Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-04-01
THE PROFESSIONAL CLUB.
"Our Age, our Country, and our
Duty"
As Discussed by Rev. 4. II. webb on
MOndny EvemIng.

As Discussed by Rev. \. II. webb on
Monday Evening.
At the March meeting of the Profession
al club, held at the Brooks House Monday
evening, Rev. A. II. Webb was the essay
list. His subject was sour Country, our
Age and our Duty our age, he said, is
the age of invention. During the lifetime
of some present more and greater invcn-
tions have been born than i'm all the ages
of the past combined. 1t is the age of lit
crature. More papers, magazines and
books have been printed and read-not to
say digested-during the last 20 years, than
in the 5000 years preceding. 1t is the age
of knowledge, of intellectual activity. 1t
is the Anglo-Saxon age. 1t is the prod
uct the flower and the cream of every age.
Could some Rip Van Wrinkle, who had
swallowed four times as much from the
mysterious keg as did Irving unique crca-
ton, and had slept four times as long in
consequence, awake today, instead of find
ing things rusty, widowed and moth eat
en-, he would be astonshed at their bright
ness, and at the mighty rush and hurry of
the age. In fact the very hum and whirl
of things would make him sleep again the
sleep from which he might never awake.
Inventions more remarkable than any yet
seen are dreamed of, and their perfection
confidently expected 1t is an age of arbi-
tration. War is not as popular as it was,
and the people do not think it 50 noble
thing 1t is an age of philanthropic and
benevolent movement, of education and
general advancement. 1t is an age which
gives promise of coming of that time
when all men will feel that they are stew
ards upon earth and not proprietors
That our country is IA large one is grant
ed by all. Charles Dickens said that the
typical American would hesitate to enter
heaven unless assured that he could 20
further west. When we consider that our
one state of Texas might be so divided as
to furnish a home and half-acre of land for
every family of five on the face of the earth,
and then furnish hundreds of thousands
of acres for paSturage, we can form some
idea of the immensely of the country
which God has given us. DIR. Newman
once said that our country was the most
beautiful and desirable portion of the
earth in its geographical location, its varic-
ty of climate. and its hOundlcss resources
The fairest and richest part of the earth
thus being given us, the e>sayist believed
that it was for purpose, and that God in
tended il to bca training ground where the
ed educated aud fitted for this life and the
life beyond our fathers recognized this
in the broad invitation which they gave 10
all the nations of the earth to send their
people here and take up their abode, but of
late there has been inclination to shut the
doors If, however, We compare our area
and population with other countries we
shall have to admit that this inclination is
premature In America there are only
eight persons to the square mile. In Bel
GUM there are $50, in Holland 300. in the
United Kingdom of Great Britain 3l2. If
You take England alone there are $50 to
the square mile. In Norway and Finland,
the most thinly populated countries in Eu-
rope, there are IL people to the square
mile, twice as many as in this country.
What is needed is not a closing of our
gates not cOntract-labor law, which is
often a cruelty, an injustice and farce
but closer watch and severer dealing
with those nations who have been inhu-
manly and maliciously dumping their poor
and crippled on our shores.
The essayiSt believed it to be our duty,
as lovers of our country, to give more at
tention to these incoming crowds that the
time, and care, and means, spent on them
when they first arrive will be more profita-
BILE than at any other time. at is our du-
ty to meet them with brothers grasp, to
educate them and keep them as far as pos
sibe from the clutches of those who have
nothing but selfish or political ends to
serve; above all to care for their spiritual
needs for ! believe in the axiom that the
soul of all improvement is the improve
ment of the soul, and that the supreme
need of the people is the gospel of Christ. -
The essayist rejoiced in the good work
which had been done in breaking up
the great lottery evil of the country, and
deprecated the trusts and monOpOlieS so far
as these immense aggregations of capital
are used for the oppression of the people
He next alluded to and described the ia
nous sweating system, as it exists in
some of the large cities of the country,
| prefacing it with this humorous descrip-
ton of Boston, to New Englanders the
finest and fairest city on the continent,
taken from the New York Graphic
Boston the first solid bit of ground in the
universe. The more intelligent and highly organ
] lzed ANIMALS of the miOcene and plocene periods
! lived at Boston. Here the pterodactyl unused
! over the past, and the megatherum pOndered the
/ future The first man was a Boston man. He
| was developed from spores out of Boston mud,
| lie took out patent for himself so that he could
not be initiated Boston was vaguely known to
| the Greeks, 1t is the real site of the tabled At
| lantis Moses would have got 10 Boston had not
! the lsraelites been so stupid and obstinate King
Solomon always had an aspiration to get to Boston.
Plato died longing TO visit the neighboring groves
! of Concord and hold sweet communion with the
! COncoTlians. Calico invountarily turned the
first telescope in the direction of Boston The
/ Egyptians built the pyramids looking to Bos
/ ton from their SUBMITS Diogenes rolling his
! tub toward Boston when death overlook him
And yet there are transactions taking
place in that fair city which ought to make
each one of us blush with shame. Several
illustrations were quoted from Louis