The fourteenth amendment of the constitution of the United States provides, "that the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for the payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion against the United States, shall not be questioned." Are the opponents of pensions, bounties and land warrants loyal to the constitution? What is disloyalty to the constitution but treason, secession and rebellion? The Union soldiers and sailors never obtained their land warrants; consequently they are now due and unpaid.

Great Britain, Germany and other countries give pensions to their soldiers. The kings, nobles and land owners of Europe derive their titles and lands from military service. Republics in ancient and modern times have been overthrown by standing armies, under the leadership of some great military leader. The military power has controlled the republics of Mexico, Central and South America, which has led to revolutions and dictators. To guard against military despotism the fathers of the Revolution provided for a militia in time of peace and for "volunteers" in time of war, invasion or rebellion. As volunteers have to be mustered on a sudden, all inducements of honor, fame, public offices, bounties and land warrants were given to the nation's volunteers of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. So that the grant of land warrants, pensions and bounties to the nation's volunteers is a part of the common law of the United States and enters into a part of the compensation of the volunteers as a part of their pay. Until the late Civil War of 1861, no one was hostile to the nation's volunteers, or opposed pensions, bounties and land warrants. But for the past few years a great political party, at the head of which stands the Confederate army, have been opposed to pensions in congress, through the press and from the stump. Their standing argument has been the great amount of the pension appropriations. But they do not consider that if the amount is large that the services rendered are proportionally great.

The number of volunteers who enlisted in the War of the Rebellion was equal to the population of any of the following countries: Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, Roumania, Montenegro, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Salvador, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, San Marino, Andorra and Monaco and other countries.

Of course the ignorant and selfish care little for the services of "the boys that saved the Union during the late Civil War which robbed the cradle and the grave." We had the Confederate army in front, the Indian war in the West, rebel sympathizers in the North and in Canada in the rear, and England's blockade runners and piratical cruisers on the ocean.

The monarchs of Europe, except the Emperor of Russia, were unfriendly to the United States, and were in sympathy with the Southern Confederacy. South of us, in Mexico, France, England and Spain took advantage of our situation, and established Maximilian's empire on the ruins of the Republic of Mexico. As early as Oct. 31, 1861, France, England and Spain entered into a treaty for the joint occupancy of the coast and fortresses of Mexico.

In December, 1861, the squadrons of France, England and Spain arrived at Vera Cruz. In March, 1862, the French forces attempted the subjugation of Mexico. In 1863, the French army of occupation numbered 40,000 men. President Juarez abandoned the capital and retreated to the frontier of the United States. On July 10, 1863, Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico. He arrived in the City of Mexico, June 12, 1864. At the instigation of Bazaine, Maximilian published a decree, Oct. 3, 1865, declaring all prisoners found in arms against the imperial government should be shot, without trial. Several Mexican officers were shot for defending the liberty of their country.

The death blow of Maximilian's empire came from the United States. On Nov. 6, 1865, Secretary Seward forwarded to Paris a dispatch, informing the

French emperor that the French army in Mexico was a source of "grave reflection" to the government of the United States; that the United States could not tolerate an imperial government, maintained by foreign support, in Mexico. On the plain information by the secretary of state of the intended armed intervention of the United States in favor of President Juarez, Napoleon, on April 5, 1867, abandoned his position and ordered the evacuation, in November, 1867, of Mexico, of French troops. The City of Mexico surrendered, and President Juarez, with the officers of his government, entered the capital July 15, 1867. In 1871, Juarez devised a system of railways and telegraphs, which united the several parts of the republic in close commercial union with the United States. This has been accomplished by Americans and with American capital.

In the event of the independence of the Southern Confederacy, the North would have to pay the whole of the public debt of the United States, pensions and bounties; the Southern Confederacy would have to pay the Confederate debt, pensions and bounties. The bonds and greenbacks would be at a discount. The United States would not have made such rapid strides in building up our various industries and material wealth and population, especially factories, railways, towns, cities, farms and public buildings.

The Southern Confederacy would be a slaveholding oligarchy, under the protection of Great Britain, their slaves continually running over to the free North. It would be necessary for both governments to keep a standing army on the frontier, with fortifications and bristling cannon. Maximilian's empire would in time swallow up Central America, with the Nicaragua canal, and eventually would conquer and annex Texas and the territory which Mexico lost, as the result of the Mexican War. The North would be isolated from the Gulf ports, Mexico, Central and South America. The United States would not own or control the Nicaragua canal―could not enforce the Monroe doctrine. There would be no Pan-American congress or Pan-American policy, no international railways connecting the three Americas, and no Blaine reciprocity. The United States, in time, would break up into several small republics, the same as Central and South America.

England and Canada would dictate terms to the United States on the fisheries and the boundary questions.

The monarchs of Europe would combine and control the governments of the New World politically and commercially. The victorious arms of the Union army saved the United States, Mexico and Central and South America from this direful catastrophe. The surrender of the Confederate army saved the South from political and commercial ruin. Since the late war the North and South have advanced in population, agriculture, railways and manufactures. The South and North are connected by railways; and commercial union and reciprocity, a community of industrial interests, the improvement of the Mississippi and its tributaries for whaleback ocean steamships, the completion of the Nicaragua canal, and ocean steamships from St. Louis to the ports of the world, in conjunction with railways north and south and railways connecting the three Americas, will make the United States the greatest country in the world, ancient or modern, in agriculture, manufactures, trade and commerce.

