Litchfield enquirer., 1851-07-10
BY WIN. GLAND BOURNE.

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 led hot bolts with
which they riveted them together. AS
/ looked curiously on, and heard their
hammers ring on the massive plates, and
saw them one by one fixed into their
places, strange object rose before me
its cavernous interior was strung with
iron tubes, and the builders leaping to
the floor rung their peal Of triumph with
score of hammers against the sonorous
sides. Ny fancy followed it as I saw i:
| 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 messages of freedom, and the
triumphs of science and of art, 10 the re-
motest nations of the globe.
turned and found myself mingling with
the ever shifting train that hastens along
the great thoroughfores Of our city life.
On either hand there rose tall piles Of
varied art; temples whose spires seem>
ed to touch the skies-and around me
the rich, the gay, the thoughtiess, the
proud, and the uncaring; exchanged
their receptions, and passed as though
life is summer dream, or the slumber>
Gus vision of luxurious afternoon. The
marble structure, with the figure Of JUS
tice upon its summit, rose up, and the
sparkling fountain threw upward its crys
tai jet, which fell in radiant and rainbow>
ed gem showers to the basin.
II is bnt a short walk from Broadway
to 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 in one minute into the ex
IRENE of the contrasted scene. Up that
alley way, down in that dark cellar, which
is only a mockery of a habitation, where
the dark air breathcs in its pcstilential
vapor to be inhaled by human beings,
there lies on bed Of pain one whose
lamp of life is almost extinguished. How
the vital fame fickels between life and
death ! That eye is lighted up for a mo-
ment-that hetic cheek seems to blush
as it did in other years-that voice ut
tiers a scarce audible woodland an i'm
mortal spirit has gone to its untried and
eternal home!
Up that flight of stairs, in that miser
able attic, on ii bundle of STRAW in corr
ner, thereis one lying in a feverish dream
She speaks of early years, of home, OF
her parents. of her molhcr--how she
starts at the mention of that word -
"There, now, lie still Do not think Of
it! is the response of her nurse, as she
parts the once beautiful auburn from her
brow. She was in other days the belle
Of that thoroughfarc-- her faith und hope
were wrecked by the betraycr, and she
seeks dark place TO die--where the vile
the corrupt, and the thief hold their Or
gies around her dying bed.
Past that great prison which has been
the Tomb of many bright, and once
interrupted spirit through this narrow
and wretched street, of whose history il
would be shame to speak--into this
broad highway where the thousands are
moving and eddying, as though hasten
ing by stronger power to their end.
One tall building after another meets the
eye, and the sound of busy machinery
buzzcs its droning harmony upon the car.
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 power is applied, which shall
make this world of man to revolve in a
new orbit, and place is higher in the scale
of created intelligence.
Under this pavement where we tread
there is sound we have not heard be-
fore. Ceas eless in its repeated and swift
uttered strokes, it speaks of something
new. Down those steps into vault, be-
yond the light Of day, | ventured to look
in upon the strange workers inside. In
one corner, like crouching tiger with
great eyes of FIRE, that seemed to lash it.
self into fury, and was just prepared to
spring there breathed, and dubbed. and
wrought thing almost Of life. With
one fore>limb it grasped rotating lever
upon which it spent its strength, and as
it dashed, and beat the air. it impaired its
angry FIRE to the iron muscle and the me-
talIic limb, and sent them whirling in
countless revolutions upon their mission.
Rising like mountain of iron there is a
machine near by which is working rev.
olution in the mind of the world. That
iron limb impelled by that crouchlng
steam engine grasps this machine and
hold il to its task. How those workers
watch the motions of those delicate fin.
gers Of steel! How this brawny laborer
watches the motions Of that great central
Sun. 1t is Press. 1t is a machine
from which the flashing beams Of intel
Iectual light radiate in swift foods and
reach the iarthest homes Of our extended