Life — July 2, 1891 — page 3: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

VOLUME XVII. =o THE ORATION. YES: friends and fellow-citizens, our country has completed another year of its national existence. You who have gathered your children together after they have worn off the novelty of the fire- cracker feature of the day, and have told them what the day means, “You CRY, PET, BECAUSE I'M LEAVING YoU To BECOME LaDY Ovpacres ?” “No, IL pon't, IT's BECAUSE ALL THE TITLES WILL BE BOUGHT BEFORE I GRow UP!" and given them an inkling of the rights and duties they will inherit as Americans, need little in the way of patriotic stimulation, You have in the past year done your full duty as citizens. You have paid your taxes promptly without stopping to inquire where your money went to. You have served your country as jurors without attempt at evasion or excuse, You have cast your votes as your party leaders dictated without a thought of whether that party was right or wrong. You have gone faithfully to the primaries and carefully scanned the characters and records of the men you have helped to nominate. You have scrutinized closely the actions of your represen- tatives in Congress, in the Legislature and in the governing bodies of your municipalities. You, the readers of LiFe, are all good citizens, and the return of the Fourth of July makes you only the more con- scious of your own civic goodness. But is there another class of people inhabiting this glorious country of ours whom you can do much to improve. These are well-to-do people who seem to be oblivious to the fact that it is their bounden duty to lend the weight of their influence, no matter how small that influence may be, to the preservation of their country and its institu tions. Their contribution to the triumph of good and the defeat of evil need be only an hour or two spent at a primary election, a vote cast against an unworthy candidate, the use of their honesty and in- telligence in the jury-room, but they scorn such commonplace duties. They are the people who have made it fashionable to be ignorant of their country’s needs. They are the people who are willing to entrust their sacred heritage of freedom to those who make a business of politics. They are the direct descendants of those Romans who, so long as they had panem ef circenses were willing that their country should be ruined and degraded by selfish rulers. You are with these people—of course not of them—and with you it rests to make patriotism popular, Will you do it? If not, America has no use for you. Get off the earth and make room for some Irish- man or Turk who will come here and make himself comfortable at the expense of American tax-payers, But if you will do it, you will join in the steady, untiring promulgation of true Americanism and in three cheers for Old Glory. WITHOUT AN INCENTIVE. Jenkins, the lawyer, is very happy in address- Why isn’t he better as an after dinner RIMUS ing a jury. speaker ? SECUNDUS: Because in the latter case his dinner does'nt depend upon his speech. HERE is a whole world of difference between the North and South poles. comicbooks.com