The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-08-28
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, AUGUST %, 1860


In the olden times, when the channels OF COM
munication between nations were but few, and
the means Of transportation by land and water
were cumbrous and uncertain, civilization adj
vanced from point TO point at a tardy pace. long
time usually elapsed before the improvements elect
ed in one country were known TO or adopted py an
adjoining people. The French were comparative
" a polished and cultivated race very many years
before their habits and modes of thought produced
any decided impression on their uncouth German
neiobbors. and the enlightenment of Western
Chrome failed for centuries to affect perceptibly
the halEciyilized populations of Russia, Poland
and Hungary. Travellers journeying from land to
land, found in each its own peculiar customs
and creeds, which, like the costume of the people,
had undergone little change from generauon 10
generation When they crossed the frontiers OF
any country they generally found themselves
amonr scenes as different from those they had
lust left as if they had been magicay trans
ported many hundred miles in a moment The
letters and diaries Of many Of the energetic tour
lists who in those days visited in turn the petty
principalities of Germany, or the ducal Courts
of Italy, still exist, and it is curious
to note how many things they found, within the
circuit of few hundred miles, which struck them
as being wholly new and strange. But that pic
turesQue old world has been for some time under
going n transformation, and now that railroads,
steamships and telegraphs are bringing distant
countries rs it were into close contact with each
other, we may expect to see continents, which
were once divided among innumerable small but
dissmilar communities, assume before long an
appearance of uniformity. Men are already be-
ginning everywhere to conform, not only in the
matter of dress and manners, but in many other
respects to the standards by which society is reg
ulated in London and Paris. Frocll coats abound
at Constantnople, ana The opera and the ballet
flourish in Australia. In almost any quarter Of
the world the traveller may now take his ease in an
inn resembling those he has been accustomed to
frequent in France or England, and Young Amer
lea may hear the familiar click Of the billiard
balls in Honolulu as well as in New York.
Gas companies are lighting mp the streets of
the white cities of the Tropics; locomotives are
laundering through the jungles of Hindoostan and
the forests of Panama q canal has been projected
which is TO cross the Isthmus of Suez; and steam
boats ply on the Red Sea and the La Plata. So
rapidly have all the appliances of modern cviza-
ton been introduced into these unknown quarters
of the globe that scarcely realize the actual
existence Of such anomalies. There is a startling
incongruity between the names Of things and
places which are spoken of in the same con-
ncction to which it is difficult TO reconcile our
selves. The idea of taking a round trip ticket on
Gron for n N he
try, or of asking for discount at the ''Bank Of
egypt" seems too romantic TO be entertained by
practical people. But if it sounds oddly to hear
of such things in a general way, the effect upon
the Imagination is still more striking when we
read of them in the papers published in those re-
mote regions, for in the simple business notices
they contain there is strange tumble OF ordinary
transactions and barbaric terms and titles
The details of everyday life with which
they furnish us, show, better than travel
ler's notebooks how the influences and fashions
of Europe are gaining ground. But for the names
of the parties, we might imagine we were glancing
over a London journal when we read the gossip
Published in these papers. From one of them, for
instance, we learn that Ell HAM PACHA, the son-in-
law of the Sultan, is following the example of more
enlightened princes in his personal habits, and that
he was "protested' few weeks ago at Alexandria,
for the non-payment of some bills which he had
negotiated a few months before al the easy rate of
one and half per cent. month. His Indignant
family, we are told, closed their account with the
bank, thus manifesting their dspleasure in a man
ner more Christian than Turkish. Again we
have accounts of other barbarians who
more creditably engaged than in arranging the
renewal of dishonorei bills. The Bombay CT
eette, speaking of four new cotton spinning and
weaving factories which are about to be built,
says Gone of these, the private property of
''Messrs hianeckjee Pity and Mer VANCE Franz
'iee Panday, is already in course of building at
"Tardeo Another is to he established by Mr..
t'Bomor6oo Hormusjee Wada 'n pari"'-N''r
with about half dozen merchants; and we hear
''the site selected is at Coorla. The two other
"mls are sevcrally projected by Mr.. Munguldass
"Naihoobhoy and Mr.. Pestonjee Byramjee Cola"
If the cotton factories succeed, we shall no doubt
soon hear that some capitalist, who rCjoices in rs
queer a name as that which Mr.. MUNGULDAss NATH-
ooBHoY bears, is brewing brown stout in Benares.
Thus are the customs of Europe gradually gaining
foothold in the farlhest corners of the earth
Progress and innovation are the order of the day,
and rapid rs their advance has been of late years.
it is likely to be still more so in the future The
old is gradually receding before the new, and
every day some institution which has existed from
time immemorial is passing into the category of
things that were.