A PHILANTHROPIC NATION
Mr. O. C. Wheeler, Secretary of the California Branch of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, has furnished us a neat little volume entitled "The Philanthropic Results of the War in America," from which we learn that since the war began, the American people have not only paid for its prosecution by enormous taxes, but have voluntarily contributed, toward caring for the wounded, etc., the immense sum of $212,274,259.45! That was up to February, 1864; the figure must reach at least $250,000,000 by this time. This was not all given to the Sanitary Fund, of course, but to the hundred different departments of charity created by the war. How much of it came from California? The two hundredth part, say. Only that - and yet ours is one of the greatest States in the Union. Therefore, let her not complain, yet awhile, that the calls upon her in behalf of the Sanitary Fund are too heavy, but rather let her move steadily along, as she is now doing, in her aid to that charity, and continue to do it henceforward as cheerfully as she has done it heretofore. Deposit your spare quarters on the big cheese at the Mechanics' Fair. It is the contribution of two whole hearted brothers, and it is worth twenty-five cents to look upon such a monument of kindly Christian charity. After that cheese has gone the rounds of the States and collected a quarter of a million for the Sanitary Fund, it will be cut up in New York and sold by the slice. What will California bid for the first slice?
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