Year: 1879




For the three hundred and sixty.five davs
just brought to close which constitute
what we call year, the telegraph has con-
stantly clicked its tales of changes in the
political and social world. of the tramp of
armies, of the contests of parties fraught
with greater significance oftentimes than the
combat in the field, of disaster on land
and sea, of suffering and of death. On
each day the morning journal has spread
before us moving panorama, as it were, OF
all these events, vividly depicted and seeming
ly never to be efaced from the memory. Yet
to-day how few Of these pictures remain i'm
pressed upon the mind. The fingers would
almost suffice to count them all.


Gancing backward to the beginning Of the
year the mind instinctively turns to the ORR
ent where the events which were then occur
ring were not only of deep significance, but
also of kind that take firm hold of the men,
ory and imagination. When the year opened
the Russians had rolled back the tide OF dis
aster which had threatened to overwhelm
them few months before, and were march
ing unchecked and unresisted, except by ice
and snow, through the Balkan passes and
descending into the fertile plains below,
where lay the city of Constantine toward
which for centuries the Russian czars had
looked with longing eyes. A few weeks later
the Russians were knocking at the gates OF
that magnificent city and apparently the
hour for the departure Of the Mostem from
continent to whose civilization he had long
been standing reproach, had come. But
the scene is quickly changed. The Mistress of
the Sea, jealous of her Northern rival, is in
the Golden Horn, commanding halt After
weeks of parleying the contest is transferred
from the field to the halls of diplomacy.
Weeks more pass, spent in the manufacture
of devices by which each of the contending
powers may yield something, and yet pre-
serve untarnished the national honor; and the
Treaty of Berlin i. substituted for the Treaty
of San Stefano, Beaconsfeld and Gortscha,
koff both go home boasting of their conquests,
and war, which threatened to dreuch the
whole continent With blood, is happily averted.
Later in the year the tramp of armies is
again heard, this time in Asia where the Lii
on's jealousy of the Bear has led to tho inva-
sion and virtual conquest of the country of
the Atghans. Since the year began two
thrones have been despoiled by death. A
new Pope is prisoner in the Vatican and a
new king dwells in the palace Of the Quirinal
Three times has the assassin's bullet been
aimed at royalty, and each time has missed
its mark or fallen short of its purpose. But
though failing of its avowed object it has not
been without influence. Directly traceable
to it are the repressive measures against the
Socialists in Germany, which have greatly
abridged personal liberty In that country and
sent many exiles to our shores. Designed BY
the crazy fanatics who resorted to it to pro-
mote liberty, it has only served to justify des-
pots in crushing 1t out.


On this side OF the water the year has been
marked with no great social or political
convulsions demanding for their settlement
the clash of arms. But peace bath her victories
no less renowned than war. Ours has been the
overthrow at the ballot-box of the hosts of
reputation and i1edeemability who, at the