Pickles 20,343 Lemons 127 Cheese 825 Cordials, etc 1,940 -------- Total, 899,472 This was the regular bill of fare in all the special-diet kitchens. If any one of these articles could not be obtained, they were marked off. Turkey was only on the list occasionally. It will be seen by the great variety that the appetites of the patients were consulted. Nothing, however, was issued without it being ordered by the surgeon in attendance upon the patient. Some of the articles furnished on the above list may seem unfit for sick men; but when we take into consideration that there were many wounded men who were allowed by the surgeons to eat anything they might choose, and others who were homesick, or hopelessly ill, or dying, who in the loneliness of suffering remembered and craved something because a kind mother’s hand had once prepared such dainties for them, it is no longer a matter of wonder. And since the loved ones at home could not cheer them with their presence and love in their dark hours of suffering, it was a delightful task for these noble women to substitute home food and words of cheer. It is the verdict of history that this system of special-diet kitchens saved thousands of lives. During the last eighteen months of the war, over two million rations were issued monthly from this long line of special-diet kitchens, established, many of them, almost under the guns. THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC--ITS GLORIES AND ITS DANGERS. The remarkable growth of the American Republic is without a parallel in the history of the world. A hundred years ago she was a feeble nation--in her infancy, and scarcely recognized by the other nations of the earth. Now she stands foremost among the governments of the world, and _leads_ the nations in almost everything. Her territory is extensive and contiguous, lying between two great oceans, and bounded on the north and south by navigable lakes and seas. Her resources are almost boundless. She gluts the markets of the world with her silver and gold. Her iron and copper ores are rich and abundant, nearly all the metals needed for the use of her people may be had for the digging, and she may bedeck her children with the jewels gathered from her own fields.