Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-11-24

LSeNNANA - AtAAA1-A - RAtAI A4+tAA4 u q
woman on 2 big scale. let me ask. would
you individually prefer to be judged by
your faults or your yirtuess All people
except ourselves have faults.
The pessimist attempting to write Your
biography would take you in your weaker
moods, and the picture of you on the first
page of your biography would be as you
looked after some meanness had been prac.
ticed on you and you were tearing mad.
Now, as | am an optimist, give you fair
warning that if | ever write your biogra-
ply will take you as you looked the day
your dividends came in twenty per cent.
larger than you ever anticipated. or the
morning on your way to business after
your first child was born, or the morning
after your conversion, when heaven had
rolled in on your soul The most accursed
homunculi of all the earth are the pessi-
mists, who, whether they judge individual
or national character, and whether they
WELD tongue or pen, are filled with anathe.
matization. and who have more to say
about the freckles OH the cheek of beauty
than of the sunrises and sunsets that
flush it,
AMERICAS BEST FRIEND.
Ii is most important that this country
have right ideas concerning Russia, for
among all the nations this side of heaven
Russia is Americas best friend There
has not been an hour in the last seventy
five years that the shipwreck of free insti-
buttons in America would not have called
forth from all the despotisms of Europe
and Asia a shout of gladness wide as earth
and deep as perdition. But whoever else
failed us, Russia never did, and whoever
else was doubtful, Russia never was. Rus
STA, then an old government, smiled on the
cradle of our government while yet In its
earliest infancy. Empress Catherine of
Russia in 1916 or thereabouts offered kindly
interference that our thirteen colonies
might not go down under the cruelties Of
war.
Again, in 1918, Russia stretched forth to
ward us q merciful hand. When our
dreadful civil war was raging and the two
thunder clouds of northern and southern
valor clashed, Russia practically said to
the nations of Europe, Keep your hands
off and let the brave men of the north and
the south settle their own troubles" ! re-
hearsed some of those scenes to the emperor
last July, saying, You were probably too
young to remember the position your fla
ther took at that time" but with radiant
smile, he responded, "Oh. yes. remember,
/ remember" and there was an accentua-
tion of the words which demonstrated to
me that these occurrences had often been
talked of in the imperial household.
stood on New York Battery during the
war, as | suppose many of you did, looking
off through magnifying glass upon a
fleet of Russian ships. What are they
doing there9n / asked, and so every one
asked. What business have the Russian
warships in our New York harbors"
Word came that another fleet of Russian
ships was in San Francisco harbor. What
does this meant" our rulers asked, but did
not get immediate answer. In these two
American harbors the Russian fleets
seemed sound asleep. Their great mouths
of iron spoke not word and the Russian
flag, whether floating in the air or droop-
ing by the flagstaff, made no answer to
our inquisitiven SIS.
William II. Seward, secretary of state
asked the Russian minister at Washing
ton the meaning of those Russian ships in
American waters and got no satisfactory
response Admiral Farragut said to a
Russian officer after dining in the home
of the eminent politician, Thurlow Weed.
that maker and unmaker OF presidents,
'What are you doing here with those Rus
sian vessels of war;" Not until the war
was over was it found ont that in case Of
foreign Intervention all the guns and the
last gun of these two fleets in New York
and San Francisco harbors were TO open in
fun diapason upon any foreign ship that
should dare to interfere with the right Of
Americans, north and south, 10 settle their
own controversy.
But for those fleets and their presence in
American waters there can be no doubt
that two Of the miShtiest nations Of Europe
would have mingled in our fight But for
those two fleets the American government
would have been today only a name in his
tory. declare before God and the nation
that / believe Russia saved the United
States of America. Last July stood be-
fore a great throng Of Russians in the en-
barrassing position of speaking to an au-
dience three-fuurths OF which could not
understand my language any more than
could understand theirs. But there were
two names that they thoroughly under
stood as well as you understand them, and
the utterance OF those two names brought
forth an reclamation that made the city
hall Of ST. Petersburg quake from founda-
tion stone to towers, and those two names
were George Washington" and 'Abra-
ham Lincoln"
Now is it not important that we should
feel right toward that mighty, that God
given friend of more than one hundred
years. Yea, because it is nation of more
possibilities than any other, except our
own, should we cultivate its friendship.
There is vast realm of Russia as yet un-
occupied. Ii the population of the rest of
Europe were poured into Russia it would
be only partially occupied. After awhile
America will be so well populated that the
tides of emigration will go the other way,
and by railroads from Russia ut Behring
straits-where Asia comes within thirty
six miles of joining America-millions Of
people will pour down through Russia and
Siberia, and ON down through all the re-
gions waiting for the civilization of the
next century To come, and culture great
harvests and build mighty cities.
What the United States now are ON the
western hemisphere Russia will be ON the
eastern hemisphere. Not only because of
1. G.1s