops in the disastrous battle
| at Camden, and after we have named our
streets and our cities and our counties
after him we have not paid tithe of what
we owe Germany for his valor and self
sacrifice. And what about Martin Luther,
the giant German who made way for re-
ligious liberty for all:lands and ages? Are
you Polander? How can we forget your
brilliant Count Pulaski, whose bpnes were
laid in Savannah river after a mortal
wound gotten while in the STIR
rups of one of the fercest cavalry
charges of the American revolution! But
with no time to particularize l say: "All
hail to the men and women of other lands
who come here with honest purpOseW Re-
nOunce all obligation to foreign despO Sc
Take the oath of American allegiance.
Get out naturalization papers Don't talk
against our institutions, for the fact that
you came here and stay shows that you
like ours better than any other. If you
don't like them there are many steamers
going out of our ports almost every day,
and the fare is cheap and, lest you should
be detained for parting civilities, bid you
good by now. But if you like it here then
l charge you at the ballot box, in legisa-
tive hall, in churches and everywhere be
out and out Americans. Do not try to es-
tablish here the loose foreign Sabbaths or
transcendentalism spun into religion Of
mush and moonshine, or foreign ibertin-
ism, or that condensation of all thievery,
scoundrelism. lust, murder and perdition,
which in Russia is called nihilisw and in
France called communism and in America
called anarchism. Unite with US in max
ing by the grace of God the Is, 000,OOO
square miles on both sides the Isth.nus of
Panama the paradise of virtue aud re-
ligion
My other word suggests what Americans
ought to do for foreigners. By all possible
means explain to them our institutions.
Coming here, the vast majority of them
know about as much concerningiRepublic
an or Democratic form of government as
you in the United States know about the
politics of Denmark or France or Italy
or Switzerland, namely, nothing. Ex-
plain to them that liberty in this country
means liberty to do right, but not liberty
to do wrong. Never in their presence say
any thing against their native land, for no
matter how much they may have been OPP
pressed there, In that native land there
are sacred places, cabins or mansions
around whose doors they played, and per-
haps there is somewhere a grave into
which they would like, when life's tolls
are over, to be let down. for it is mothers
grave and it would be like going again
into the loving arms that first held them
and against the bosom that pillowed them.
Myl my! how low down a man must have
descended to have no regard for the place
where his cradle was rocked. Don't mock
their brogue or their stumbling attempts
at the hardest of all languages to learn,
namely, the English language. warrant
that they speak English as well as you
could talk Scandinavian. Treat them in
America as you would like to be treated if
for the sake Of your honest principles or a
better livelihood for yourself or your
family you had moved under the
shadow of Jungfrau, or the Rigi, or the
Giants Causeway, or the Bohemian
Forest, or the Franconian Jura. If they
get homesick, as some of them are, sug-
gest to them that God is as near to help
them here as He was near them before
they crossed the Atlantic, and that the
SOUPS final flight is less than a second
whether from the beach of the Caspian.
sea or the banks of Lake Erie. Evangel-
iZe their adults through the churches and
their children through the schools and
let home missions and tract societies and
the Bible translated in all the languages
of these foreign people have full swing.
Rejoice as Christian patriots that in
stead OF being an element of weakness the
foreign people thoroughly evangelical
will be our mightiest defense against all
the world. The Congress of the United
States recently ordered built new forts
all up and down our American coasts, |
and new navy is about to be projected. |
But let me say that 500, coz, 900 expended |
in coast defense will not be so mighty as q |
vast foreign population living in America |
With hundreds of thousands of Germans
in New York, Germany would as soon |
think of homhshellinp Berlin as attacking