an when
to-day Uncle Sam is standing on the Pacific Slope expanding his chest
toward Hawaii. But if we cannot condemn with good grace, there is no
need to praise English aggressiveness and acquisitiveness overmuch; what
we do need to praise and cultivate is the Dutch virtue of holding fast
our own. We have institutions and principles, rights and privileges, in
this country which are constantly attacked, and the need of America is
that the backbone which the Dutch have given to this country should
assert itself. Hospitality loses its virtue when it means the
destruction of the Lares and Penates of our own firesides. When a guest
insists on sitting at the head of the table, then it is time for the
host to become _hostis_. What America needs in this new year of grace is
not less hospitality toward friends but more hostility toward intruders.

The spirit of this age is iconoclastic. It seeks to destroy sacred
memorials, hallowed associations, holy shrines, everything that tells of
the faith and the worship of a God-fearing past. The spirit of the age
is irreverent, destructive, faithless. Against this and all despoiling
forces we as patriots are called to arms. For what does America stand?
What are the truths that have gone into her blood and made her strong
and beautiful and dominant? The divineness of human rights, the claims
of men superior to the claims of property; popular government--not an
oligarchy; popular government--not a dictatorship; the sacredness of
the home, the holiness of the sanctuary, faith in humanity, faith in
God. These have made America, and without these there can be no America.
And because they are attacked, gentlemen, the need of the hour is a
patriotism that shall breathe forth the spirit of the people who above
all others in history have known how to keep their land, their honor,
and their faith. The mission of little Holland will never be ended so
long as America needs the inspiration of her glorious example, and the
devoted citizenship of her loving sons.

OPIE P. READ

MODERN FICTION

[Speech of Opie P. Read at the eighty-second dinner of the Sunset
Club, Chicago, Ill., January 31, 1895. The general subject of the
evening's discussion was "The Tendency and Influence of Modern
Fiction." The chairman of the evening, Arthur W. Underwood, said in
introducing Mr. Read, "It is very seldom that the Sunset Club
discharges its speakers in batteries of four, bu