To direct this spontaneous sentiment of hearts to our great Union, to raise it high, to make it broad and deep, to instruct it, to educate it, is in some things harder, and in some things easier; but it may be, it must be, done. Our country has her great names; she has her food for patriotism, for childhood, and for man.--_Ibid._
THE UNITED STATES STEAMSHIP COLUMBIA.
An appropriate addition to the White Squadron of the United States navy was launched from the Cramps" ship-yard at Philadelphia, July 26, 1892, and was most appropriately christened the Columbia. The launch was in every way a success, and was witnessed by many thousand people, including Secretary Tracy, Vice-President Morton, and others prominent in the navy and in public life.
This new vessel is designed to be swifter than any other large war vessel now afloat, and she will have a capacity possessed by no other war vessel yet built, in that of being able to steam at a ten-knot speed 26,240 miles, or for 109 days, without recoaling. She also possesses many novel features, the princ.i.p.al of which is the application of triple screws. She is one of two of the most important ships designed for the United States navy, her sister ship, No. 13, now being built at the same yards.
The dimensions of the Columbia are: Length on mean load line, 412 feet; beam, 58 feet. Her normal draught will be 23 feet; displacement, 7,550 tons; maximum speed, 22 knots an hour; and she will have the enormous indicated horse-power of 20,000. As to speed, the contractor guarantees an average speed, in the open sea, under conditions prescribed by the Navy Department, of twenty-one knots an hour, maintained for four consecutive hours, during which period the air-pressure in the fire-room must be kept within a prescribed limit. For every quarter of a knot developed above the required guaranteed speed the contractor is to receive a premium of $50,000 over and above the contract price; and for each quarter of a knot that the vessel may fail of reaching the guaranteed speed there is to be deducted from the contract price the sum of $25,000. There seems to be no doubt among the naval experts that she will meet the conditions as to speed, and this is a great desideratum, since her chief function is to be to sweep the seas of an enemy"s commerce. To do her work she must be able to overhaul, in an ocean race, the swiftest transatlantic pa.s.senger steamships afloat.
The triple-screw system is a most decided novelty. One of these screws will be placed amidships, or on the line of the keel, as in ordinary single-screw vessels, and the two others will be placed about fifteen feet farther forward and above, one on each side, as is usual in twin-screw vessels. The twin screws will diverge as they leave the hull, giving additional room for the uninterrupted motion upon solid water of all three simultaneously. There is one set of triple expansion engines for each screw independently, thus allowing numerous combinations of movements. For ordinary cruising the central screw alone will be used, giving a speed of about fourteen knots; with the two side-screws alone, a speed of seventeen knots can be maintained, and with all three screws at work, at full power, a high speed of from twenty to twenty-two knots can be got out of the vessel. This arrangement will allow the machinery to be worked at its most economical number of revolutions at all rates of the vessel"s speed, and each engine can be used independently of the others in propelling the vessel. The full steam pressure will be 160 pounds. The shafting is made of forged steel, 16-1/2 inches in diameter.
In fact, steel has been used wherever possible, so as to secure the lightest, in weight, of machinery. There are ten boilers, six of which are double-ended--that is, with furnaces in each end--21-1/4 feet long and 15-1/2 feet in diameter. Two others are 18-1/4 feet long and 11-2/3 feet in diameter, and the two others, single-ended, are 8 feet long and 10 feet in diameter. Eight of the largest boilers are set in watertight compartments.
In appearance the Columbia will closely resemble, when ready for sea, an ordinary merchantman, the sides being nearly free from projections or sponsons, which ordinarily appear on vessels of war. She will have two single masts, but neither of them will have a military top, such as is now provided upon ordinary war vessels. This plan of her merchantman appearance is to enable her to get within range of any vessel she may wish to encounter before her character or purpose is discovered. The vitals of the ship will be well protected with armor plating and the gun stations will be shielded against the firing of machine guns. Her machinery, boilers, magazines, etc., are protected by an armored deck four inches thick on the slope and 2-1/2 inches thick on the flat. The s.p.a.ce between this deck and the gun-deck is minutely subdivided with coal-bunkers and storerooms, and in addition to these a coffer-dam, five feet in width, is worked next to the ship"s side for the whole length of the vessel. In the bunkers the s.p.a.ce between the inner and outer skins of the vessel will be filled with woodite, thus forming a wall five feet thick against machine gun fire. This filling can also be utilized as fuel in an emergency. Forward and abaft of the coal bunkers the coffer-dam will be filled with some water-excluding substance similar to woodite. In the wake of the four-inch and the machine guns, the ship"s side will be armored with four-inch and two-inch nickel steel plates.
