St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-07-08
Cbe Snttlligenter.
Our Ancestors and Ourselves.

It is very fashionable thing t,
decry the age we live in. Old time,
always have a charm which the pres
ent is never allowed to possess. Tn,
people of the present time arc ncvc
conceded to be as good as their fore
fathers were crime is always votet
to be on the increase each genera
ton is said to grow weaker anc
weaker (thc latter in respect to ras
cality y men and women arc more
extravagant than they used to be, ant
to cap the climax of modern miserics
people are not believed to be as strong
as they used to be. Who, for instance
has not loved to contrast the pomr
and display of the present day with
the republican simplicity of the times
of the Revolution. Benny Franklin
in his blue stockings and plain rig,
going to the French court-ah that
was fine no such simple republican
simplicity aotc-a-days." Oh, no VIC
reply but do these admirers of every
thing that has this blessed sancity OF
the "good old times about it, happen
to rccollect that the stern old patriot
John Hancock, used to ride about in
his coach drawn by six horses, with
outriders who carried drawn swords
in their hands
1t may be urged that King George
had put a price on the head of the
President of the Revolutionary Con
gress, and that all this display grew
ont Of measure of precautionary
prudence. Perhaps it did ; but WASH
ington rode behind six horses while he
was President, after the war was over,
and the talk about traitors and prices
on heads had all died ont. Edmund
Randolph, too, when Secretary of
State, drove his four horses. The first
President not only rode behind six
horses, but on state occasions he APP
peared in rich black velvet, and wore
a dress sword by his side, and what
would be considered hcinous offence
in public man in the present dcgcn-
crate age, he did not shake hands
with those who visited him on the oc-
casion of public receptions but he
received his guests with a formal bow.
We think the model man and the mod
cl officer did just right, not only to
maintain the dignity of his Office as
he did, but also in declining to shake
hands with every Tom, Dick and Har-
ry whom he had never seen before,
might never see again, and for whom
he could not feel the slightest person
al regard or friendship.
We only mention these we'll known
facts to offset our own age against
the simple period people love to talk
about, and to match Frankln's blue
stockings. Pride, and pomp, and all
that sort of thing mag have increased
since the days of the fathers of the
republic /; but we would like to see a
President nowadays who would VEN
ture to ride in coachand-six, or who
would refuse to shake the million by
their multitudious paw until his shout
der was almost dislocated. The in
tense democracy of this pompous age
would stand no such exclusiveness as
that. When we contrast
the deings of the present with the
past, in the way of peaceful enter
prise and skilful achievement, we of
the present rather outshine our prede-
cessors, and stand very excellent
chance of being voted somebodies by
our great, great grandchildren.
A continent cleared and built up
fifty thousand miles of ground covered
with iron rails, vast valleys bridged
over or filled up mountains perfora.
ted steam leviathans on the ocean
Ariel almost outdone in the way Of
putting a girdle around the earth
steam printing presses and steam
most-everything else galvanism, ap.
ple-parers, daguerreotypes, gutta per.
cha hoped skirts, gyrascopes, wo.
mans rights, and, in short, general
assortment Of remarkable things, re.
markable men and women, and re.
markable events to mark the present
as most remarkable era in the worlds
history. We stand boldly up for ON
own age, and defy the admirers of the
ancicnts, who were perhaps very well
in their day, and in their own way, to
match this with any other age that
has preceded ours.