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civilisation is a compound of all existing cultures; a melting-pot of mongrelism wherein it is a crime for a man to know his own grandfather's name. They prate of Americanism as something of autochthonous growth, neglecting or unwilling to assign England the credit for its origin; and presuming to blame any citizen who is more just than they in his appreciation of the Mother Land.
More guileful immigrants use their "Americanism" as a blind for treason. Leaving their own countries in dissatisfaction, they assume the cloak of American citizenship; organise and finance conspiracies with American money; and finally, with an audacity almost ironical, call upon the United States for help when overtaken by justice! Half the detestable violence of the Irish "Fenians" and "Sinn Fein" ruffians was hatched in America by those who dare drivel about such a thing as "neutrality"! Others continue to serve their own countries under the all-enveloping American mantle. Prussian-American patriots deep in the sanctimonious circles of "Americanism" and "pacificism" are at the same time secretly destroying American property for the benefit of the Prussian cause. And these are the sort of worthies who compare their treacherous anti-American acts with the traditional affection of a real American for the land which gave birth to the American nation!
The very small surviving flock of native Fourth-of—July England-haters must not be charged with that moral delinquency which attaches to the foreign agitators. These belated Revolutionists mean well, and are to be tolerated with kindness. They head that amusing element which applauds every Englishman who becomes naturalised in the United States, but which denounces with unmerciful inconsistency every American who, like the late Henry James, renews ancestral ties with Great Britain.
Summing up, we may well declare it folly to taunt the American lover of Old England with the cry of "Hyphenate"! His passion is not, like that of the Prussian or Irish "hyphenate", based exclusively on personal ancestry; in his affection for the parent Kingdom he is but reiterating his devotion to the ideals of the daughter Republic; he is giving to his country a double loyalty!
Insomnia
The Thing, am I, that rides the Night,
That clips the wings of Sleep;
The Thing, am I, in sunshine bright
That goads, with hag-mind, deep;
The Thing, am I, with forked knife
That prods the weary bruin,
And snarls when Pleasure strives for life
Within my haunts of Pain.
