The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-11-15
AS OTHERS SEE US.

words, the charge Whloh the keV. Irlce
Hughes levels at us as a nation. Dream,
optimists, betrayed by our wealth ant
our privileges. There is a pleasant
sense of laziness breathing through the
the feet of the passers-by in the street,
and the flame CLEANS and dances in the
open crate. But the establishment OF
the charge, as an actual fact, could be
considered by none of us as less than a
national misfortune. Has the American
people dwlndled into a nation of dreamy
optimlsts? II the charge be true, it is
not too much to say that, not only the
United States, but the whole world has
fallen back several rungs on the great
ladder of progress.
The accusation, that is launched at
our heads, comes from one who Is a for
eigner and a clergyman. Facts, each of
them, that add to, and subtract from,
the weight of the denunciation. If the
outsider sees most of the game, it may
we'll be that the foreigner may obtain a
more comprehensive glance of cur
national life than we ourselves can hope
to do While we ourselves may fail to
see the wood, we wander in, for trees,
the outsider from his point of vantage
may grasp, in comprehensive measure,
the full extent of fallen and rotten tim
Der that altogether escapes our observa-
ton. To see ourselves, as others see us,
has long and wisely been considered a
desirable addition to our stock Of self
knowledge. So far, the balance may
favor our reverend critic. But that he
is a clergyman lessons and narrows the
force Of his blow. Tt is the peculiar
province OF the clergyman to find fault.
Not that he does 30 in any carping
sense; that is not the meaning we would
convey. But, if this world had passed
into the region of beatitied perfection,
the occupation of the reverends would
be gone, and afternoon teas would suffer
with many other interests. Almost of
necessity, the life and the pursuits of
the clergy tend to narrow their views,
and it is an exceptionally strong man
amongst them, a man like Bishop Pot
ter, who can outspan the tendency.
They incline to measure all progress
and progress is as wide and all-embrac-
ing as the universe itself-from the
slender s%tandpoints of religious growth
and religious decadence. If the churches
are we'll filled and the collection boxes
rattle merrily, all the world is we'll. If
there be not these signs of faith, it is a
faithless and perverse generation, and
we must don sackcloth and ashes. AS
foreigner, we lend our critic a patient
ear; as minister, we hesitate to consider
his views in any other than the narrow
est sense.
Dreamer we hurl back in his--we beg
the reverend gentleman's ~pardon-we
had forgotten his cloth. Dreamer we
will have none Of. Optimists we may be-.
Dreamers, never. IT we are optimists,
we have never dreamed, lapsed, drivelled,
sunk into that condition. II we are op-
timists, we have steadily and determine
eddy marched into that position, with a
clear sense of our right and desire to
occupy it. Dreamers and Americans
the words are incompatible, their very
connection is absurd. One might as
we'll unite religion and sensatlonalism.
When and where has this country been
dreaming? If we VINO have taken the
foremost place in the industrial march
OF the worlds squadrons, if we have
been dreaming what sleep of death has
Laor, Sellt.n. 49, -zzA ~ A.. .--LI -.
fatal embrace?
Optimists! Well, we are prepared to
admit a certain sense OF proud self salts
faction and a 1rife Of weakness for de-
claring it. Perhaps we are not alto
gether modest, we Americans. We are
not guilty of hiding our light under the
bushel. We are the electric lights Of
the nineteenth century and our proper
position is on top of a lofty pole. We
entered upon our national career with
thousands of difficulties, political, COM
mercial and natural, to meet and over
come. One by one, with resolute hearts
and stout arms, We have unaided grappled
with and thrown our adversaries., Like
Deborah, in holy writ, we rejoice to sing
our song of triumph, and, if we occa-
%slonally put on the loud pedal for the
benefit of our foreign neighbors, why,
We may claim in excuse their persistent
refusal for many years to admit the ex-
cellence of our execution That bhey
have altered their ways and confessed
our skill, we know and rejoice in. But
the loud pedal has in the interval be-
come a good deal of u habit with us, the
national foot unconsciously still ham,
mers away upon it. What no foreign
nation wishes to deny, we continue to
assert, because we have been accus-
toned to assert what no foreign nation
would cheerfully admit. We are a great
people and we know it. 1t is no spread
eagleism that prompts the statement; it
is sober fact. That is not optimism; it
is self-confidence, engendered by past
achievement and success. Optimists we
are not, either in politics, sociology, re-
ligion or morals. Every day secs con
tinuous efforts made for improvement in
each and all Of these branches of human