The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-30

when they come to die don't bother
 themselves about the future, There are other people who see divine provi-
 dence in everything; who in every in-
 cident of life recognize the controlling
 influence of superior power; whose
 whole life is directed to the end of it;
 who firmly believe in a hereafter and
 whose highest and best energies are
 directed to preparing themselves for it's
 anticipated rewards and punishments
 If anybody will look about in the
 community in which he lives, he will
 find that all the so-called best people,
 or the majority of them, belong to the
 second class, that is the class of be-
 lievers. There are of course various
 degrees of believers. Some express
 their belief emphatically; others timid-
 ly. Some proclaim too loudly, others not loud enough There is just as much
 variety in belief as in any other human
 activity. In New Haven the vast ma-
 jority Is on the side of belief. All Ro-
 man Catholics are sound believers. All
 Center church people are good believ-
 CTS. All Trinity church people-Doug-
 lass, or anti-Douglass-are fair believ-
 CTS. All Quinnipiack club people are
 average believers. As the religious
 man as well as the social man wishes
 to be ranked with the best people, and
 as the best people in New Haven are
 religious, it must be assumed that the
 New Haven man is a religious man.
 Now comes the question, what does he
 think of the present spell of rain.
 If no grain of sand, no drop of water,
 be moved without a purpose, there
 must be tremendous purpose in the
 liquid movements of the last few
 weeks. It is the humble duty of the religious man to inquire what the pur- pose may be, so as to abet it with every cooperation in his feeble power. The more the matter is considered the more evident it appears that the pur- pose must in some way be connected with the war; for the war and the rain
 have come in together and they are ex-
 traordinary and unusual phenomena But what is the connection? It must be promised that in taking providential views of things the greatest liberty of point of view is allowable. The provi- dential view man takes of an occur renee must depend upon the View he takes of providence. This depends in turn upon the nature and the education of his conscience, and consciences
 must be as free as air. At least that
 is the Yankee view of conscience.
 A plausible notion of the rain might be that it is intended to wash out all remaining war fever. There was not very much war fever to start with in this community. To wash it out would not have required half the rain that has already fallen had its intent been discovered and the application accept ed. The war has only lasted a month, but several things have already been accomplished To begin with the idea that all the world and his wife are dy- | ing to become citizens of the United | States has recieyed its quietus. When Dewey smashed the Spanish fleet, il was supposed that immediately Ameri- can flags would appear on all the peaks | of all the Philippine islands; that the | Spaniards would flee away somewhere l in terror; that the natives would cal | themselves together in town meetings; | that state governments on the Ameri- can plan would be established, and that l by this time a score or more of the brand new United States senators clothed in their native modesty an6 paint, would be sailing away fol Washington to join the Republican phalanx for higher protection and more | liberal pension laws But Dewey is | still aboard his war vessels and the | most powerful telescope fails to dis. ! ciy p1a opt,ia Hn or eit gle manifestation of American feeling | from one end of the islands to the | other.
 | Another infatuation was that tn mere declaration of war would suffic l to revolutionize Cuba; that at ono | there would be such a wholesale de sertion to Gomez that the Spaniard l would fall on their knees implorins mercy, and that all the United State would have to do would be to sail owe
 to Havana on an American liner
 whoop it up for while, eat fresh ban
 anas and then return home fat witt
 glory and with assured pensions. Thes
 and other deceits have faded away, ant l the rain is helping us to begin to real | ize what serious business our ruler l at Washington have got us into. Ther is another view of the rain which ha | quite as good foundation to stand ol | and which is more patriotic; that is | patriotic from a war point of view l Why may not the rain be a providen ] tial dispensation of seasoning for tn l still greater rains which the boys il | blue will have to face when they actu | ally reach Cuba? If they have Stoo | the wet of the last three weeks withou