Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1851-08-13
WHY LOVE PRINTING.

WHY l LOVE PRINTING.
Respectfully dedicated to Col. II. M. HOE, nven-
tor of the Lightning Press, by VIM. OAKLAND
BOURNE.
The deafenng cang of fifty hammers struck
nv ear rs | passed by the machine shops on
the west side of the city, and | stopped and
saw the busy successors of Vulcan shaping and
bending great iron plates, and forging red-hot
bolts with which they riveted them together
AS looked curiously on, and heard their ham,
mers ring on the massive plates, and saw them
one by one fixed into their places, strange OBJ
ject rose before me-its cavernous interior was
strung with iron tubes, and the builders leap
ing to the floor, rung their peal of triumph with
score of hammers against the sonorous sides.
NV fancy followed it as saw it placed between
the walls of some great leviathan of the deep,
and as it moved its mighty arms, and was fed
from the bowels of the earth, and drank up the
waters of the sea, and turned them into vapor,
| saw it speeding over the world to bear the
message of freedom, and the triumphs of sci
ence and of art to the remotest nations of the
globe.
turned and found myself mingling with the
sever shifting train" that hastens along the
great thoroughfare of our city life. On either
hand there rose tall piles of varied art tenn
Piles whose spires seemed to touch the skies
and around me the rich, the gay, the thought
less, the proud, and the uncaring, exchanged
their recognitions, and passed. as though life
was a summer dream, or the sumberous vision
of a luxurious afternoon. The marble struc-
ture with a figure of justice upon its summit,
rose up, and the sparkling fountain threw up its
crystal jet, which fell in radiant and rainbowed
gem showers to the basin.
is hut short 1yolk from Rrondwav tn
Chatham Street, crossing Centre on the way,
but in that short walk another world is seen.
From the company of the fashionable, the rich,
and the millionaire you may step one minute
into the extreme of the contrasted scene. Up
that alley way, down in that dark cellar, which
is only mockery of a habitatiOn, where the
dark air its pestilential vapors breathes to be
inhaled by human beings, there lies on bed of
pain one whose lamp of life is almost extin-
guished. How the vital flame fickers between
life and DEATH That eye is lighted up for a
moment-that hectic cheek seems to blush as
it did in other years-that voice utters a scarce
audible word-and an immortal spirit has gone
to its untried and eternal home
Up that flight of stairs in that miserable at
tic, on bundle of straw in a corner there is
one lying in feverish dream. She speaks of
her home, of her parents, of her mother" there
now lie still do not think Of it," is the res
ponse of her nurse, as she parts the once beau
tiful auburn hair from her brow. She was in
other days the belle of that thoroughfare--her
faith and hope were wrecked by the betrayer,
and she seeks a dark place to die--where the
vile the corrupt, and the thief hold their orgies
around her dying bed.
Pass that great prison which has been the
tomb of many bright and once uncorrupted
spirit--through this narrow and wretched street,
of whose history it would be shame to speak
Into this broad highway where the thousands
are moving and eddying as though Fastening
by a stronger power to their end One tall
building after another meets the eye, and the
sound of busy machinery buzzes its droning
harmony upon the ear. We are in new world.
Here are the powers at work which shall raise
the world, if it ever be raised at ALL Here the
great lever finds its fulcrum, and here the pow
er is applied which shall make this world of man
to revolve in new orbit, and place it higher
in the scale of created intelligence.
Under this pavement where we tread there is
a sound we have not heard before. Ceaseless
in its repeated and swift uttered strokes, it
speaks of something new. Down those steps
into vault beyond the light of day ventured
to look in upon the strange workers inside. In
one corner like a crouching tiger, with great
eyes of fire, that seemed to lash itself into fu-
ry, and was just prepared to spring, there
breathed, and bubbled, and wrought thing al
most of life. With one fore limb it grasped
rotating lever upon which it spent its strength,
and as it lashed and beat the air, it impaired its
angry fire to the iron muscle and metallic limb,
and sent them whirling in countless revolutions
upon their mission
Rising like a mountain of iron there is
machine near by which is working revolution
in the mind of the world. That iron limb i'm