America, my own! Thy spacious grandeurs rise Faming the proudest zone Pavilioned by the skies; Day's flying glory breaks Thy vales and mountains o'er, And gilds thy streams and lakes From ocean shore to shore. Praised be thy wood and wold, Thy corn and wine and flocks, The yellow blood of gold Drained from thy cañon rocks; Thy trains that shake the land, Thy ships that plough the main! Triumphant cities grand Roaring with noise of gain! Yet not the things of sense, By nature wrought, or art, Prove soul's preëminence, Or swell the patriot heart; Our country we revere For that from sea to sea Her vast-domed atmosphere Is life-breath of the free. Brown Labor, gazing up, Takes hope, and Hunger stands Holding her empty cup In pale, expectant hands. Brave young Ambition waits Thy just law's clarion call, That power unbar the gates Of privilege to all. Trade's fickle signets coined From Mammon's molten dust, With reverence conjoined, Proclaim "In God we trust." Nor doth the legend lie: The People, patient, bide, Trusting the Lord on high, To thunder on their side. Earth's races look to thee; The peoples of the world Thy risen splendors see, And thy wide flag unfurled; Kelt, Slav, and Hun behold That banner from afar, They bless each streaming fold, And cheer its every star. For liberty is sweet To every folk and age,-- Armenia, Cuba, Crete,-- Despite war's heathen rage, Or scheming diplomat Whose words of peace enslave. Columbia! Democrat Of Nations! speak and save! As mightful Moses led To Canaan's promised land; As Christ victorious bled, Obeying Love's command; So thou, Right's champion, God's chosen leader strong, Gird up thy loins! march on! Defend mankind from Wrong. THE EDITOR'S EVENING. Leaf From My Samoan Notebook. (A. D. 2297.) In that age (_siècle_ XIX, _ad finem_) great attention was given on the continent of Am-ri-ka to increased speed in locomotion. Men and women went darting about like the big yellow gnats that we see at sundown on the western coast of our island when the bay is hazy. The whole history of that century in both Am-ri-ka and Yoo-rup might well be written around the fact of _transit_, for transit was the spinal cord of the whole social, civil, and political order. Man-life then seemed to oscillate more rapidly than ever before, as if in sympathy with the vibration of the universal ether.