Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-09-27
Grecley's Speech at Newark.
No'SS epNeNh ut NcWdrh.
THE CHANGES WHICH FORTY YEARS HAyI
WROUGHT.


Ladies and Gentleman 1T would be
utterly impossible for one-tenth part of
this vast audience hear, and l would
suggest to those who cannot hear to move
quietly away and thus secure more ST.
lence to those who can and wish to hear.
On an occasion like this-the first | be-
lieve, in the world of an industrial fair
in city made up of that city's manu-
factures alone-it is natural for those of
us who are growing old to recall the val
liable "reminiscences of our younger days
and view the improvements that have
been made since then. 1t is now forty
years since i first strolled into the streets
of Newark. had come here from New
York to attend the dedication of the first
Upiversalist church, and succeeded in
reaching Newark on Sunday only by GO
ing afoot. found it then a smart, rath-
er struggling but busy village Con week
days. Of about ten thousand inhabitants
-one-twelfth of its present population
and bearing about the same characters
tics it now does. Forty years ago no
great steamships crossed the ocean as
now. One, possibly two, had made the
voyage, but in the main, intercourse with
the Old World was carried on by sail
ing vessels, taking up FIVE or six weeks
on the passage. New York was five
weeks from Liverpool in the summer
time and in the winter more. Europe
was practically further away than Afri-
ca is now, and intercourse with Europe
then was not much more regular than it
is with Africa now. There were few
canals in the country then. The Erie
and the Champfain were the pioneers and
the most important avenues of communi-
cation in the country. The Erie canal
then was farmers ditch compared with
the Erie canal now. The Delaware ca
nal, believe, had not yet been complet-
ed. In the whole United States there
were between fifty and one hundred miles
of railroad. The mails, where steam
boats were not available, were carried in
stage coaches aud on horseback, travel
ing thus some sixty miles a day. Bos-
ton and Washington we're then several
days away from New York.
To-day our steamboats, ply in all of
our navagable rivers, we have 10000
miles of railroad, an extent equal to all
| others in the world combined, costing
not less than s2,500,000,000, not count
ing the amounts stolen, and aggregating
a value exceeding our national debt.
The population of the United States then
was not quite fourteen millions, one-third
of the present amount. Our wealth
has increased in larger proportion than
our population, aud our country can
produce now six times what it could
forty years ago. Not mile of telegraph
was upon the face of the earth then.
The idea of sending messages by elec-
| tricity had scarcely entered the brain of
a visionary. Some years after my first
visit here Prof. Samuel f. B. Morse in
! vited me, with several other gentleman,
to witness the fact that messages could
be transmitted ten miles and an answer
could be returned. Telegraphs have
been the products of the last thirty years.
The world is now girdled by electric
wires, and intelligence now flashes across
continents and under seas. Pekin, Stam-
boul, Vienna, London, flash their intel
ligence daily to your doors, and the news.
papers spread before you every day a
mirror Of the casualties, the revolutions,
the catastrophes of the day before in ev.
cry distant city of the globe. BY means
of the telegraph the world is becoming
one commonwealth. What is known in
one land is known almost simultaneously
in all others, and the interests, aspira.
tions and conceptions of the people OF
all countries are becoming closely inter
woven. Agricultural industry forty
years ago was rude and simple. The
American farmer with 5000 invested in
farm implements then was welI-to-do
among his neighbors. Now $4,000 are
required for the same relative use.
/ About twenty-one years ago / groped
my way up dark stairs in Fulton street,
New York, to see the sewing machine.
Elias Howe, Jr., the inventor, sat there,
wild and seedy looking, frightened at the
approach of stranger. He thought
had come to steal his idea away from
him. When | told him had not come
to take his sewing machine, but to tell
the people there was sewing machine,
he became communicative and told me
what he hoped of his wonderful combin-
alton Of the needle and the shuttle. Now
there are a million of sewing machines
in use and six immense factories are
busy turning out more to meet the de-
mand. i believe that as we improve in
our tightening ofhuman labor, by deput-
/ fnp fhe hea West ratscnlar x.or1, - A..