AMERICA “DISCOVERED.”
Oseba said he was now to return to rather favourite pastures. He was now to review the situation of a country unanimously admitted, by all its millions of proud and patriotic people, to be the “greatest country,” not only on this earth, but in the Universe—and this, of course, meant America.
Leo Bergin, having been born in America, seemed to be “at home” to these graceful compliments.
Oseba said that before he reached America, that country had been somewhat “discovered” by a Mr. Morgan, who had much of it done up in a shawl strap, but that it was still considerably in business.
This American nation, he said, sprang from the loins of Britain, and its founders had inherited their fibre from that “classic land of liberty.” Being strongly imbued with the British spirit, and being impressed by their novel surroundings, they broke the thread of tradition, and, having established a government based upon the consent of the governed, they demonstrated the possibility of a civilised state without a king or a bishop.
Here the orator grew eloquent, “as if to the manner born,” and I quote:—
“America—North America—is the noblest country ever given by God to his children—a country saved through all the progressive ages of the world for a new experiment in human government, and here some British adventurers opened a branch office. That they might ‘worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience,’ they hurled themselves in their frail barques, turned their prows—the ships’ prows—to three thousand miles of boisterous waves, and landed on Plymouth’s rock-bound shores. Here, defying titanic difficulties, they scaled the mountains, levelled the forests, tamed the soil, and, from the jaws of many defeats, they snatched a glorious victory. Here, they erected new altars, blazed out a new destiny, and, rocked in the cradle of Liberty by the untrammelled winds of heaven, they built a temple at whose shrines the unborn generations could freely worship.”
Here, the notes record that a young man in the audience smiled, while poetess Vauline seemed good-naturedly surprised; noticing which, Amoora Oseba faltered, and said:—
“Well, my children, those remarks would be very tame in America, and a man who could not soar higher on a ‘fitting occasion’ would certainly not be returned at the head of the poll.”
But in material prosperity, the orator said that during the first century of America’s national life, she achieved not only unparalleled, but unapproached success, and during the last half of that period she accumulated more wealth than was ever possessed by any other nation. With nearly half of the railways of the globe, she furnished half the food and raiment products, and manufactured more goods than any other four nations—aside from Britain—and by the brightest inventive genius the world ever knew, she had furnished more of the cunning devices that ease the care and toil of man, than all the world besides.