of her own Centennial Commission), "cheaper and
nastier." Now _her_ traders are ubiquitous; they go, with the wandering
Jew, the fascinating Englishman, the penetrating Yankee, into all
heathen lands, carrying everywhere the new gospel of trade, and
introducing to youthful minds the civilizing influences of lager beer
and free lunches. Aided by the persuasive tones of the patient and
soothing Yankee, they are doing wonders in teaching the value of time,
by founding establishments for "stand-up drinks" in every lazy and
luxurious land, by giving prizes to all who _smoke while they work_,
thus making labor cheerful if not respectable. So patient and
indefatigable has Germany been, that at Manchester in England, which
may perhaps be termed the Delos of the new faith, I was told some five
years ago that she had just taken the contract, had bought from Germany
the iron beams and rafters for a new city building, and had put them up
under the very noses of the worshippers who burn their sacred fires at
Birmingham and Wolverhampton. And so, in the whirligig of time, Trade
brings his pleasant revenges.

I was told also--the newspapers said it, and it must be true--that Mr.
Mundella, an enterprising M.P., and a devout worshipper of the new
god, who is a vast producer at Nottingham of stockings and hosiery of
every sort--had found it best--well, absolutely necessary--in order to
compete with the new disciples in Germany, to remove a part of his
machines and machinery to Germany, and make his stockings there, in
order that those ridiculous and cheap Germans should not quite put a
stop to his trade. It was whispered about that French-made tools were
being bought and brought into England for use there, and it was said
openly that American saws, vises, and axes were playing the very deuce;
and now, just after the triumphs of the "Centennial," Englishmen are
writing home that Yankee silks will also play another very deuce with
them if they don't get more and cheaper labor. I see too, by late
letters from England, that they propose to cheapen iron by putting
cheap Chinese labor into the iron works!

And yet in Germany they cry out that _they_ have a panic, and that
trade is dull, and people will persist in failing, and that other
people won't buy all they can make; they too are at their wits' ends.
There must be something wrong, the "doctrinaires" say, about the gases.
Trade is not free enough, or labor is not cheap enough, or they hav