The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-19

there are gentlemen of the poetical and philo-
sopbcal persuasions who mourn this tendency
to materialism, we, who know nothing more
material than blowing whole armies into frag-
ments, cannot agree with them. But whether
we like it or not, the world refuses any longer
to fight for light and trivial causes; the people
have grown wise, and kings have been obliged
to give up their little games. The consequence
is that inventors, even in France, are quite as
great folk as the Marshals Of the Empire; and
he who finds out labor-saving adaptation of
the mechanical powers is greater than he who
tal1eth city. 1t is a cheerful popularity of
the time that he who really hits upon a
useful invention is sure Of being handsomely
rewarded.
The busy world wants it, must have il, can
not afford to do without it, and, however re-
luctantly, is obliged to pay for it. 1t is true
that the inventor is sometimes lacking in pru-
dence, and allows himself to be swindled out
of the due reward of his ingenuity; but the
world is not to blame for this it pays some-
body always, although it may now and then
settle with the wrong person. Such an error
is occasionally inevitable and is probably no
more frequent in matters of invention than in
other branches of business. The world, If
anything, is little too oredulous. 1t has
encountered so many wonders, and seen so
many apparent impossibilities overcome, that
it is astonished by nothing and willing to
it gets great many things, extremely useful
and highly convenient, which otherwise 1t
would be it forced to go without. Invention,
duly encouraged, increases every day in
fecundity.
We do not care over much for the Legion of
Honor, but we confess to little pride in the
reflection that our own country has been
among the foremost in this competition of
usefulness. If Yankees have been devoted to
whiting, they certainly have whitfield to some
purpose. For good many years the world
has been laughing at Yankee machines; lately
it has been wiser-it has been buying them.
We are glad to have our tasteful and artistic
contributions noticed and approved, because
they bear testimony to the fact that while we
make excellent locomotives, and the best
moving machines extant, we are not unmind-
full of the graces and the elegances of life. 1t
| proves something that one Of the first objects
Of an American girls ambition is to possess a
| piano-forte. She may be poor; she may be
earning with difficulty her own daily bread;
but how often she manages to buy the coveted
instrument, and to pay for it by little
instalments, which imply great sacrifices and
close economy, the agents of the manufacturers
might tell us. This feeling is very seldom
| one of vanity; it arises oftenest from real
| love of music and the desire of making some
| progress in the practice of it. This demand
has created the manufacture If we make the
best pianos IN the world, 1t Is because we buy
more of them, and know the good ones from
| the bad. We can remember when in the
whole villages there was not so much as an
old-fashiOned spinet, while now almost every
household has better piano-forte than Mozart
or Haydn ever played on. We doubt if there
be this general diffusion of the means of musi-
cal culture anywhere else in the world, except,
possibly, in some parts of Germany. And yet,
we are considered by the ignorant of other
nations to be a hard, practical, penurious,
grasping, and purely mechanical people.
Probably, we take the liberty of saying, there
never was more blundering mistake made in
the world since it was created.
The fate of all nationalities is governed by
so many circumstances which cannot be fore
seen, that it i'll becomes us to boast of the pro-
bable future of our dear country. This much,
however, is certain:-We are rid of that moral
and economical incubus which brought at last
upon us the distress and shame of civil war
That period of pain and calamity has passed
and future of pure and consistent freedom is
before us. There is Legion of Honor tC
which the Muse of History may admit whole
people; and in the society of great, consistent
and truly virtuous nations may we be enrolled
PeDnsylvanta-PrOsPe OF Political
Partiess
From the Herald
There is good deal of controversy justnoW
between the Democrats and the Republican!
as to the prospects of each in the coming eec
tions in New York and Pennsylvania. Thad
Stevens said not long ago that the Democrats
would carry tbasa tvUo Gtatac tha ravf alac