"My country, 'tis of thee!" Or, the United States of America; past, present and future. A philosophic view of American history and of our present status, to be seen in the Columbian exhibition.

Beginning with the year 1492, the date of the first voyage of Columbus, necessarily leaves a great part of American history untold. Every nation’s story begins in the middle; ba...

The history of the United States may be said to have begun with the formation in England of a company for the purpose of forming colonies in America. This was called the Virgini...

During the past half century a favorite and effective method of displaying and recording the industrial progress of the world has been found in the holding of World’s Fairs, or...

The New York World’s Fair of 1853 was the third universal exposition ever held, and was almost exactly contemporaneous with the second. That in Philadelphia in 1876 was the eigh...

Following the exultation of victory came a period of uncertainty and apprehension. Financially the country was in a state of utter collapse. The result of the war was a foreign...

These institutions of learning are not results of accident, or accretions of church reverences and purposes, like the great universities of older lands. Most of them were founde...

The trouble about great cities is not that they have any impetus or influence especially their own, but that every one, from the vilest all the way up to the best, is compelled...

We are told by an old chronicler of the quaint and curious that in ancient times a number of Hebrews scattered in the cities along the shores of the Mediterranean conducted a mo...

The railroad problem is one of the most complicated and vital questions of the day. Nothing, perhaps, is so typical of the ingenuity, skill and colossal power of our modern civi...

The late lamented Sam Weller once spoke of a schoolboy, who, having learned the alphabet, wondered whether it was worth going through so much to learn so little. The same reflec...

The burden of foreign criticism of the people of the United States may be expressed in the language of the vulgar by saying that we are “too fresh.” Well, if we are, we have the...

Laboring men--this is their own title for themselves--do not work any harder than the remainder of their fellow-beings. But those who come under this title as it is generally un...

Annexation is an old business, and sometimes it has been profitable; but the nations who best understood it have but few of their old possessions left, and they would get rid of...

Because this is a land of liberty a great many foreigners imagine it a land of license. To do them justice, they do not know any better. But we do, and it is our duty to teach t...

He generally comes to his profession by accident. He may not have meant to become a farmer, but through death, or change of family, or some other circumstance entirely out of hi...

At the present time it does not require any great amount of conceit to make us believe that we are superior to our neighbors, but it will not do to forget that the faculty of be...

He is a good deal like the rest of us; he always blames somebody else for his condition. He won’t be able to get out of trouble until he lays most of the blame on himself.

Books are cheaper here than anywhere else in the world, thanks to immunity from arrest and punishment for theft of literary property. We can take the brains of all Europe, as ex...

Ever since the late civil war ended the general of the army has annually given us earnest and intelligent warning as to the incomplete state of our fortifications, and the inabi...

Most people have heard of the man who in a difficulty with a vicious bull finally got the animal by the tail. He could not hurt the brute, yet he did not dare to let go, so he w...

He had a habit of breaking out at unexpected times and in unexpected places. He might be quiet in winter when the snow was deep and the reservation warehouse was so full of stor...

For a whole generation the public has been hearing a great deal of woman’s rights. Already, however, woman has secured one of the greatest rights in the world. She has the right...

In the early days of our country, when most of the inhabitants were representatives of the classes which have supplied populations for all new countries, marriage, as among the...

impossible to assemble a quorum of this unwieldy body, and the organization was changed by a supplementary act, providing for one Commissioner and one alternate from each State...

In one of the older theological periods, yet not so very old, there was a theory that Satan was a necessary part of the godhead. At present there seems to be a theory like unto...

To him forty-nine students in every fifty are indebted for the only post-graduate course they ever receive. Many others would have no education at all if it were not for him.

Ours is the most religious country on the face of the earth. There are more churches to the square mile of city and village area than any other part of the world, not excepting...

Our country first and foremost--No sectional differences--No foreign interests or entanglements--The people first, the party afterward--Loyalty to party means disloyalty to the...