With these great advantages the United States will have a preponderance in the Western Hemisphere which would never be accomplished were it not for the victories of the Union army and the surrender of the Confederate army. The South shares in the general prosperity.

The opponents of pensions should ponder on the above facts.

THE BRAVE SOLDIER LADS WHO ARE GALLANT Aand True.

A MARCH.

Our banners were flying,

And drums they did rattle,

What a glorious sight is the red, white and blue;
While off to the wars,

The boys were advancing,

The brave soldier lads that were gallant and true.

With drumming and fifing,
The crowds were rejoicing,

To see the brave soldiers all dressed in blue;
But mothers were crying,

And lovers were dying,

For the brave soldier lads that were gallant and true.

On guard and on duty,

They charm some beauty,

They make a grand show on parade and review;

For marching and drilling,

The boys are all willing,

The brave soldier lads that are gallant and true.

In war and in slaughter,

Brave boys never falter,

They will stand to their colors, the red, white and blue;

And their country's foes,

They will surely conquer,

The brave soldier lads that are gallant and true.

73

-Cudmore.

THE BOYS THAT SAVED THE UNION.

AIR-"THE DAYS WE WENT A GYPSYING."

On the field of slaughter our banner then did wave,
And the noble volunteers the Union's life did save;
The boys in blue were firm and true when duty bid them go,
The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago.

The brave volunteers were then in prime of years,

They left mothers and sweethearts in a flood of tears;

Their hearts were light to march and fight, they knew no grief or woe,
The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago.

On the field of battle, amidst shot and shell,
Gallant were their charges, loudly did they yell;
Many of those heroes in the grave lie low,

The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago.

Around the camp fire many a joke went 'round,
'Midst laughter of the soldier boys lying on the ground;
But their merry jokes we never shall hear more,
The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago.

Where are the soldier boys who then were full of fun,
And for the sake of a good joke many a trick was done;
When I think of those jolly boys my heart is sad and sore,
The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago.

Where are the merry lads whose hearts were full of glee,
When they gobbl'd a chicken or went on a spree;
But those merry boys we never shall see more,
The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago.

And the volunteers who then were proud and gay,
Now are quite feeble-getting old and gray;
Few'll be their numbers-twenty years or so;
The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago.

74

-Cudmore.

CHAPTER X.

THE FRUIT and Coffee FARMS OF THE TROPICS.

N Central America, the West Indies, a part of South America and a part of Mexico, tropical fruits and coffee can be raised with little labor.

The climate of Honduras, which is but three days' sailing from New Orleans, Mobile and Galveston, is well adapted for fruit raising. The climate, as well as that of Guatemala, Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, is healthful. Even the coast of Honduras is fully as healthful as any part of the United States, and the climate, owing to the strong trade winds by day and land breezes from the mountains by night, is very agreeable. The hottest day on the coast is 86 degrees in the shade.

In Honduras the rainfall is distributed over a large part of the year. From May to December showers frequently fall, usually passing quickly, leaving the sky sunny and the ground watered enough to force a luxuriant growth of crops. In September and October heavier rains fall, but even then work can be carried on with little or no more interruption than usually occurs in the Northern states in October and November. In what is called the wet season there are often days, and sometimes even weeks, when no rain falls. As a whole, the worst of the rainy season resembles late autumn weather in the Northeastern states. The dry season (winter season in the United States) is almost perfect, every day being clear, bright, breezy and even in temperature. As Central America, especially Honduras, is timber land, the first thing to be done for a fruit farm is to clear the land. The timber and brush are cut down and allowed to lie until the dry season, which takes but a few weeks; fire is then started and leaves, twigs and branches are consumed. Then the sprouts or suckers, which can be bought of the natives for one dollar a hundred, are set out in shallow holes about fifteen feet each way. No more is to be done; nature does the rest. It is better to cultivate the land and keep it clear of weeds, but good crops can be raised without stirring or plowing the land, so that a poor man with a very small capital can make a start in Honduras with an axe, machete, spade, hoe, brush scythe, mattock or grub axe.

The banana and the plantain are much alike in manner of growth and appearance of the plant and fruit, except that the fruit of the latter is larger and more angular. Both are of easy culture, and both produce abundance of nutritive food to the acre every year. Nine months after they are planted the fruit begins to ripen, and can be harvested every month thereafter for many years without replanting. The original sprout grows a stalk, or tree, which bears a bunch; this is cut down when the fruit is gathered. While this was growing several young shoots have been coming up, some of them more than half grown. Thus a single plant will yield from four to six bunches every year.

In Honduras few banana fields show any signs of cultivation. Culture, of course, would improve the crop, as it does all others. During the growing period the grass and brush spring up and should be cut down. The stumps and logs which did not burn up will crumble in a few years, when the ground can be plowed. This plan saves the expense of grubbing, and meanwhile considerable salable fruit can be raised. The old stalks are cut up and cast at the roots to enrich the soil. On rich ground bananas can be grown for fifteen to twenty years without replanting. Nearly all of the suckers or plants will mature a bunch of fruit. Meanwhile a number of young suckers will have sprung about the parent stalk. As they appear they should be cut down until about the