The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-07-24
Remarks of Hon. John Brooks,

ELM COUN1h , NEW COURT HOUSE.
Mr.. PREsIDENT-JADIE AND GEN
TBEMEN-In this eventful period and
dynamical age, it requires no heroism
to assert, "The world moves" But
two hundred and forty six years ago,
the 22nd of last June, Galileo the Flo
rentine sage, was condemned and inn
plisoned at Rome for this assertion.
Fifty years prior to the date of the
great charter granted to VIM. Penn,
by Charles the second, the King of
England, Scotland, France and Ire
land, the defender of the faith, and
before the city of Brotherly Love, was
founded, this event occurred. Let
Philadelphia to-day and our great
commonwealth answer, and vouch for
the truthfulness of the utterance "The
world moves" The purpose and OBJ
ject of this assemblage is proof that
1.-The world moves" and if you ask
for more positive proof, 1 cite you to
the great fact, that in this year of grace,
Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood was admit
ted as a practicing attorney at law i'm
the Supreme and in the Superior
Courts of the United States. This of
itself should be a conclusive verifica-
ton not only that "the world moves"
but that it moves forward, that the
march of progress, like the visual rays
of the sun and the march of Empire is
ever onward. Forward march, comes
from the telephone, and the swift light
nings speed the command all along
the line.
Less than a century ago, the forests
Goods first temples) prevailed over the
site of your county and picturesque
village, in all their native solitude and
grandeur. Here the stately elk, with
its spreading palmate antlers in all its
native majesty, bounded and roamed
in the valley and among the hills that
environ your beautiful and romantic
shire-town, unobserved and unmo-
Tested save by the rude and untutored
aboriginals. The elk and the denizen
of the wigwafn, alike have disappeared
and fled civilization. Archery'has be-
come pastime rather than liveli
hood, arts and science are advancing,
and the iron horse has superseded the
birch bark canoe, and the court house
the council fires and the fabricated as
sizes of the chiefs of the wigwam
A little over thirty-five years ago, your
speaker, as one of the earliest COM
missioners of your romanesque county,
first entered your town, The special
trains for travel, at that period, were
the wagons. The ordinary mode of
! travel was the pedestrian and the oc-
casional mode, was bestride the steed.
News was carried by one horse riders,
but often superseded by gossippers of
both sexes on foot The mails were
| carried once q week on horse back
from Lock Haven to Smethport, pass
ing through the then eastern part of
your county. This line was an accom-
modation line carrying all sorts of
wares and merchandise for the settlers
along the route. Usually you would
observe the cavalier approaching,
mounted bestride his nag, the mail
pouch across the saddle and dangling
fore and aft and athwart his knees,
and along the sides and around the
neck of his pony, sundry articles
fastened or strung together With leath-
erwood thongs, such wares as pals,
washtubs. churns, pots, iron kettles,
boots, sole leather and other packages,
and on one occasion, a pondrous iron
mill crank; this last article however,
took the swing on him and he failed
to deliver it, The mails We're carried
for long time in your county, along
Bennetts Branch by footman once a
week, and it was generally supposed
that these weekly mail carriers, or
agents, carried more and later news in
their heads than in their pouches.
On one occasion dimijohn of brandy
from Lock Haven, constituted a part
of the freight, this, however, grew
lighter from day to day, till at last the
engineer became tired, and switched
himself off to rest, his pony was found
the next day. by some one, grazing
along the route, minus Uncle Sans
saddle bags. But few collisions occur
red on these lines of travel whether
the trains were run OH the pedestrian
narrow gauge, or on the wider gauge
of the one horse cavalcade. An in
stance is remembered where the en-
gine in ascending the grade above the
bluffs near DriftwoOd, bounced the
track, the engineer, however, escaped
by leaping from the engine and re-
ported the wreck, in which lay COM
mingled, a dead quadruped, the U.
S. mail pouch and ndmiscellaneous freight
in transitu.
Your old court house, however hum
BILE its belfry, still stands as the great
conservatory of the peace and palla-
dunn of human rights Soverigns of
Elk county, we are here to congratu-
late you for your enterprise, for your
industry, and for your progress, may
your energies never grow less. We
greet you on this eventful occasion
with cheer as you lay the cornerstone
of your new temple of justice. The
cornerstone unites the foundation
| walls of all well constructed edifioes