national aggrandizement. The ruddy glow of Mars begins to pale before the silvery light of Bethlehem's star, fixed in the heavens amidst the chanting of angel choirs-"Peace on earth, goodwill toward men." The groans of a peasantry ground down by taxation for standing armies shall yet be answered. The nations of the earth will yet learn that bonds of love bind more securely than bands of iron.

Shall it be the American people who will teach the world this blessed lesson? Ample is their opportunity. War struck from the slave his shackles of iron, but it did not free his mind from the darkness of ignorance and superstition. No sabre-stroke or cannon-shot can cut down the gloomy wall of race prejudice in the South. Only concessions and forbearance can avert the impending horrors of a race war. Riots and strikes almost daily proclaim social disorders. The gulf between wealth and poverty widens. In the very centers of our civilization are want and suffering enough to sicken him who does not blind his eyes or steel his heart. Among working classes there is a general feeling of dissatisfaction and bitterness. The spirit of the age is one of unrest; of breaking away from old lines of thought and action.

A sign of progress this may be; but it is in such times as these that false ideas of heroism mislead the masses. Strong, unscrupulous men, exponents of blind, popular desires or fierce partisan passion, may precipitate a nation into all the horrors of a revolution. The lurid flame of an

archy, the smoke of the soldier's rifle, which have so recently disgraced and startled more than one American city, teach a two-fold lesson: they who defy Justice must bear her frown; they who would seek her altars must respect the sovereignty of her law! The time has come when our nation's safety lies not in the skillful use of the sword, but in the right use of mind and heart. May society be deaf to the appeals of the rash agitator and ignorant demagogue! May men learn to heed the voice of him whose soul is large enough to feel that all have rights; a man with mind and judgment keen enough to discover the source of a grievance; with strength and courage to relieve it by just and fair compromise.

The evolution of the world's hero has been the index of man's moral progress. The despised of yesterday becomes the honored of to-day. Humility to the Roman soldier meant disgrace; today it is "the meek who shall inherit the earth.” Brute force must yield before the higher power of moral courage. The compromiser, willing to renounce the glory of partisan popularity, daring, in his love for all, to meet the enmity of all, may hear himself denounced by party hate as “weakling," ," "coward," "traitor"; but when the clouds of human pride and prejudice shall roll away, men will unite with Heaven in proclaiming him a hero, a hero in the largest and truest sense, inspired by unselfish devotion to a high and worthy purpose, a purpose to serve not self, not party, not men, but Man.

99

THE BETTER PERSONALITY.

By CHARLES W. WOOD, of Beloit College.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

In 1882 Charles W. Wood, a mulatto boy then about thirteen years old, was following the vocation of a bootblack, in Chicago. He did his work well, was refined and gentlemanly, and was much liked by his patrons. Whenever he could afford it he had attended the theaters, and had seen "Othello,' Virginius," ‚” “Richelieu,” “Hamlet," "Richard III.," and other great plays. Judge Jarvis Blume and Senator W. E. Mason (then Congressman) and others took much interest in the boy, and offered him $1 to recite them a selection of their choosing. The piece was "Hamlet," beginning with the words, "Angels and ministers of grace defend us," etc. Within three days young Wood, out at the elbows and knees, face and hands begrimed, with his blacking paraphernalia swinging at his side, appeared before the eminent men of Unity Block, 79 Dearborn street, Chicago. He gave the long recitation with no serious mistakes, but with so remarkable tragetical interpretation that at its close instead of one dollar his contributions netted him five dollars. This began Wood's experience in public speaking. He showed such ability that Prof. Walter C. Lyman gave him employment as an office boy at $4 per week, and gave him elocution lessons daily for a year. After clerking some time in a dry-goods house, frequently reciting for evening entertainments, he was sent to Beloit College by Mr. Frank S. Hanson, the wealthy proprietor of the New England Flour Mills of Chicago, where he pursued with diligence an eight-years course, graduating with honors. In June, 1894, out of 470 students Mr. Wood took the $50 for the "best oration of the year." So greatly was he pleased with his oration on "Voltaire" that Dr. Gunsaulus embraced Wood before the assembled multitude. In the State contest at Appleton Wis., he won first honors for Beloit over Appleton and Ripon colleges, and in the Inter-State contest at Galesburg, Ill., May, 1895, he won second honors. Mr. Wood is now a professor of English in the Tuskegee (Ala.) Normal and Industrial Institute, one of the most noted institutions for colored people in the country.

THE ORATION.

Delivered at Galesburg, Illinois, May, 1895, taking second prize. Judges: Senator C. K. DAVIS, Prof. J. R. COMMONS, Rev. Dr. WILLARD SCOTT, Hon. J. J. INGALLS, Hon. W. J. BRYAN, and Gov. FRANK JACKSON.

In 1793 the French nation was engulfed in a sea of blood. The smoke of the French Revolution hid from the view of men the clear blue sky of sunny France. If you had gone with me to the outskirts of Paris on the afternoon of that hot June day in 1793, you would have seen one of the most significant scenes recorded on the pages of history. The pelting of shot and shell had ceased; the thunder of the cannon had died away. All was silent save the groans of dying men at your feet. feet. As the smoke is displaced by the sunlight we can see a barricade laid in ruins. On the ground are soldiers and citizens dead and dying.

The first thought that comes to you is, what is the cause of this? Why, in Paris, less than twenty-five years before this time, lived a man, Voltaire by name, a man whose writings glowed with the sentiment of liberty, but who himself denied the very author of liberty, a man whose conception of justice was founded upon an hypothesis but had no true source; a thing of scholastic analysis without heart or soul; for he believed only in the things which he could analyze. Nature and society were his gods, and not merely the evidence of a great infinite Being who rules the universe. This Voltaire had sought knowledge