Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1876-11-24

Haadre9 Years, and Taat's 4Jom An.
GAINESVILLE, Nov. 23rd, 1876.
Mr.. Eaitor The great Centennial show /!
! over at last, and ali those who have not A.
tended II will have to wait now for The mex
| one Waiting for tic next, you know, is 4
joke. II takes II right funny person 10 say il.
but as there are good many funny persons
this year The joke has been pretty well spread
not spread out, indeed, until it is now very
thin. For the first four hundred and sixty
five times heard it laughed right out, for
II seemed iunny-funny rs thar Joke about
paying you when ! sell my dog" Then
my laugh moderated to an audible smile, then
for an hundred times or so giggled quietly
just for politeness' sake, until now when ask
any one shave you been TO the Centennial 2''
aud he replies with u ready-made laugh "No,
am going TO wait for the next onep-why,
can do nothing more than get up distress
full grin, for all the world like collie symp-
tom. think it is about time reward WAS
offered to any one who will not say that joke
any more ! must have been Specializing on
this phenomenon a few nights ago before go
ing 10 sleep, for | dreamed that the next Cen
tennial was holding, that | was attending il
and that had written the following letter to
the SENTINEL:
TILDEN Cry, July 18th, 1876
The Great Exhibition, though open for sew
eral months past, was fully inaugurated to-
day in its character o. the SECOND CESrENNIAL
OF American independence. The grand fea-
lures OF the affair are Rour-fold LIST, Ii is
The celebration in as grand u style us possible
Of our entrance into our third century Of ma
tonal existence. 2nd, 1t is worlds fair,
where all nations under the sun have met to
exhibit their products industries, customs
manners, &c. 3rdly, 1t is family gathering
of our great ssterhood of States, at which
representatives of every class, every interest
every calling, every distinguishable aim in
life or thought, have assembled to compare
The fruits OF their abors, and congratulate
one another on their success. And lastly, il is
the hundredth year of this city, named in
honor of him who one hundred years ago was
elected president Of these States-and who by'
his wise and patriotic administration deliver
ed The country from T. rannY and oppression
greater even than that it suffered aud threw
Off two hundred years ago
shall not attempt in this letter descrip-
tions even IN general terms, Of what is here
to be seen, but will simply state that there
are more than one thousand acres of exhibi-
ton, comprising specimens of every nation,
people and thing in the known world Every
thing that ten thousand imaginations combin-
ed could possibly conceive, and an hundred
times as many of which they could form no
previous conception; in fact it may be said
with truth, that the industry, ingenuity,
wealth, resources and conceptions of the whole
world are here displayed
The progress made by mankind during the
last century is most clearly illustrated hv
comparing the appliances for mans comfort
as seen al this Exhibition with those exhibited
at Philadelphia an hundred years ago. The
cumbersome old locomotive of 1876 that drag
ged its dozen Of wheeled cars over iron rails
at the rate OF thirty or forty miles an hour and
the steamers that plowed through the ocean
or threaded their way in the rivers fifteen 10
twenty miles an hour, are side by side with
the graceful DynaRt0tor of 1876 that whirls lis
passengers in safety through the air a. the rate
Of four hundred miles per hour. The old |
electric battery, with its multitude OF wires, |
ghostly poles aud strong-smeing chemicals,
rests idly operate only as a matter Of curl |
osity- near the air messenger that gathers
It the news OF the world and spreads
Tree Tor every one TO hear or read The |
weather indications or probabilities as I
published by cooperation of the Post Office
Ind War Departments' in 1876 read about /
IS inteillgently rs tho prophecyng of old
Dutch aimanacs when compared with our cal
,nde:s OF Today, in which the state of the
weather and OF the temperature is correctly +
stated for every day in the year The news
such as we still see in old books, are here
,reserved-and how tediously they contrast
With the ldea chart that now furnishes us our
Why TO get as much intelligence
rom the old newspaper as NE now get from
he Idea chart in half an hour, would reoaire
imost weeks patient reading. The won
Ter IS, how the people of that day ever put
Up with such slow means of information
What would the orator Of the day at Phili-
It1l1 IN has hon lr,.
is strength almost to exhaustion, and then
leard but by a few Of the thousands assembled
'efore him, had he been told that his success
or OF to-day would be distinctly heard bv
our hundred millions of people, If they
hoose 10 listen? and that too without attend
ng the Exhibition at all bat by simply as
emblng around the many daricoas distribu-
ed over the country?
Another contrast that cannot fail TO strike
he visitor, especially If he be one of our own
is that afforded by looking on
he maps Of the United States That of 1876,
hough it extends as far Eastwise and West
yardly as that Of to-day, is bounded North
nd South by most unnatural lines "a few
axes aud rivers and an imaginary parallel
onstitnte the Northern boundary while a riv
+ aud then nothing at all form the Southern
Now the map of to-day exhibits
country bounded oy three oceans and an
sthmus, together with many islands as out
os,s in every direction; and divided into
early two hundred States.
These contrasts are but samples of what
nay be observed in a greater or less degree
throughout the whole comparative depart s
lent.
There was, however, one class exhibited al
that is lacking here The great
isplay of warlike implements--ihe cannon,
le needle-guns, the iron-cads, the mitrail-
,use, the many plans of Notifications These
re here only as relies of former times, their
Sc consigned TO the dead past by the univer- I
Il acceptance and application Of the injunc-
on, Love Thy neighbor as myself"
Ia the above letter you will observe there
re several names not now in use, for the rea-
IN, suppose, that we of this day have no i
Sc for such names. ] would explain the /
leaning OF these names and the things they re- I
resent, but that my recollection Of the dream
too indistinct 10 do il clearly, so you must 5
y 10 understand them for Yourself. You G
light, however, keep the letter, and when q
&c next Centennial show does come off you !
IN see if the dream be prophetic or simply d
lay Of slumber's fancy. Yours, c
BLABBER. r
A MtsER's EsrATE.-Mrs II. A. Halford. of
I yandotte, Kansas, sister Of Joseph Ialford, 7
no was found dead in his bed at The Western c
aryland hotel, on Pennsylvania avenue, on I
lie 18th instant, arrived in this city yesterday,
I'D is stopping at Guys hotel. She has evil
anee in her possession that establishes her 5
ENTITY aud her claims to the estate of the ;
sceased, which is valued at S2l 600. OF this e
Mount $4,000 is registered bonds, and
spers showing deposits in various savings
INKS TO the amount of s., l2S were found F"
faer his inflow after his death There he