The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-28 00:00:00

4t4e Stottrbrile 435entr,

SATTYRD'A.Y, 31.4;PTE,MBliti 28, 1478,

I WANT OF rRE AGE.

With the development of ideas consequent
DP' 'h expansion of the intellectual powers
-•
i..actdantal to modern life, mental aotivity
of man euggeste and carriers ()army improve.
useute which would never have occared to our
ancestors, or had they oceured, would not have
been needed. For centuries mankind seemed
siontent to move in a beaten track, or to follow
in a groove already marked out. They knew
nothing of" the madding crowd's ignoble strife,"
ilud for the most part existence was more like a
sequestered vale than the whirling rush of
oompetition which we see to-clay. In the rural
districts men as their fathers had clone before
them, married and gave in marriage, and when
Life's journey was done, they died. Scent was
the tidings which same to them of the doings
In the outer world. The people in the towns,
with no newspapers, sal with very few sources
of information. gathered at the market crosses
and discussed such floating gossip as might
reach them. Age after age had this gone on,
the world's intellect apparently standing still,
when within the present century a start was
made in the direction of progress, and the way
has been marked, not by steps, but by leaps and
bounds. The citizens and burgesses no longer
ansemble at the market crosses if haply they
may hear any stray news of the day • for the
newspapers supply them with all the intelligence
of the solid globe which has happened within
the previous twenty-four hours, thus collected 4
into one broad sheet through the powerful
agencies of steam and electricity. In the country
life is no longer the changeless, colourless,
existence that it used to be, for the great
town is easily accessible by the locomotive, and
even in the mist secluded hamlet the people are
kept acquaiuted with what is passing in the rest
et the world.
Yet with all the enlightenment of modern
flays. there is one respect in which we hallen off
from the faith of our forefathers. Commensu-
rate with the increase of wealth, there has been
a relaxation of Lhose habits of thrift and pru-
dence whieh pc.evailei te a commendaJle extent
aniongit onr '...-taarirs, bet goon which the
pr?3,,rit gnu eat set %nee atiro li
-
,
• - iiuz p ).,7.1r of
men. !loth • • ' il.ctLtlly. WV; not
tve.4.:i.otta .t .;1_ is iv, haeits of
zrig.i Ft al.)3oletely n,i0,368-
4:nongatuigier classes. Even
with these.. there was not that reeki-ri .-sa rodiaalitY
of exPendittire that is too often asen now.
PtODP eareal it:h4sl but th ,y were
neon neonto. ?lirT! their
for We. -cOntiiigeboiea" iuseparahle from the ordi-
nary iicissitades- of life were greater in propor-
tion then it is now. Our fathers did not live
for the present moment, and if they did not
spend so hard. Men are more .n...es i tr ;
.004, but
_a, she lame time they are more i•t,pr.o/Liout,
aud each class seems anxious to ettliti to the
iltandard of liring followed by the class ettee,
it. in this respect there is uudouhta•dly a izr,a,
0:1*-Orer..ce bwwaa.r, nt ar.l our fir, welt m'igb•
Tre;re, auci 8i; rietmt 01• :v il,e •. ra
t:fig..4 at the.,3ic'sa,6.' kait:war between France
and Gieread,liy.' The latter demanded a . war
fir4acen-sty oi two handred millions sterling ;
and alt`&eugh the struwegla must have cost tile
7rauch an ecc.al &can, they paid off the va,t
amenut eevirei. iJ7 the Germans with a celerity
whieh was peziact:y marvellous, and astonished
tna eavltiz- I world. When the State called upon
•k- a this Fodigioas effort to get
• •,--igner and to redeem the soil of
. tr.,11 of the invader, town and
• - - lietii-,orrauean to the Eng,ish
• Is •••••:. •-• wicit its savings to b--lp
e workman and the
MO ANN Mai WON IRO