The vessel will carry no big guns, for the reason that the uses for which she is intended will not require them. Not a gun will be in sight, and the battery will be abnormally light. There will be four six-inch breech-loading rifles, mounted in the open, and protected with heavy shields attached to the gun carriages; eight four-inch breech-loading rifles; twelve six-pounder, and four one-pounder rapid-firing guns; four machine or Gatling guns, and six torpedo-launching tubes. Besides these she has a ram bow. The Columbia is to be completed, ready for service, by May 19, 1893.
THE FIRST AMERICAN.
ELIZA COOK, a popular English poetess. Born in Southwark, London, 1817.
Land of the West! though pa.s.sing brief the record of thine age, Thou hast a name that darkens all on history"s wide page.
Let all the blasts of fame ring out--thine shall be loudest far; Let others boast their satellites--thou hast the planet star.
Thou hast a name whose characters of light shall ne"er depart; "Tis stamped upon the dullest brain, and warms the coldest heart; A war-cry fit for any land where freedom"s to be won: Land of the West! it stands alone--it is thy Washington!
COLUMBIA THE MONUMENT OF COLUMBUS.
KINAHAN CORNWALLIS. In "The Song of America and Columbus," 1892.
Queen of the Great Republic of the West, With shining stars and stripes upon thy breast, The emblems of our land of liberty, Thou namesake of Columbus--hail to thee!
No fitter queen could now Columbus crown, Or voice to all the world his great renown.
His fame in thee personified we see-- The sequel of his grand discovery; Yea, here, in thee, his monument behold.
Whose splendor dims his golden dreams of old.
And standing by Chicago"s inland sea, The nations of the earth will vie with thee In twining laurel wreaths for him of yore Who found the New World in San Salvador.
COLUMBIA! to Columbus give thy hand.
And, as ye on a sea of glory stand, The world will read anew the story grand Of thee, COLUMBIA, and Columbus, too-- The matchless epic of the Old and New-- The tale that grows more splendid with the years-- The pride and wonder of the hemispheres.
In vast magnificence it stands alone, With thee--Columbus greeting--on thy throne.
AMERICAN IDEA.
The Hon. SHELBY M. CULLOM, U. S. Senator from Illinois. In a speech delivered in Chicago, 1892.
From the alt.i.tude of now, from this zenith of history, look out upon the world. Behold! the American idea is everywhere prominent. The world itself is preparing to take an American holiday. The wise men, not only of the Orient, but everywhere, are girding up their loins, and will follow the star of empire until it rests above this city of Chicago--this civic Hercules; this miracle of accomplishment; the throbbing heart of all the teeming life and activity of our American commonwealth. The people of the world are soon to receive an object lesson in the stupendous kindergarten we are inst.i.tuting for their benefit. Even Chile will be here, and will learn, I trust, something of Christian forbearance and good-fellowship.
Now, is it possible that monarchy, plutarchy, or any other archy, can long withstand this curriculum of instruction? No! I repeat, the American idea is everywhere triumphant. England is a monarchy, to be sure, but only out of compliment to an impotent and aged Queen. The Czar of Russia clings to his throne. It is a hen-coop in the maelstrom! The crumbling monarchies of the earth are held together only by the force of arms. Standing armies are encamped without each city. The sword and bayonet threaten and r.e.t.a.r.d, but the seeds of liberty have been caught up by the winds of heaven and scattered broadcast throughout the earth.
Tyranny"s doom is sounded! The people"s millennium is at hand! And this--this, under G.o.d, is the mission of America.
YOUNG AMERICA.
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, a popular American author and lecturer. Born at Providence, R. I., February 24, 1824; died at West Brighton, Staten Island, N. Y., August 31, 1892.
I know the flower in your hand fades while you look at it. The dream that allures you glimmers and is gone. But flower and dream, like youth itself, are buds and prophecies. For where, without the perfumed blossoming of the spring orchards all over the hills and among all the valleys of New England and New York, would the happy harvests of New York and New England be? And where, without the dreams of the young men lighting the future with human possibility, would be the deeds of the old men, dignifying the past with human achievement? How deeply does it become us to believe this, who are not only young ourselves, but living with the youth of the youngest nation in history. I congratulate you that you are young; I congratulate you that you are Americans. Like you, that country is in its flower, not yet in its fruit, and that flower is subject to a thousand chances before the fruit is set. Worms may destroy it, frosts may wither it, fires may blight it, gusts may whirl it away; but how gorgeously it still hangs blossoming in the garden of time, while its penetrating perfume floats all round the world, and intoxicates all other nations with the hope of liberty.
