American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-12-06
ESTABLISHED In 1925.
AmERIcAr HOPE.


"What an absurdityl' cries some crit
cal reader Of the tits Of this article, "What
an absurdity to claim anything peculiarly
american in Hope! Bye and bye we shall
have esssts.ou American Human Nature
and all sorts Of AHseriean universal things.
Ii is poor, miserable, unpardOnabls vahi-
lyP'
But, sir Grille, begging your baTdoa for
nterrupting your eloquent oTstion we
have not attempted TO A;nericanizs Hope,
for il is very comfortable idea we ehsfr
ish, that in all nations Hope is performing
a most excellent mission. Tightening amid
present darkness starry beauty to cheer
the toiling sons ofliberty and progress
No; Hope is not American, but universal:
and it is beautiful fiction which the old
poets speak Of, when Pan1ora's box Of 4
wills was emptied on the earth, all the good
angels fed. save Hope, who begged the
gods to allow herto remain 10 cheer tho
saddened lot of man. She remained, and
her smile chased away the blackness Of
despair, and gave man courage to endure
present evils and to toll for better days.
No. Hope is not American; but still
there is. in a noble and magnificent sense,
such thing as american Hope a tend
ency to expect better and better results as
the reward of study and effort, 10 every
department Of invention and industry
Take an illustration from the American
Reaper. that after bearing away the prize
al the London Crystal Palace, has lstsly
wone the championship in Paris. II wo'd
seem that If there was anything like finish
ing the hope Of American skill, here wo'd
be an instance oft. II might seem that
no one woul1 cry, Come on MscDuf,"
for the field would be left completely 10
Mac Cormick; and ex-President Fl lmOre,
sitting on the top Of the hay stack in the
trial-feli for the contesling machines in
France, w5ull not only clap his hands and
wave his hat in enthusiasm for the trump
of America; but would also have pus his
hat on lis head and his hands in bis pock
cts. satisfied that invention could not far
ther go. But tliis il not the case Amer
lea knows that all the world is swake to
rivalry. and the strength and peculiarly
Of her hope is, she feels certain Of acliev-
ing success Hence in speech by the
Hon r. C. Winthrop, in which hs spoke
Of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society
founded in 1899. he ssid.
"Its premiums are a! this moment
stimulating the invention ola whole coun
try to furnish us with even better moD-
ing m1chins than those which have already
been the admiration and wonder of the
crystal palaces OF both England and
France, And believe wa shall have
better
, The extent Of the business already done
, in the manufacture Of Reapers and the
worth of the best invention may be some-
what imagined from the fact, that 10 one
, town, Rockford. ILL.,. at one ManufactoryI
. Manny's, three thousand were made last
year, amounting to abou. S400,0O0!
As another illustration Of frsnkness to
admit that th, finishing tonch has ,Eos
tbeen reached in any work, and the reli.
ance that America will lead ia new tri-
, umphs of invention. we always admired
the language OF the ingenious Hobbs. Thsh
he astonished tie Londoners with Amer
lean Lock. Il offer, he said. Ito pick
any lock now, on 'any door within Fifty
q miles of London; but DO not say that no
y lock can be inentta and pu. on a door
which cannot pick" This was Amer
lean faankness. He maintained that the
r lock he had brought from America could
uGt,be picked hecause il was constructed on
? a new principle; he knew that that princi-
r pie might be discovered as It had been; n;and
a he kne4 thatapplications on that principle
: were many, evef 5iscoverable and most
complex But. still fa-ther, he felt conf
dent, and expressed his confidence. that
let what might be done on the part Of for
eign mecahncs. the triumph would be on
n the sile of American skill This is what
we cali Amerisan Hope. tits, far better
f than that Manifest Destiny" doctrine
$ which seems to have died away, giving
r place 10 hopes that look for their ,fulilment
/ to the noble victoaiss Of peace. =,
With honorable aims, and unyielding
). industry and economy, the toilers. in the
# fields Of American enterprise need never
.a,- III, ~ i,,,t kara on and hone aver