Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1876-02-12
A. NEW ORDER OF THINGS.

pIcVdlIcu Ill Hldly pdTIS VI Jllo UnlC6Q
States have gone forever. People
who expected to see conservative
habits of life and conservative habits
of business Oh national scale in
these United States, expect what in
all probability will never be seen
again in this country. Life hence
forth is pitched on high key. The
marvellous changes wrought by rail-
road development and mechanical
invention, the great increase in pop
ulation, and the expansion of enter
prise by banking facilities have reach
ed and affected every quarter of the
land save some obscure hamlets in
mountain regions which the smoke
wreaths of steam have not visited.
Villages once noted for quiet beauty,
where an income of $1,000 a year
was ample to support large family
in comfort, now boast their banks
and factories and town lot specula-
tions. The demon or genius of
growth rules everywhere. Where he
waves his sceptre, tranquil thoughts
and plOdding ways vanish. Ancient
fisherman may refuse to acknowledge
his sovereignty, but all else yields
allegiance. The handsome church
and fashionable congregation sup
plant the meeting house." The pri-
mitive tavern, with the large open
fireplace, where the country lawyers
and the yeomanry gathered winter
evenings, gives way to the preten-
tious ''hoteI." The girls are up in
the latest fashion periodicals, and the
rich man of an earlier day, say ten
thousand dollars, is mere nobody. ,
Even in the South, since the war de-
molished the Chinese wall of slavery
the tide of modern activity has brok-
enlthrough, and there will shortly be
| a long "Good bye" to the take-life-
easy customs that so peculiarly dis
tinguished that section. We fancy,
and perhaps not without reason that
even the boys and girls of fifteen are
far more mature than youngsters of
that age were twenty years ago.
There has been an immense develop
ment of Newspaper enterprise since
| then, stimulated by various causes,
and children are nowadays rapidly
put in contact with all that is hap
pening, through this channel. The
old budget Of books for mere enter
tainment which children had was
very limited, compared with the re-
sources they now possess. There is
q sharp quest of fields of activity and
a boundless energy in exploring them
which puts every one on his mettle,
and gives laggards or billiards no
show in the game of lifts. The man
who enters on business these times
must be alive with energy and of
keenest insight or he will go under ;
| there are rivals as numerous and as
menacing as the cannon which sur
rounded the "Light Brigade"
The old times have passed away,
and new epoch has begun. This
republic has exceptional advantages
in it's breadth of territory, its great
water communication, its favorable
climate, its isolation from Europe,
and it's liberal frame of government.
Much of its domain is taken up, its
| system of government is being put to
new tests, its Industries are hence
forth to be subjected to the strains of
competition, and from this time on
it remains to be seen whether the
[ moral forces of the people are equal
to physical advantages which they
have enjoyed. Europe has had to
deal with far more embarrassing
problems than beset us until within
recent years, and we have done a good
deal of inconsiderate Boosting over
our superiority as free and enlight-
ened people. The time has now come
when we will be called upon to vim
dictate these boasts. We shall hav-
financial, social, economical and po-
litical issues to tax our fullest capa-
cities, intellectual and moral, and If
we meet them successfully we shall
convert the world to democracy
The generation that is coming on the
stage has big work before it. That
it may prove equal to the work is the
hope of every patriotic citizen and