We must stand together, and we must find a safe, solid, and ample ground on which to stand together. That ground is a program in which the deliberations of reason must supplant the folly of force.
We should have reciprocity in the fullest meaning of the word. Not only commercial reciprocity, but a fair exchange of truth, of trade, and of treaties. We must have the open door, the open mind, and the open hand.
Truly, from Baron von Steuben, who lent his sword to Washington, to Carl Schurz, who lately died after a life of patriotic devotion to his adopted country, Germans have done much for America.
THE GENIAL SPORT OF GENEALOGISTS.
Clambering Among the Branches of the
Family Tree, One May Find
Royal Ancestors.
A little harmless fun with the people who are engaged in a hunt for ancestors is indulged in by that playful journal, the New York Evening Post.
The point arises in connection with the exposé of a man who professes to be able to link every American with royalty, by the chain of a common ancestry, asserting that thus "you and your family, relatives, or friends will have rare facilities in securing business contracts from European governments." The reflections aroused in the Post by this offer of unearned greatness are in part as follows:
A fortune awaits the person who will thus bring genealogy home to the hearts of the common people and make the contemplation of a pedigree a source of daily happiness.
We fear that J. Henry Lea, who has just published a hand-book entitled "Genealogical Research in England, Scotland, and Ireland," misses the point of view. He is a dryasdust, who is concerned about long, dull tables of the probate courts, lists of marriage licenses, and parish registers. He talks as if genealogy were a science—a notion that also troubles a recent writer in the London Spectator.
But if genealogy is to appeal to the masses, it must be an art. Now, the strength of an art is not its grasp of facts, but its flight of imagination. In a science the rule is, abundant data and meager results; in an art, meager data and abundant results.