the first American vessel
to carry the stars and stripes around the globe; and, by her discovery
of "the great river of the West" to which her name was given, she
furnished us with the title to our possession_ of that magnificent
domain which to-day is represented by the flourishing young States of
Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

The famous ship was well-known and much talked about at the time, but
her records have mostly disappeared, and there is very little knowledge
at present concerning her.

COLUMBIA'S EMBLEM.

EDNA DEAN PROCTOR. In September _Century_

The rose may bloom for England,
The lily for France unfold;
Ireland may honor the shamrock,
Scotland her thistle bold;
But the shield of the great Republic,
The glory of the West,
Shall bear a stalk of the tasseled corn--
Of all our wealth the best.
The arbutus and the golden-rod
The heart of the North may cheer;
And the mountain laurel for Maryland
Its royal clusters rear;
And jasmine and magnolia
The crest of the South adorn;
But the wide Republic's emblem
Is the bounteous, golden corn!

EAST AND WEST.

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ, a distinguished American artist and poet.
Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1822; died in New York, May
11, 1872. From his "Emigrant's Song."[60]

Leave the tears to the maiden, the fears to the child, While the future
stands beckoning afar in the wild; For there Freedom, more fair, walks
the primeval land, Where the wild deer all court the caress of her hand.
There the deep forests fall, and the old shadows fly, And the palace and
temple leap into the sky. Oh, the East holds no place where the onward
can rest, And alone there is room in the land of the West!

THE PRIMITIVE PITCH.

The Rev. MYRON W. REED, a distinguished American clergyman of
Denver, Colo. From an address delivered in 1892.

The best thing we can do for the world is to take care of America. Keep
our country up to the primitive pitch. In front of my old home, in
another city, is the largest elm in the county. It never talked, it
never went about doing good. It stood there and made shade for an acre
of children, and a shelter for all the birds that came. It stood there
and preached strength in the air by wide-flung branches, and strength in
the earth by as many and as long roots as limbs. It stood, one fearful
night, the charge of a cyclone, and was serene in the March mo