Knowing that the life of every nation, as of each individual, is a battle, let us remember, also, that the battle is to those who fight with faith and undespairing devotion. Knowing that nothing is worth fighting for at all unless G.o.d reigns, let us, at least, believe as much in the goodness of G.o.d as we do in the dexterity of the devil. And, viewing this prodigious spectacle of our country--this hope of humanity, this young America, _our_ America--taking the sun full in its front, and making for the future as boldly and blithely as the young David for Goliath, let us believe with all our hearts, and from that faith shall spring the fact that David, and not Goliath, is to win the day; and that, out of the high-hearted dreams of wise and good men about our country, Time, however invisibly and inscrutably, is, at this moment, slowly hewing the most colossal and resplendent result in history.
A HIDDEN WORLD.
OLIVE E. DANA, an American journalist. In the _New England Journal_.
The hidden world lies in the hand of G.o.d, Waiting, like seed, to fall on the sod; Tranquil its lakes were, and lovely its sh.o.r.es, While idly each stream o"er the fretting rocks pours.
Its forests are fair and its mines fathomless, Grand are its mountains in their loftiness; Its fields wait the plow, and its harbors the ships, No sail down the blue of the water-way slips.
G.o.d keeps in his palm, through centuries dim, This hid, idle seed. It belongeth to him.
Away in a corner, where G.o.d only knows, The seed when he plants it quickens and grows.
The pale buds unfold as the nations pa.s.s by, The fragrance is grateful, the blooms multiply, But it is blossom time, this what we see; Who knows what the fullness of harvest will be.
COLUMBIA THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD.
TIMOTHY DWIGHT, an American divine and scholar. Born at Northampton, Ma.s.s., May 14, 1752; died at New Haven, Conn., January 11, 1817.
Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world and the child of the skies.
A DEFINITION OF PATRIOTISM.
T. M. EDDY, an eloquent speaker and profound scholar. Born, 1823; died, 1874. From an oration delivered on Independence Day.
Patriotism is the love of country. It has ever been recognized among the cardinal virtues of true men, and he who was dest.i.tute of it has been considered an ingrate. Even among the icy desolations of the far north we expect to find, and _do_ find, an ardent affection for the land of nativity, the home of childhood, youth, and age. There is much in our country to create and foster this sentiment. It is a country of imperial dimensions, reaching from sea to sea, and almost "from the rivers to the ends of the earth." None of the empires of old could compare with it in this regard. It is washed by two great oceans, while its lakes are vast inland seas. Its rivers are silver lines of beauty and commerce. Its grand mountain chains are the links of G.o.d"s forging and welding, binding together North and South, East and West. It is a land of glorious memories. It was peopled by the picked men of Europe, who came hither, "not for wrath, but conscience" sake." Said the younger Winthrop to his father, "I shall call that my country where I may most glorify G.o.d and enjoy the presence of my dearest friends." And so came G.o.dly men and devoted women, flying from oppressive statutes, where they might find
Freedom to worship G.o.d.
There are spots on the sun, and the microscope reveals flaws in burnished steel, and so there were spots and flaws in the character of the early founders of this land; but with them all, our colonial history is one that stirs the blood and quickens the pulse of him who reads. It is the land of the free school, the free press, and the free pulpit. It is impossible to compute the power of this trio. The free schools, open to rich and poor, bind together the people in educational bonds, and in the common memories of the recitation-room and the playground; and how strong _they_ are, you, reader, well know, as some past recollection tugs at your heart-strings. The free press may not always be altogether as dignified or elevated as the more highly cultivated may desire, but it is ever open to complaints of the people; is ever watchful of popular rights and jealous of cla.s.s encroachments, and the highest in authority know that it is above President or Senate. The free pulpit, sustained not by legally exacted t.i.thes wrung from an unwilling people, but by the free-will offerings of loving supporters, gathers about it the millions, inculcates the highest morality, points to brighter worlds, and when occasion demands will not be silent before political wrongs. Its power, simply as an educating agency, can scarcely be estimated. In this country its freedom gives a compet.i.tion so vigorous that it must remain in direct popular sympathy. How strong it is, the country saw when its voice was lifted in the old cry, "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." Its words started the slumbering, roused the careless, and called the "sacramental host," as well as the "men of the world, to arms." These three grand agencies are not rival, but supplementary, each doing an essential work in public culture.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SHIP OF COLUMBUS--THE SANTA MARIA CARAVEL.
(See pages 94, 216, and 282.)]