Cities are necessary evils--But greatly to be avoided--City life is dangerous to most persons--Unnatural influences are inevitable--Hard on the purse and hard on the heart--Pove...

Marriage _not_ a failure--Rev. David Swing’s caustic comment--Views of Rabbi Silverman--Heartlessness of Divorce Court proceedings--Divorced persons debarred by the Queen of Eng...

Laboring men--Their mistakes and their grievances--Labor sure to be imposed upon--Driving a sharp bargain--Low wages resulting from competition--A laborer in chains recently bro...

Classic legends of Atlantis--Chinese and Japanese accounts of early voyages to America--Prince Madoc and the Welsh legends--The voyages of the Vikings--Eric and Leif and their a...

Marriage Customs in the United States--Shiploads of women disposed of as wives to the earlier Virginia Planters--The Marriage Relation should be closely guarded--Divorced people...

Establishing a constitutional government--Disputes with other powers--A second war with England--Territorial acquisitions--Settlement and admission of new States--The slavery qu...

A land full of colleges--How these institutions began to exist--Tributes to American regard for intelligence and education--Something better needed--No lack of money--Views of P...

Parcelling out the country--Foundation of the earliest colonies--Jamestown and its settlers--Strange improvidence of the colonists--Troubles with the Indians--John Smith and Poc...

New York no longer the sole dictator in the money market--Why Western business men are now independent of metropolitan money-lenders--The increase of “reserve cities”--Banking m...

He has stopped fighting--Let us stop robbing him--The Indian will work--He has plenty of brains--Capacity for education abundantly proved--Records of the experiment at Hampton--...

Boys and girls who are to be men and women--The schools are behind the times--Too much fuss and too little gain--Discipline which costs too much--Heads stuffed, but hands and he...

Rights and wrongs of the great transportation corporations--What they have done for the country and what the country has done for them--Era of construction closed and an era of...

Preparations for a celebration of the quartercentenary of Columbus--Chicago chosen as the site--Marvelous history of the Western Metropolis--How the Columbian Exhibition was org...

Encumbered with mortgage--Energy of the farmer--Lack of capital--Labor--The farmer’s children and city life--“The borrower is servant to the lender”--The census valuation of far...

The salt that will save us--A nation of jokers--Our Puritan and cavalier ancestors were fond of fun--President Lincoln’s jokes--Humor in the pulpit--Fun in the newspapers--Prent...

A nation of readers--Books to be found everywhere--The Sunday-School library--Chautauqua’s great work--The American author is a busy man--Good books make their way, sooner or la...

America is a home--Not an asylum--Liberty is not license--No paupers need apply--Nor any contract laborers--Skilled labor welcome, if it comes to stay--Immigrant farmers will do...

Harm done by the liquor traffic--Views of Bishop Warren, of the Methodist Church--Miss Frances Willard’s views--“Petroleum” Nasby--Rum in politics--Channing’s aphorism--Rev. The...

One “woman’s right” secured--She has a chance almost everywhere--The liberation of man--Woman’s wits sharpen quickly--Advantages over male workers--Woman need not marry for a ho...

Our harbors useless--Caught napping by England--Troops and the Indians--General Sheridan’s last report--General Sherman’s protests--Congressional inactivity--Admiral Porter hamm...

The origin and object of universal exhibitions--New York’s Crystal Palace--Spirit and hopes of its projectors--Its display of the nation’s greatness--The Centennial Exposition o...

We don’t want the earth--We need more neighbors--Not more children--Non-assimilative races would weaken us--The Old World’s experience at land-grabbing--Let Canada alone till sh...

The editor is the nation’s schoolmaster--Also the most trusty advocate of the people’s rights--He brings the people together in spirit and purpose--Always ahead of Congress and...

Religion is in no danger--The letter suffers but the spirit grows--Essentials were never more prominent--The tree is judged by its fruit--Proselyting has gone out of date--Denom...

The importance of being a “full-handed workman”--_Successful_ mechanics know more than one branch of business--This quality developed in new countries--Votes of laborers control...