Arthur Bird

“ But the secret of the British lion’s power in India did not consist in the fact that the lordly beast cultivated a full mane.
India in 1999, as in the year 1899, still continued to remain the world’s most brilliant illustration that nations which are divided among themselves must inevitably fall. In 1899 the question was repeatedly asked, how can England with a mere corporal’s guard, hold together the vast, mystic India under her sway? How can a nation of 40,000,000 people, like England, hold under her sway a far distant continent like India with its population of 350,000,000 people? ”

“ United States of America is not broad and strong enough to include in its scope and government every country in our Western Hemisphere from Alaska to Patagonia; if there are any Americans who believe that Central and South American Republics can never be governed under our American Republic, employing the same language and the same coinage, all sheltered under the noble flag of Bunker Hill, to such unbelievers in the future expansion of America we appeal in vain through these pages. ”

“ In 1492 Spain had a population of 40,000,000 people,—frugal, industrious and prosperous. In the arts and sciences they led the world in those days. In military science and navigation none could equal them. The discovery of America utterly ruined Spain in less than three hundred years. Spaniards thereafter ceased to depend upon their own energy and resources. Intoxicated by the brilliant discoveries of Columbus, the dazzling conquests of Pizarro, Cortes and De Soto, Spain has endeavored since the fifteenth century to enslave the New World and live upon the sweat of others’ brows. ”

“ To those, who, in 1899 had been accustomed from birth to regard the United States as that narrow strip of country lying between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, the announcement that the capital of the Americas had been transferred to the city of Mexico, must cause a shock of unpleasant sensation.
It is a human weakness to worship our idols. Woe to those who would destroy them. Tradition must not be tampered with. Americans of 1899 had been taught that a small and beautiful city on the Potomac was the capital of our Federal Union. ”

“ Superb sunset views, in a matchless wealth of color, a revelry of gold and crimson, were transferred to canvas by natural process in 1920. This process became the great art triumph of the twentieth century. No human hand had ever attempted with any hope of success to reproduce on canvas the bewitching and mystic effects of the gloaming. Nature with her master hand, dared to reproduce, on canvas, this most difficult of all artistic studies. ”

“ European nations in the twentieth century (always excepting Great Britain) would have been very glad, at any time, to attack and humble America, but so great was the power of our noble Republic in that era that even the combined assaults of the world could not have accomplished this feat.
As a natural consequence of this unfriendly feeling on the part of Europe, which grew in strength as time rolled on, America in the twentieth century withdrew from the International Court of Arbitration. America became big enough, strong and willing enough to take care of herself. ”

“ THE UNITED STATES OF THE AMERICAS,
1999. CHAPTER I. The American Colossus.
A Dream of Magnificent Expansion. America becomes the Mightiest Nation of the World and extends her Domain from Alaska to Patagonia.
Gauged by certain standards and viewed from certain standpoints, a mere century is but a brief compass of time.
From an individual point of view, in the daily routine of life, a century appears to be an embryo-eternity. When time is gauged with clock like precision and to each minute is allotted its full value, a century assumes an unfathomable depth. ”

“ The ancient method of burial is not so certain—many cases have come to light where people, supposed to be dead, revived after interment. Imagine the horror of the situation. Can any human experience be more dreadful than this one? Many cases have come to light in the nineteenth century proving beyond a shadow of doubt that unfortunate men and women had been buried alive. In graves opened many weeks after burial the scratched face, torn hair and imprint of terror upon the features told only too plainly what had happened and of the final anguish of the unfortunate one. ”

“ The United States of the Americas, a mighty Republic, which, in the year 1999, embraced every square foot of land in the Western Hemisphere, from the snow-clad huts of the Esquimos to the rock-ribbed straits of Magellan, with its teeming, hustling population of 531,000,000 souls. ”

“ All they asked of England was merely to remain neutral,—to keep quiet while the three prize stars, France, Germany and Spain, proceeded to give Uncle Sam a taste of their raw-hides.
Then it was that the British Lion gave a roar, and in clear, unmistakable language informed both France and Germany if they ventured to fire a gun against America in the defence of Spain, England would not remain neutral, but would side with America and lend her assistance on sea and land.
The British Lion is not to be trifled with. ”

“ The process of color-photography proved invaluable in reproducing human features and expression. Nothing could exceed the perfection the art attained in 1935. Photographic studios were crowded with work. No skill of man had ever transferred to canvas the maiden’s blush, that emblem of purity, a shade Divine which mantles the brow of innocence only. The cameras of 1935 proved equal to that delicate task. The maid caught blushing in color photography blushed on, alas, forever. ”

