The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-15

lions of acres square, where Red Indians hunt,
and light, and steal, and scalp; but American
ciyilizalion marches up, kills or deports them
the face Of the land. They leave no trace be-
hind, and the bran new civilization starts up
In night, like mushroom. Where yesterday
was ylgwam, to-day. is a Dorc meeting
house, also bank, and grand pianoforte;
where yesterday the medicine man wove his
lDcantatlons, tomorrow an advertising corn
cutter opens his shop; and in place of squaw,
emDrolderlng moccasins, and cudgelled by the
drunken brave her spouse, we have a tight.
laced young lady, with chignon and hooped
SKIRT taking academical degrees, and talking
snrllly about woman's rights. few years
since the uapper and pioneer race formed
transition stage between the cessation of bar
barism and the advent of civilization. The
pioneer was slmple-minded man, and so soon
as clearing grew too civilized for him, the
would shoulder his hstchet and rifle, and move
further out into the wilds. ILhave hearugof one
whose signal for departure was the setting up
OF printing press in his settlement Those
earned newspapers he remarked "made ones
cattle stray son But railway extension and
the organization in the Atlantic cities OF .enor-
nous caravans of emigrants, are gradually
thinning the ranks Of the pioneers. In few
years, Natty Bumppo, Leatherstocking, the
Deerslayer, the Pathfinder, will be legendary.
Civilization moves now in block. There is
scarcely any advanced guard. Few skrmishers
are thrown out. The main body swoops down
on the place to be occupied, and civilIZes 1t in
one decided charge. ....
1t may be advantageous to compare such
sudden substitution of settled community Tor
q bowling wilderness, with the slow and tenta-
tive growth of our home surroundings Euro
pean civilization resembles the church OF st
Eustache at Paris, in whose exterior Gothic
inches and pinnacles, Byzantine arches, Oorin
THAN columns, Composite cornces, and Renais
sance doorways, are all jun bled together. Every
canon Of architectural taste is violated; but the
parts still cohere; very solid facade still rears
Its head; and, at a certain distance, its appear
iubuI1nOnionq At COlOUnp in Ear-
many, they will point out to you an ancient
BUILDING, here bit of Lombard here q morsel
of forid Gothic, here some unmistakable
Italian, and here ten feet of genuine old Roman
wall. There are many Christian churches in
Italy whose walls are supported by columns
taken from Pagan temples. The entire system,
physical as well as moral, has been the result
OF growth upon growth, OF gradual int2rcala-
tlon and emendation, of perpetual cobblng and
piecrng and patching; and although at last, like
Sir John Cutters silk stockings. which his maid
darned SO often with worsted that no part of the
original fabric remained, the ancient foundations
may have become all but invisible, thev are
still latent, and give soiditv to The superstruc-
ture. We look upon the edihce, indeed, as we
would on something that has taken root, that
has something to rest upon. We regard it as
we would that hoary old dome of st. Peters at
Rome. We know how long it took to build,
and we trust that it will endure forever. The
bran-new civilization we are apt to look at more
in the light of balloon. 1t is very astonishing.
We wonder how ever it contrived to rise so
high, and how long it will be before it comes
down again; and we earnestly hope that it will
not burst.
1t is not necessary to avow any partisan kind
of prediction for one phase of civilization as
against another. 1t is sufficient to Dote the fact
that Europeans, the least preiudiced and the
most ardent admirers OF the political institutions
of the United States, very soon grow fretful and
| uneasy there, and are unable to deny when
| they come back, that the country is not an ele
CANT or a comfortable one to look upon. / attri-
| butte this solely to aesthetic causes. do not
| believe that Englishmen grumble at America be-
| cause the people are given to eXpectoration, or
| guessing, or calculating or trivialities of that
| kind. Continental Europeans eXpectorate quite
| as freely as the Americans, and for rude cross
| questioning of strangers | will back a Ger
| man against the most inquisitive OF New
| Englanders. 1t Is in the eye that the mischief
| lies. 1t is the bran-new mathematical outline
| Formsickness, and ultimately to the disparage-
nent and Misrepresentation of a very noble
| country. In many little matters of detail,
| American manners differ from ours; but in the
| aggregate we are still one family. They speak
| our lanRuage-very frequently with far greater
| purity and felicity of expression than we our
| selves do--they read our books, and we are very
| often glad and proud to read theirs They have
| a common inheritance with us in the historic
memories we most prize. IT they would only
| round off their corners little If they would
| only give us few crescents and ovals in lieu of
"blocks!n If they would only remember that
| the circle as well as the rectangle is figure in
| mathematics, and that the curvllinear Is, after
all, tEe line of beauty !-AH the Year Round