Another patriotic woman’s organization tho’ not of recent date, which has for years rendered important service, is the “Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association,” of Washington, D. C. This association has under its care and direction the Washington estate at Mount Vernon, Va. In 1895 a volume entitled “Ancestry” was published by Bailey, Banks and Biddle (Philadelphia) in connection with their Department of Heraldry that contained a complete list of the various patriotic societies, then forty-seven in number. Since the publication of this volume many new societies have sprung up. CENTENNIAL POEMS CENTENNIAL HYMN[14] BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER SUNG AT THE OPENING OF THE WORLD’S FAIR AT PHILADELPHIA, IN 1876. Our fathers’ God, from out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand, We meet to-day, united, free, And loyal to our land and Thee, To thank Thee for the era done, And trust Thee for the opening one. Here, where of old, by Thy design, The fathers spake that word of Thine Whose echo is the glad refrain Of rended bolt and falling chain,— To grace our festal time, from all The zones of earth, our guests we call. Be with us while the New World greets The Old World, thronging all our streets, Unveiling all the triumphs won By art or toil, beneath the sun, And unto common good ordain This rivalship of hand and brain. Thou, who hast here, in Concord, furled The war-flags of a gathered world,— Beneath our Western skies fulfill The Orient’s mission of good will, And, freighted with Love’s Golden Fleece, Send back the Argonauts of Peace. For Art and Labor, met in truce, For Beauty made the bride of Use, We thank Thee; while, withal, we crave The austere virtues, strong to save,— The Honor, proof to place or gold, The Manhood, never bought nor sold. Oh, make Thou us, through centuries long, In Peace secure, in justice strong; Around our gift of Freedom draw The safeguards of Thy righteous law; And, cast in some diviner mold, Let the new cycle shame the old. WELCOME TO THE NATION[15] (Centennial Hymn sung on Independence Day, 1876.) BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Bright on the banners of lily and rose, Lo, the last sun of our country sets! Wreathe the bright cannon that scowled on our foes, All but her friendships the Nation forgets, All but her friends, and their welcome, forgets. These are around her: but where are her foes? Lo, while the sun of her century sets, Peace, with her garlands of lily and rose!