The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-06

to-day. saving that the seniors of the
high school of to-day are as well adj
vanced in knowledge, and that even
the wise men of Greece would have
but little advantage over the aver
age common school student of to-day.
And continuing. he said, I'VE know a
great deal less than our fathers or our
grandfathers of to-day we do now
know a great deal more" God is in
terested in the work of mankind" he
continued, and that man is an infldeI
who does not believe in the future of
mankind"
The best things have not happened
yet. he said, and then told of some Of
his researches few years ago in the
library OF the city Of Detroit to find
what was the condition of the people
immediately after the war of the revo.
luton And In those old papers he
found many things, which if they do
not show that our times are less
wicked. at any rate show that we do
not parade our wickedness to the
world so openly. I'VE do not to-day
see the men Of Detroit walking the
streets of that city with straw in their
shoes to indicate that their votes are
for sale at dollar a piece; 1 do not
doubt that votes can be bought to-day
but IL SO the sellers are not advertising
the fact as they did then in Detroit"
In his other searches through these
ington, now called the father of his
country was then alluded to as the
step-father of his country" ''They
have not called Roosevelt anything
worse than that yet" he said. He
said to-day. probably while any one
present is living or their children are
living IL will not be possible to witness
the drinking which prevailed at the
receptions of the governors and of the
presidents, when 1T was expected that
at least one-half of those In attend
ance would be under the table at the
end OF the reception.
Not Perfect.
Not that we are perfect by any
means for we have many faults. He
told of the criticisms Of Americans
particularly, in foreign countries.
principally in Europe. you ..meri-
cans brag So" they say. well, it is
true said the speaker, we do .ras. We
are all braggers, everywhere we go
we tell the beauties of our home
declaring it to be the best and the big
eest. that it is gods Country where
ever we are, and that we are glad of
Il And 1t is a serious fault. But
perhaps after all it is not so bad as it
NAV seem Self conceit is not so seri-
ous falling as the opposite, self
abasement. Self conceit, or a belief in
ones self is a necessity if we are to
accomplish anything. and he illustrat-
ed this with a story of a locomotive
pulling a heavy train of cars up
grade. The first locomotive "puffed
can't do it, and failed. A second was
tried, don't think / can do ii" and
also failed. A third little engine
pulled "can do it, can do it, doing 1t,
did ii, did it, illustrating that it re-
ouires the self confidence to perform
task to bring it to a successful con-
ciusion-
IT is this self-reliance, this conf
dence in ability, which makes Ameri-
cans what they are to-day, nation OF
people who do things.
TOO unitarian, comment the for
e;xuers upon us. Largely true but
fault not to be condemned too hastily.
The American loves money and
fustles TO get it and DR.. -Cobern told
many stories to illustrate this qua1ty |,
but ne called attention to the fact
that IL the pioneers OF this country
Rad not been utilitarians instead OF
arffsts ard aesthetics the great de-
,go3opueut could net have taken place.