How many of the thousands who took part in the enormous German procession of yesterday were inclined to criticize Providence for sending down rain upon the white muslin dresses of Madam Germania and her lady attendants, and upon the gorgeous costumes of the crusaders and knights, after holding out a promise of fair weather all the morning, it would be impossible to tell. It is certain, however, that one of Kaiser William's pious dispatches would have been out of place, and that it was an unfortunate incident of an occasion that was otherwise very happy.

The display was a remarkable one in every particular, - remarkable for the numbers of those who participated as well as for the greater numbers who were thus represented; remarkable for the ingenuity which was attested by the variety and interest of the manifold features; remarkable for the spirit of organization and order which pervaded it, and remarkable more than all for the insight which, as a whole, and in its details it furnished to the character of our German citizens.

It would be scarcely possible for the native American people to organize so 2grand a display, not only because they have not the traditions, the patient and enduring enthusiasm, and the requisite imagination, but because they actually have not the resources in people and in varied accomplishments. It was an elegant peroration upon the theme of German power.

The celebration of the triumph of German arms and the return of peace could scarcely have been the most prominent suggestion of this procession to the mind of an observer. One might easily have watched its two or three hours of length without even recurring to the immediate occasion of its being. It was rather a history and a commentary upon the strength of a people and how it may be obtained. It brought to mind that the Germans compose a large proportion of the population of a great city, thousands of miles away from their native country, who must have their share of the credit and fame it has attined for its rapid growth, its encrmous energy, and its unparalleled enterprise.

It taught the lesson that the Germans can preserve their traditions without relapsing into a fossil state, and can grasp the idea of progress without abandoning the sacredness of their ancestral customs. It was a most artistic, and yet not unnatural, blending of the old and the new.

There was a wonderful combination of art and nature, of theory and practice, 3of invention and application, of science and trade, of music and work, of war and peace, of literature and music, of the ornamental and useful, and all this, too, without any special symbol of religion, which alone, with the exception of the old Crusaders, was unrepresented of all the ideas admitting of representation. This is not mentioned in any mood of disparagement, but as a remarkable evidence of what may be accomplished by materialism.

It would require a whole column to mention even the names of the trades, callings, and professions that the Germans were able to include in their procession, which had a significance, on this very account, usually foreign to displays of the kind. It proved them to be good workers of a good stock. It showed their education and customs to be eminently practical and useful. It was a splendid indication of that real wealth that the Germans bring to America with their health, their vigor, their steadiness, and their application.

If there is one thing for which America should thank the Germans that come here more than for all other things, it is their honesty and their fecundity in bearing children. There is nothing weak or stinted about them. The "great crime of the nineteenth century" has not yet contaminated them, and their ignorance or their disregard of the doctrine of Malthus is largely 4the secret of their power, and certainly a great blessing to America.

All nationalities, like all individuals, have peculiarities that are disagreeable to the rest of the world, and customs which, simply because they differ, are apt to be condemned. The Germans are more tenacious of their customs and peculiarities than most peoples, but they are certainly over-balanced by the energy and the strength which they have brought along with them. When the Sabbatarians and prohibitionists, with whom the Germans are, singularly enough, affiliating, in a political way, remember that this people has given us some of the best music, the highest art, the sweetest poetry, the strongest sinews, the most sensible system of muscular exercises, the most favorable method of schooling young children, and the most persistent application to industry, they can scarcely deny to them the privilege of drinking their beer in their gardens and dancing their Sunday away in peace.