The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-04-24

Unc'e sam 10 Slow Ia Ang-'. but HAD
when Ne Gets ~.
IT,on, \ a~Iia.a MILL

Uncie sam is Slow Ia Ang~,. bu, isad
when Ne Gets ~.
From LesIie's Weekly.
In all the history of mankind there
never was a national character so on
derfuily patient as Uncle Sam. he is
portrayed as a high-strung. nervous.
excitable, sensational person apt to
into dangerous troubles I'M
duly. and almost sure to behave him.
self awkwardly after he gets in. He Is
charged with having upset the a d
tons and precedents of centuries by
speaking the truth even in diplomacy.
and he Is supposed to be the sort of "A
blunderer who eats with a knife n
carries a chip on his shoulder. When
foreign caricature forsakes this view
of the amiable old gentleman, IL pic
lures him as a pork packer or a merce-
nary pursuer of the sordid dollar.
This Is not material. except that II
calls attention 20 the real man. In his
short career of a little more h a
century he has made a great deal of
history. and IL has been the cleanest
history that literature can show. Never
has there been a time when he was not
slow i'm entering upon a quarrel. Even
the colonies. from whose dauntlessness
he was horn. bore injustice for many
weary years before resorting to force,
and the good E~nglishmen of that CEN
fury wondered why the revolution was
not begun earlier han il was.
For full. a dozen wears Uncle Sam
saw his ships searched. his seamen i'm
pressed. his rights violated, and his
name spurned. and he bore IL heroically
until he was simply obliged to admin
lister to the offending nation a second
c~astigation. He finally, with much re-
greet. declared war and won the fight.
He allowed the pirates of the Mediter-
ranean plenty of time and full oppor-
tunity to make amends, and then re-
luctantly taught them the lesson they
needed
In the war with Mexico he stood off
i'm the hope of not being obliged to take
heroic measures. and when the time
came he succeeded as usual. In the
civil war he never abandoned the eff
forts for peace until destiny showed him
upon the battlefield. and when ii was
all over he was the forgiving and help
ing father and not the depressing con-
queror. Recently. In the Venezuelan
case. he stood the conventional lies of
diplomacy and International politics
long before he spoke sharply to the
guilty and brought them to their senses.
A man of peace, who has never sought
hostilities of any kind. he has uniform
ly counted a hundred-or more-'before
saying an angry word. ana ne sfoNs
more conservative with age. We are
daily seeing his immense patience used
and through il all he looms superbly as
the kindest. most just and most power
full force of humanity n civilization
IL is gratifying, therefore, to read the
pleasant things the other nations are
saying about lin. They do not yet
fully grasp his unparalleled magnani-
nifty. but they do begin to appreciate
the great fact that behind all his pa
thence lies an uncomfortable spirit and
behind all his purposes rests the grim
determination to do wha rs right in the
kindest and most merciful way.
He comes into the court of the world
with clean hands, and the most he has
ever asked is a fair judge and an hon
est Jury. In the events of the present
year all the patience of the past, all the
humanity of the present. and all the
well-considered interests of the future
seem perfectly united in the ripe and
cautious wisdom of the policy that Is
sure before it is aggressive.
But there is a timS when patience
ceases to be a virtue.'