Connecticut western news., 1898-12-01

n.clCs ', GI5 - - usI-. Ior1 out U Une dare tell them, but keep it from them all everlasting secret, lest they too much despise our nineteenth century and curse the memory of their ancestors.
 The Dying Century.
 Will it not be grand if on the first day of the twentieth century the last will and testament of the nineteenth century shall be opened and it shall be found to read: "In tue name of God. amen. l, the dying century, do make this my last will and testament. I give and bequeath to my heir, the twentieth century, peace of nations; swords, which 1 direct to be beaten into plow- shares, and spears, which must be turn ed into pruning hooks; armories, to be changed into schoolhouses. and for tresses, to be rebuilt into churches, and I order that greater honors be put on those who save life than upon those who destroy 1t, and if, amid the universal peace now attained, those two nations, Spain and Turkey, do not stop their cruelties, let the other nations, banded together, extemporiZe a police fierce to wipe those countries eff the map of Da- tions as wet sponge wipes from boys slate at school hard sum in arithmetic. This last will 1 sign and seal and deliver on ths 31st day of December, in tine year of OUT Lord, 1900, all the civilized nations of earth and all the glorified na- tions of heaven witnessing.
 But what we do as individuals, as churches, as nations, as continents, we must do very soon if we want the 'trarsi- tion from century to century to be q worthy transition, for 1 hear the trum- pets of the approaching century and the clattering hoofs of the host it leads on.
 For historical reminiscence there is no street in all the world like wonder Pennsylvania avenue. Champs Elysees of Paris IS more brilliant; Princess street, Edinburgh, more picturesque; {; Unter den Linden, Berlin, more richly foliaged; Piccadilly street, LoEdcn, more populous; Nevsky Prospekt of St. Petersburg stands for more years; the Corso of Rome IS lined with more an- tiquities, but for an intelligent and patriotic American youdor avenue has no equal for suggestiyeness. The other night, while thinking of this subject, as to the way in which we ought to meet the new century, so near at hand, I fell into a sort of dreamy state, in which the chronology of events seemed obliterated, and I saw on Pennsylvania avenue two processions, which seemed k<~~ l.s out and another comes in. As near as l could tell in that dreamy state, it was the last night of the century, and saw the spirits of the mighties in American history passing down the marble steps of the capitol on yonder bill and moV- ing through that meSnorable Pennsyl- vania avenue. There they come, the de- parted membe of the suprer.e court of our nation, led on by Chie Justice Marshall. There come the distinguished men of our national legislature, in which are Webster and Clay and Ben- ton and Calhoun and Preston and Cor win and Edward Everett and John Quincy Adams and Samuel l.. Southard and Rufus Choate and others-some great for statesnanship, others great for wit, others great for eloquence, others great for courage. They pass on through the avenue immortal for those who in past times trod it. Wonder l see the funeral pageants of senators and three presidentsl Banners draped in gloom, tossing black plumes following tossing black plumes. Catafalques, each drawn by eight white horses, while minute guns boom. Wonder a netion in tears follows the victims of the exploded Princeton, the slain sec1 etaries of state and navy.
 Presidential inaugural processious, accompanied by vanished music that has returned, the lips again on flutes and comets long ago rusted, but now repolished, and I hear the beating drums, which, silent for many years, are again sounded, greeted by the huzza of hundreds of thousands of voices. Many decaces h1shed, but again reso- nant. Regiments of the aEIny of Ameri can Revolution followed by regiments of the army of 1872 and regiments of the army of 1864. They have come up from the encampmenTs in the tomb to take part in this great parade in honor of the century on this night passing away. From the windows on both sides windows upholstered again, az in those olden days-the pomp and fashion of the national capital looking out upon the passing spectacle. There Marquis de Lafayette passes, escorted by the chief men of the land, who have been author ized to welcome him in behalf of na tion which he helped to set free. On through that avenue pass the throngs toward the presidential residence, where, to greet them, come out on the platform built to review the passing century, Washington, and the Adamses and Jeff ferson and Madison and Monroe aud Lincoln. As that long and brilliant procession, vanished, but now a resur- rected and remarshaled host, passes be- fore that reviewing stand, l sec another procession coming from the opposite direction to meet this. They are the presidents, the senators, the legislators, the judges, the philanthropists, the de- liverers of the twentieth century. They come up from the schools, the churches, the farms, the cities, the homesteads of the continent Their cradles were rocked on the banks of the Alabama, and the St. Lawrence, and the Oregon, and the Androsooggin, and the Potomac, and the Hudson They have just as firm tread. inst as well built 3 brow. just as s.TsssSsI 1-7ZS1 gs.E .sEgs;Szs
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