“ In 1999 it appeared incredible that one year only after the battle of Manila there were men (earnest and well-meaning patriots, many of them,) who were strenuously opposed to the retention of those islands by the United States of America. It was difficult, in the twentieth century, to conceive how short-sighted, how unmindful of our country’s glorious future, were those so-called anti-expansionists. ”

“ It is a duty we Americans owe to the republics of Central and South America to give them the benefits of our pacific government, the rule of the People, by and for the People, exemplified in the great Constitution of the United States of America. ”

“ If at any period in the eighteenth, nineteenth or twentieth centuries these principalities of India could have united themselves together in a common cause and arisen in the might of their power against British rule, England would be driven out of India in ten days’ time. India’s 350,000,000 population represents an enormous mass, but, as long as it remains divided into practically eighty different nations, all of them animated by bitter hatreds and antagonisms, England will experience no trouble in retaining absolute control of her large but very acrimonious Indian family. ”

“ To attempt to rule such a vast stretch of country under any other than the great It could Govern the World. Constitution of the United States, would result in a signal failure. The American Constitution, that masterpiece and perfect symbol of human liberty, is great enough and broad enough to govern the entire globe under one flag. ”

“ The new and most ingenious machines of the twentieth century met their Manila on statuary. No machine can ever Limits to Inventive Genius. be built that will reason or think. It requires thought, judgment and artistic taste to create a statue. As the artist beholds a perfect model, he becomes thrilled with the love of his art. His heart and hands are guided by fires of ambition and his work excites admiration. The human brain is often duplicated by machinery, but the equal of the human heart, with its subtle emotions, must ever remain a Sealed Book to cold, unfeeling mechanism. ”

“ No human power could do the faintest justice to such a scene and no master of the art ever cared to risk his reputation in the attempt. But in color-photographs Nature reproduced the exact colors of the seething flames as they belched forth from the quivering crater. ”

“ Such is the utter blindness of custom and prejudice that in 1899 the daintiest maiden, who might faint at the sight of a mouse, would occasionally smell the stench of a pig-sty, yet, without the least compunction, would sit at table and enjoy a pork chop, pork stew, pork roast, in fact pork in any form. At the mere mention of a horse roast or horse stew, the same delicate young lady would manifest her disdain, and if such dishes were set before her, her indignation might turn into riot. ”

“ In the nineteenth century laws against profanity already existed, but they were a dead-letter on all of our statute books. In those days men might quarrel in public or in private; they might hurl epithets at one another by the hour or by the day, so long as neither one of the belligerents raised a hand against the other, society and law took no cognizance of the unhappy occurrence. Men might exchange the vilest expressions and fill the air with their sulphurous maledictions ”

“ Germany in 1899 held the world’s medal Germany’s Splendid Army. for the finest and best equipped army, a magnificent engine of war, ready to move within an hour’s notice, and woe to the enemy that obstructs its path. Without any doubt in the closing period of the nineteenth century the General staff of the German army was justly regarded as the highest authority in military science. Such a vast and smooth working engine for the destruction of human beings was never before known. ”

“ Every man on the American fleet off Hong Kong swelled with pride from Commodore Dewey to the humblest powder-monkey. Theirs was a mission to feel proud of, and when Dewey’s six warships sailed south to Manila, April 27, 1898, to interview the Castillians, every [26] man on board the American squadron was ready to lay down his life in the cause of our noble country.
These were the men with cool heads and unflinching bravery who first encountered the Spanish hosts. These were the men who electrified a whole world by the splendor of their matchless victory. ”

“ The art of Color-photography perfected in 1920. The world’s great artists witness the death-knell of art. The doom of cheap chromos. Nature paints her own matchless pictures. The sculptor’s art remains supreme in 1999. No machine can ever chisel a Venus de Milo. No substitute found for the human voice. ”

“ At the same time the world’s call for arbitration, and the efforts made to enthrone Peace instead of War, never ceased to occupy the minds of twentieth century statesmen. The history of the world for centuries had been written in blood. The enormous standing armies of Europe were fast sapping the vitality and energy of those nations. ”

“ The solution of these two great problems alone rendered the twentieth century the most marvelous age of all since the birth of Christ.
Ever since humanity has trodden upon this green, fruitful world of ours; ever since the gaze of man has turned upward and penetrated the skies, from the days of Adam and perhaps ages before that first settler made his appearance on earth, the problem of ærial navigation has agitated human [117] breast and brain. To solve this difficult secret has long been the acme of human ambition. ”

“ Public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic was sternly opposed to any resort to war between England and the Americas. The Arbitration Treaty was signed by her gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, who was still seated on the British throne and was enjoying a fair measure of health in 1910 at the venerable age of 92 years. This marvelous and well-preserved lady still retained the homage and respect of the entire world, and the indications pointed to a grand celebration of her Majesty’s centennial anniversary in 1918. But the world was denied that privilege and honor. ”