The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1866-07-07
EASTERN ORIGIN OF MODERS \
UTILITIES.


The following extract from Draper $
last work, "Ciyil Policy III America, :
shows the Eastern origin cf much that is
useful and admirable :;
In times Of which history has failed to
preserve any account, that continent
| Asial must have been the scene Of pro-
digious activity. lao it we're first devel-
oped those fundamental inventions and
discoveries really lie at the basis of
the progress of the human raee-the
Isubjugation Of domestic animals, the man
agement of fire, the expression oF thoue hi
By writing. We are apt to overlook how
much man must have done, how Inueh he
must have added to his natural powers in
pre- historic times We forget how many
contributors to our own comforts are Of
Oriental origin. Their commonness hides
them from our view.
If the European wishes to know how
much he owes the Asiatic, he has only to
cast a glance at an hour of his daily life
The clock which summons him from his
bed in the morning, was the invention of
the East. as also were elepsydras and sun
dials The prayer for his daily bread,
that he has said from infancy, first rose
from the side of a Syrian mountain.
The linens and cottons with which he
clothes himself. though they may be very
fine, are inferior to those that have been
made for time immemorial in the looms Of
India. The silk was stolen BY some mis-
sionaries, for his benefit, from China.
He could buy better steel than that with
which he shayes himself, in the city of
Damascus, where it was first invented
The coffee lie expects at breakfast was
FIRST grown by the Arabians, and the ma
tiyes Of Upper India prepared the sugar
with which he sweotens it. 4 schoolboy
can tell the meaning of the Sanscrit
words, sacehcra cGnda. If his tastes are
light and he prefers tea. the virtues Of
that excellent leaf we're first pointed cut
By the industrious Chinese. They also
taught him hog to make and use the cup
and saucer in which to serve it. His
breakfast tray was lacquered in JApan.
There is a tradition that leaxened
bread was first made of the waters of the
Ganges. The egg he is breaking was laid
BY a fowl whose ancestors were first do
mesticatcd by the MalaceaBs, unless she
may hare been-though that will not
alter the Casa modern Shanghai. If
there are preserves and faits in his
board, let him remember Nth thankful
ness that Persia gave hipf the cherry, the
peach, the plum Ifsin any of those
pleasant preparations he detects the flavor
.fon1aX l1&, . L. h.f h.F
substance was first distilled by the Araz
bians, who have set him the praisegorthy
example. which 1t will be his benefit to
follow, of abstaining from Its use. When
/ he talks about coffee and alcohol, he is
using Arabic words 4 thousand years
before it had occurred to him to enact
laws of restriction in the use Of intoxica-
ting drinks, the Prophet of Mecca did the
same thing. and. what is more to the pur-
pose, has compelled to this day all Asis
and Africa to obey them.
We crafty our taste for personal orna-
ments in the way the 0rientals have
taught us-in the pearls, rubies, sap
phires, diamonds. Ofpublie amusements
/ it Is the same. The most magnificent
fireworks are still to be seen in India and
China; and as regards the pastimes oi
private life, Europe has produced no in
yention that can rival the game-cf chess
We have no hydraulic constructions a
great as the Chinese Canal, no fortifca
tions as extensive as the Chinese Wall
We have no artesian wells that can at al
approach in depth some of theirs. We
have not yet resorted to the practice o.
obtaining coal-gas from the interior O
the earth; they have borings for thai
purpose more than 5000 feet deep.