'Whar, I say _whar_, is the individual who would give up the first foot, the first outside shadow of a foot of the great Oregon! There aint no such individual. Talk about treaty occupations to a country over which the great American eagle has flew! I scorn treaty occupation; d--n treaty occupation! Who wants a parcel of low-flung, 'outside barbarians,' to go in cahoot with us, and share alike a piece of land that always was and always will be ours? Nobody. Some people talk as though they were afeard of England. _Who's_ afeard? Haven't we licked her twice, and can't we lick her again? Lick her! Yes! just as easy as a bear can slip down a fresh-peeled sapling! Some skeery folks talk about the navy of England; but who the h-ll cares for the navy? Others say that she is the _mistress_ of the ocean. Supposin' she is? aint we the _masters_ of it? Can't we cut a canal from the Mississippi to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, turn all the water into it, and dry up the d----d ocean in three weeks? Whar then would be the navy? It would be _no whar_! There never would _have been_ any Atlantic ocean if it hadn't been for the Mississippi, nor never will be, after we've turned the waters of that big drink into the Mammoth Cave! When that's done, you'll see all their steam-ships and their sail-ships they splurge so much about, lying high and dry, floundering like so many turtles left ashore at low tide. That's the way we'll fix 'em. _Who's afeard!_' * * * * * WE have often thought, that if the various _similes_ employed in the Scriptures were thoroughly understood, that their appositeness and beauty would be themes of increased admiration. Observe how the latent meanings of the following passage reveal themselves to the heart: THE REFINER. BY MONTGOMERY. 'HE is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.'--MALACHI iii. 2, 3.