Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1878-08-01

during the perlOu unuef
review.
No less rapid and gratifying than
the growth of the state has been that
of the system of public education.
And what shall we say of the prog
ress made by the future great city of
the continent, st. Louis? In 1921,
when Missouri was admitted into the
Union, the city of st. Louis, compar-
ed with what it now is, was strag-
Cling village without commerce. with
out manufactures, without regular
steamboat communication, without
rail or rock roads, without telegraphs,
without street cars or gas, without
schools, and with the common wood
en- fiat for ferry crossing, instead Of
the magnificent tubular bridge which
now spans the Mississippi. In 1921
her total 10 opula.ion was about IL 1000;
in 1878 more than 100000. In 1921
there were only 429 taxpayers in the
city of St. Louis, the taxable wealth
of no one Of whom was larger than
$40, 900, very few of them as high as
$40, 900, and large majority of them
under 5000. The total taxes lev
led for that year in the city was S.
823.8O. In 1872 the tax-rolls exhibit
the names of 400 taxpayers, only 29
short of the list Of 1921, no one of
whom pays on assessed valuations of
less than 100000, several of them
over a million, and all of them to-
gether more than sixty millions.
From these meagre beginnings, Mr..
President, behold the colossal pro-
portions we have attained as q state,
our wonderful achievements in the
arts, in commerce, in wealth and pop
ulation, and in all the varied indus
tries which distinguish the ciyiliza-
ton of our eventful era. Mark the
potential influences which have
opened the rich fountains of individ-
ual and incorporated enterprise ;
which have vivified a I'd expanded the
fields OF knowledge; which have
quickened the spirit, by enlarging the
means of state and international COM
merce.
! Neither at the time of the settle
ment at Ste. Genevieve, nor for seve-
raj years after the acquisition of Lou
isian by MI. Jefferson, was the
steambC at known, and therefore nc
steam vessel of any kind navigateC
any of the waters of the world. Ever
as late as the war of 1912, railroads
for the transportation of freight anC
passengers had not been invented, anc
the electric telegraph, as means O
communicating intelligence, did no
occur to the widest fancy for gen
Grafton afterward. Now the tele
graph encircles the globe, scaling th'
highest mountains and spanning th
deepest and broadest seas, annihilat
ing intervening space, and bringin:
continents together, and making mex
,i,rn ueisyhbors o~ory kindred ant
tongue, nation and tribe, land ant
language on the face of the globe.
Missouri then had not mile OF rail
wav. Now she has more than thre
thousand miles; and the shrill whistl
of the locomotive is heard on he
mountain tops and reverberating wit
: mellowed music along her richest ant
widest valleys.
Missouri, when admitted into tn
Union, was q frontier state, unknown
even by name to large majority O
the people of our seaboard and con
tanned only 10000 inhabitants. No,
she is the central state of the repub
lie and the seat of empire. Now sh
contains a population of more thai
two millions of people, owning tax
able wealth of SIX hundred millions o
dollars is entitled to Is votes in tn
electoral college, and in the numbe
of her inhabitants proudly ranks a
the fifth state in o sisterhoOd of thir
ty-eight.
Who, then, can doubt or deny tina
f Missouri has achieved, and is achiey
f ing a distinguished destiny?
1t can now be truthfully said c
her, there is no speech nor languag
, where her voice is not heard. He
line is gone out through all the earth
) and her words to the end of the world
f She possesses more of the element
of wealth and prosperity than an
f other state, old or new, inland or ses
board; and blessed with a wise ao
! 'ministration of government and th
smiles of gracious Providence, wi
= become one of the cherished spots {
, earth, consecrated as the no ne of +,
v ligion and liberty, and the keyston
1 of the arch of an indestructib
, Union.
We cannot more tittingly portra
| the influence which Missouri Is de-
/ tined to exert in the moral and polit
n cal regeneration of our country tina
h by quoting the glowing lines of OF
!. of Americas gifted poets, VIM.
e Bryant, very recently deceased:
d "Who shall place
d A limit to the giants unclaimed strengi
# Or curb his swittness in the forward rae,
Far, like the comets way through infni
- space.
Stretches the long untravelled path
q light,
4 Into the depths of ages we may trace
:. Afar, the Frightening glory of its flight,
81 Till the receding rays are lost to hum
{. sight"
A vounp lady in -Vassar Colleg