Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1876-01-07
ONE HUNDRED YEARS !

the departed year. Let us turn to
1r.ctical life for a more exhilarating
view. Despise him not, therefore, as
we introduce the plain man of sta
tistics, the patient fact-gatherer, who
carefully watches and notes every
event which works out national adj
vancement. He does not allow HIM
self to grow dismal over the past.
He sees the shores Of time strewn
with moral wrecks, it is true, but
dashing aside a tear he looks above
and beyond to the power which hath
made and preserved us a nation. He
sees that the whole moves. Let the
dead past bury its dead. His work
to make the record of our struggling
pioneers, our heroes, our statesmen,
our patient toilers in art, science,
commerce and manufactures. His to
recount their achievements, their re-
searches, discoveries, inventions and
enterprise which have so rapidly
worked out our national development.
His to show to the world our coun-
try's hundred years progress, pros
perity and power.
At the beginning Of this Centennial
year it is but proper that we should
cast retrospective glance at our past
history, in order the better to estimate
our advance in the future. From a
population numbering only three
millions we have increased within
the past century to more than forty
millions. Industries which at that
time were unknown have sprung up,
employing much Of the capital and
labor of the country. The foul blot
Of slavery upon the national escutch'
con has been obliterated, and to-day
the land is free from centre to circum-
ference. Our national domain has
increased from the original thirteen
States to thirty eight, extending
across the continent, and including
the Centennial State Of Colorado,
which joins the American family on
the 4th Of July with all the rights
and privileges of the older members.
Our organized Territories, including
the Indian Territory and Alaska, now
number eight, and afford glittering
prospects to the hardy and adyentur-
GUS pioneers of American civilization,
Fhe changes which have taken place
within the lifetime Of many who will
celebrate the nations natal day are
simply marvellous. Railroads, land
and sub marine telegraph, steamships,
the cotton-gin, reaping and sewing
machines, and last, but by no means
least, the printing press, have all been
brought to aid in facilitating business
and adding to the comfort and hap
piness of the human race. Manutac-
lures which scarcely existed century
ago now employ more than two million
of our people in profitable labor, pro-
ducing annually sum nearly equal
to the national debt. Then nearly all
our people were engaged in agricultu-
raj pursuits now, owing to the diver
sifed nature OF their occupations, less
than six millions are SO employed.
Millions of tons of coal and more iron
than the world consu ned when we be-
gan our national existence are now
mined annually, while from being i'm
porters of other minerals we are rapid
ly becoming exporters, and changing
the balance of trade in our favor by
inducing the flow Of gold into instead
of from the country. The deposits of
precious metals in Colorado, Arizona,
Nevada, California and New Mexico
are apparently inexhaustible, rivaling
in riches the stored wealth Of Mexico
and Peru, and in less than genera
ton will yield vast portion oftheir
treasures to the teeming population
which will overrun the hillsldes and
swarm the valleys Of the Western Ell
Dorado. That the picture is notover-
drawn, our progress in the past fully
demonstrates, and warrants the pre-
diction that from the year of Centen-
NAL grace 1876, the United States will
be the leading power among the ma
tions Of the earth.