ym for
noble aims and noble deeds, for truth and patriotism and fearlessness of
soul."

The speaker's words had been uttered slowly at the outset--ponderous,
sonorous, sentence by sentence, like the big drops before a heavy
shower. As he warmed to his theme the pauses ceased, and his speech
flowed with the musical sweep of a master of platform oratory. When he
spoke of war his voice choked; in speaking of peace he paused for an
appreciable moment, casting his eyes up as though he could discern the
angel of national tranquillity hovering overhead. Although this opening
peroration seemed scarcely germane to the occasion, the audience
listened in absorbed silence, spell-bound by the magnetism of his
delivery. They felt sure that he had a point in reserve to which these
splendid and agreeable truths were a pertinent introduction.

Proceeding, with his address, Mr. Lyons made a panegyric on these United
States of America, from the special standpoint of their dedication to
the "God of our fathers," a solemn figure of speech. The sincerity of
his patriotism was emphasized by the religious fervor of his deduction
that God was on the side of the nation, and the nation on the side of
God. Though he abstained from direct strictures, both his manner and his
matter seemed to serve a caveat, so to speak, on the other nations by
declaring that for fineness of heart and thought, and deed, the world
must look to the land "whose wide and well-nigh boundless prairies were
blossoming with the buds of truth fanned by the breeze of liberty and
fertilized by the aspirations of a God-fearing and a God-led population.
What is the hope of the world, I repeat?" he continued. "The plain and
sovereign people of our beloved country. Whatever menaces their
liberties, whatever detracts from their, power and infringes on their
prerogatives is a peril to our institutions and a step backward in the
science of government. My friends, we are here to-night to protest
against a purpose to invade those liberties--a deliberately conceived
design to take away from the sovereign people of this city one of their
cherished privileges--the right to decide who shall direct the policy of
our free public-school system, that priceless heritage of every
American. I beg to remind you that this contest is no mere question of
healthy rivalry between two great political parties; nor again is it
only a vigorous competition between two ambitious and intelligent women.
A bal