Citizenship in heaven is not nearly so difficult as that of getting out
naturalization papers in America.
The National Liberal Immigration League has petitioned the
Department of Commerce and Labor to establish a calendar in
the naturalization bureaus, so that applicants for second,
or final, papers may be notified and attended to in regular
order, instead of by the present first-come-first-served method
with its resultant confusion and delays. Such a calendar would
simplify matters wonderfully for the coming citizen. A man
getting his final papers is obliged to bring with him two
citizens as witnesses, who will swear that they have known him
to be a resident of the United States for at least five years,
the last year a resident of the State in which he receives his
papers, and that he is a person of good moral character, and
qualified in every way to become a citizen. Imagine the degree
of good-nature essential in the instances of these witnesses,
who must get up long before daylight, night after night, to
accompany the potential citizen and see him turned back over
and over again. Indeed, more than good-nature is involved, for
the witnesses are in most cases working men, who are making
an actual sacrifice, in that they are losing the time that
is money to them, and the sleep that is essential to their
welfare.--_Harper’s Weekly._
(2153)
=Nature=--See HANDIWORK OF NATURE.