Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-05-03
FIFTY REmARKABLE YEARS.
ny :. b. M'eoRaIcK.

BY :. b. M'G0RAIcE.
If the generations of meIsfom the time
! Of Adam down 10 the pres'nt were taken
! and examined in detail, then would not be
/ found any one period Of flE years so re-
markable in invention, PROCESS and seien-
I ti6o achievements as have bsen the last fifty
years from 1917 to 1861 TO human being,
from the creation to the present time, ever
witnessed within the space III fifty years so
many important events, and it is probable
that no man ever will. Thi deluge was
wonderful event, but il stoed alone. The
discovery Of this continent vas a remarka-
bic affair, but it was accompanied by no
other remarkable occurrence. The cam
palg1s Of Nap9leoip EsFS S history -hls ahl an and
tary achievements, but there are no concom-
liant events worthy of notice.
Take the progress Of this nation in regard
to settlements and improvements, in open
ing up the country, telling timber, breaking
up prairies and clearing out firms, in build
ing up immense cities, and adorning the
earth with beautiful and coitly buildings,
and it may safely be said that no single fifty
years ever saw the Ike. Rome was five
hundred years in being built, Chicago only
about thirty.
View the last half century in regard to
improvements in machinery, and how re-
markable 1t has given as the threshing
machine, the reaping machine, the rotary
printing press, and thousand similar IN
ventions. Iron clad ships and irresistible
projeetlles, hurled from immense military
ordnance, are the creations Of the last fifty
years.
Steam, as a motive power, was almost un-
known fifty years ago. OF all the rivers OF
the known world, none had ever heard the
shriE whistle of steam engine, and the hills
and valleys Of this little mundane sphere
were strangers to the scream Of the locomo-
tive. The steamships and steamboats, and
locomotives and engines are now counted by
thousands and tens of thousands There Is
not a navigable river in the known world
that is not trayersed by steamboats,, and
scarcely plain, nay, even a mountain, that
is not crossed by railroad engines, drawing
immense trains of cars over serpentne roads,
endless in extent
The lightning has been drawn down from
the clouds, chained, trained and harnessed,
and made to carry news in countless direc
tions The very ocean has been made sub
seryicBt in its power and progress, and I'M
mense cables of copper and iron stretch for
thousands of miles through the wateTy deep,
to gather in the world's news IN moment
of time.
Light has been trained to catch the images
Of men and animals. The daguerreotype,
ambrotype, melainotype, and photograph
are all creatures Of the last half century.
Beautiful things are caught from pencils Of
light and placed on plates, from which they
are transferred to stone and then to paper.
Moral and political intelligence is spread
broadcast by thauSaRd. aaa agenGiejSl ejSlli225F5di and
schools have been established in different
governments. Missionary societies and 9TH
er instrumentalities for humanizing society
are actively at work. Scientific discovery
and invention are developed in every depart
ment. and the moral and political world
moves along on aerial wheels.
Gold, lead, copper, coal and oil have been
discovered and applied IN innumerable ways
to the advancement and progress Of civil, So
cial and religious development.
Within the last few years the greatest civ
il war that the world ever saw, or perhaps
ever will see, has transpired within our own
vision And, to crown all, four million OF
slaves have been emancipated. When be-
fore in the world history did such an event
transDire? When viii the world ever again
witness such an event !?
Sum up all this. Count the number Of
engines propelled By steam. Count the
number Of iron rails made since the year
1917. Count the farms improved and the
dwelling houses that dot what a few years
ago was wilderness as the grains Of sand
dot the sea, Count the number of letters
patent that have been issued for important
inventions Count the number of feet Of
telegraph wire the number of gallons of
oil; the number Of ounces Of gold the
pounds Of lead, or the tons of copper that
have lately been used. Count the number
of newspapers, pamphlets, magazines and
| books that have been turned out by steam
since the invention of the steam power press.
Count the number and variety Of the imple-
ments of war, and count the dead upon ouI
battle fields. Count the number Of eman-
cipated slaves, and say whether or not the
| last fifty years have not been prolific of i'm,
| portant events Could not an interesting
| book be written on the subiect2