The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-04-09
The ssasos-Thc Centennial and the
Canvass.

s'oi' VI "H0s "o oWo 70 Poiltics ana patriot-
ism. To rs as Americans this year will be
full Of interest We celebrate the centennial
of our independence. We have nm impor-
tant Presidential canvass. The election Of
Lincoln decided the fate Of slavery. The
Issue in the fall may be the fate OF the nation.
In 1SC0 the question was whether slavery
should have control Of the Territories. That
ended in the destruction Of slavery. In 1876
we may have to decide whether the Union is
worth the hundred years of trouble we have
taken to preserve it. If we were to continue
in this vein we might End ourselves in the
mood BETTING the sacresl season which now
interests the Christian world-the season in
which millions commemorate the suforings
Of our Saviour. In these hours, consented
to meditation and devotion, we may be par
doned gloomy forebodings rs to the future
Of republic whose century plant is Bel
knapism. But if the shades of our ancestors
reproach us, MS we'll they might, we have
only to recall Arnold and Burr and few
others who did rs much to dishonor the Rev
olution as Belknap has done to dishonor the
centennial of the Revolution. There are re-
Elections of lighter hue in which we may
reasonably indulge, especially rs the
treacherous spring, with its storms and
winds, seems to be in n relenting mood.
With SUMMER days we have the coming of
renewed business activity. The HERALD is
ms full of advertisements rs spring tree
with blossoms The representative news
hac ito xvhn md
the philosophy of journalism cannot fail to
note that the season Of growth in nature is
the season of our highest business pros
pcrty. A newspaper with seventy-one
columns of advertisements is certainly justi-
fled in taking a cheerful view of society and
the State; for it is not among the least
desirable fruits of these hundred years Of
liberty that the journal has become the
index Of the national prosperity. The
HERALD to-day goes out to all the world
not merely as newspaper record of what
happened yesterday in many lands, but rs
the servant of multitudcs of men and
women.
An ingenious writer says that the last
columns in the newspaper to fade are those
recording marriages and deaths. If we could
throw our fancy into 1876, and have before
us this mornings HERALD, nothing would be
so interesting as these seventy-one columns
Of advertisements which stand side by
side like so many serried columns What
activity and interest and industry they rep
resent! What hopes and fears, what aims
and dreams, what whims and aspirations
are marshalled in close array! We see the
world in one daily revolution, even as the
child with wondering eyes looks into the
mystery of the kaleidoscope. Here friend
seeks friend oil the way from over the seas
voice calling into the night, as it were.
Here we see what our clergymen propose
to say to souls hungering for the bread Of life
trance speaker, who claims to 60 to sleep
on n chair and commune with the angels,
to vigorous Brother Moody, who seems ready
and willing to meet the devil in fair stand
up fight. If our interest in this life is not
too much absorbed in care for the life to
come here are the singers and the players
to amuse us. In one direction we hear the
drums of Agincourt with Mr.. Rignold as the
English king. while in another we hear the
uproarious laughter which welcomes Wal
lacks Interpretation of the genius of
Sheridan. Here is the world of COM
merce and trade, which overfows into
SO many columns, telling us of stuffs and
raiment, and wherewithal to deck our per-
sons and our homes How cold and pale
these swelling advertisements of SO much
finery and taste will seem to the eyes Of
1876 Yet how fresh they are to-day One
sees the suns Of the Mediterranean in the
sheen Of silk and velvet, and we are car
ried to far and strange lands, and an ancient
imperial civilization as we read of cashmeres
from Japan and cloths from Madras and
fabrics deity woven by fingers in Persia.
And from the world of business we pass to
other words-of men and women seeking
homes and Offering homes, of humble ones
who crave employment of country friends
who begin with the singing birds to tell us
of mountain air and the seaside, the forest
and the stream. Here are the auctioneers,
ready to knock down anything, from dia-
mond necklace to a kitchen stove, if our
readers have any ambitions to become the
highest bidders. Here are ships and steam
ers to carry us 10 the ends of the earth
Here are business opportunities for those
who desire to make rapid fortunes; money
to lend and money to borrow; and, more
than ALL that column which will, no doubt,
outlive all that we print to-day, and which
records the marriages and deaths-tbs col
umn which, if we were in decorating
mood, should always be entwinee with the
leaves OF the cypress and the flowers OF the
orange.
Truly this is the world, AMI it does not
even require the imagination to go from col
umn to column to see tho many currents
which swell the stream of life. Thus it is
that the journal becomes the symbol OF onr