Maumee City express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1838-184?, 1839-03-09
MAUMEE CITY EXPRESS.
SATURDAY, MARCH Q, 1859.


And ia that time what wonderful revolution
has taken place! A line of seacoast extend
ing from Maine to Louisiana, and with all its
inaentations, hafbors, bays and rivers, measur-
ing not less than fve thousand miles; chain
Of lake navigation the most magnificent IN the
world, and of an extent of coast equal to that
Of the Atlantic on our borders; the Mississip-
ri and it's branches with their ten thousand
!, miles Of nayIgable water extending and wind
ing In all directions through our wide country;
four thousand miles Of railroad running from
one important point to another, and blncing
with chains of interest stronger than bars OF
steel one part with another--these waters ma
ylgated by more than eight hundred steam
boats, and these railroads by $50 cars. all bu-
sy in penetrating every portion of our country
conveying the products of one section to an
other and facilitating the trade of ah-throw-
ing a flood ofemigration from the great hive OF
the east to the fertile valleys of the west
giving employment to thirty or forty thousand
men, supporting ten times as many, and dong
the labor of six hundred thousand, present
picture worthy to give name and character
TO the age IN which we live. Add to this 1861
engines employed in all the various mechanic
arts and exerting power and an influence up
on our prosperity second only to the other, and
what view it gives Of what has been done in
our day. And when we consider that steam
is only in its infancy, that it haE hardly COM
pleted the first Of its Herculean labors, what
may we not look for when it attains its
strength and its maturity. The past two
years have witnessed an unparalleled increase
in its employment in Europe and especially in
this country. In the North, it has. come in as
an assistant in almost all branches of indus
try; In the South, it is emuating the iabors
of the Abolitonist, and releasing the slave
from much of his severe toll In preparing the
productions Of that country for market; In the
west, it will ere long be seen stalking over the
prairies, tearing up the soil, or reaping the
crop, while the farmer, released from his toll
looks idly on. tits digging at the bottom of
our mighty rivers, and preparing them for a
future triumphant career up their channels.
1t is laboring to drive the piles and form the
railroad to furnish itself with the means to
satiate its continual thirst for work. II is do
ing more. 1t is gradually moulding the minds
of men to emulate its specific make them
work faster, think faster and live longer in the
same number ofyears than they ever did be-
fore. 1t is continual preacher and cries on
ward! onward! and sets the example. tits
fnancier, for it reduces the rates of ex-
change by accellerating the rate of the trans
mission of Intelligence. II is pioneer, and
sweeps down whole forests, by its rapacious
demand for fuel. 1t labors at the printing
press, and rushes forward with the lately print
ed news.
In its successful adaptation to all species of
labor the widest predictions have been reali-
zed, the most extravagant dreams have more
than met with their verifcation, and even fan
cy has been deprived of her prerogative, and
forced, for once, to acknowledge herself out
stripped by the truth.
Nor, as we see, is this country alone in its
enjoyment of the results arising from the use
Of steam. The EUROPEAN continent, though
behind both England and. America, is working
under pressure ofthe motive vapor, and will
be, ere long, showing us that if we keep ahead
Of them we must put on ahigler pressure.
The French Navy can boast Of several war
vessels propelled by steam, of large class
and odmirable construction, and that country
is enlarging her commercial marine, and ex-
tending her system of railroads in such man
ner ns to show that she is in earnest.
But after all, our own country is the one
which seems destined by nature to go before
all others at least, in the benefits to be expect
cd. Our noble rivers, stretching their arms
far and wide; our sea coast indented with a
thousand bays; our widely extended Western
plains emphaticaly the home Of fthe railroad;
our vast forests Of timber scattered wherever
fuel is necessary, and planted along the very
margin Of the rivers; our immense fields Of
coal that every year are discovered to be more
extensive; population scattered by love Of
enterprise and independence and now seeking
the means Of coming together; soil fruitful
i1agricultnrul products that seek market far
from where they grew, and mineral riches.
which like untold gold can only be roughly es-
tinated. all mark this as the country where
steam is to perform its highest wonders, and
confer it's most extraordinary and most pre-