The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-05-29
The Span of a Single Life. "a

LAST Thursday there were laid IN the
quiet shades of Bellefontaine the remains
Of lady-Mme. Jeanne Charlotte Bill
lon-who had attained her ninety-nintf
year. Such longevity is exceedingly rare
and if viewed from what may be termed
historical standpoint, exceedingly in
tcresting and suggestive. Let us en-
deavor to obtain some idea of what is
embraced in the span of this single life
When Nine. Billion was born, Napo-
leon and Lafayette were playing with
tops and marbles, as boys of twelve
Burns was in the flush of youthful man.
hood, at twenty-one; George the w.,
q graceless STRIPPING of nineteen; Wal
ter Scott dull scholar of ten; Chan
ming an infant of sixteen months. By
ron did not live until seven years later
Plus TX. not until eleven years later
Lyell, the father of modern geology,
not until sixteen years, and Darwin, the
giant of modern science, not until
twenty-eight years later. She was eight
years old when the French revolution
began; that political earthquake which
shook Europe from center to circumfer-
ence, and set in motion influences
the full scope and meaning of
which are only now beginning to
be clearly understood-and whose
mission is not yet accomplished. She
was two years old when the thirteen
American colonies emerged free and
Independent nation from their struggle
with harsh mother, and thus laid the
foundations of the mightiest republic
Earth has ever seem She was five years
old when John Fitch propelled his skiff
by steam on the Delaware River; TWEEN
ty-six years old when Robert Fulton
steamboat stemmed the current of the
Hudson; thirty-seven when the first
steamship crossed the Atlantic; forty
eight when George Stephenson built his
first successful locomotive; fifty-one
when Morse first conceived the electro
magnetic telegraph, as now used in
America and England; sixty-three
when the first telegraph line was
stretched in this country-between Bal
timore and Washington; forty-two
when daguerreotyping-the forerunner
of photography-was invented; and
four years old at the invention of
stereotyping-the almost indispensable
supplement of the printing press. The
year she was born witch was executed
at Seville, and, two years later, at
Glaris, the last victim of that accused
superstition persisted.
The world this venerable lady left
was, in very many things, entirely
different from the one she entered.
Its physical geography and its human
nature were about all that had not
changed meanwhile. During her step
from the cradle to the grave, the race
has taken its grandest stride in the
march of progress. Old theories in
science and philosophy, old principles
and practices in politics and govern
ment, old landmarks in every depart
ment of thought - have been swept
away, wholly or in part, to make room
for new. Then the people were mere
hewers of wood and drawers of water
to hereditary monarchy and nobility.
Now they are the power beneath the
throne, greater than the throne itself.
Then reverence for the prince and the
priest was considered the basis of all
sound morality. Now the morality has
not diminished, but the reverence has.
Then even the most sanguine students
feared that the sources of truth were
well nigh exhausted. Now the least
hopeful student knows that before him
spreads a limitless ocean, on whose
shore he is playing with the shining
pebbles. Then the various branches of
the human family were so widely sep
arated that their common origin was
scarcely realized. Now steam and
lightning have brought them so close
together that their common interests,
as well as common origin, are recog-
nized and respected. A rumored mas
sacre in Burmah thrills Paris, London
and New York next morning. A
war in Central Asia, famine in Ire
land, flood in China, conflagration
in Japan, a pestilence in South Africa,
a rebellion in Cuba, riot in CONSTANT
nople, murder in St. Petersburg or
San Francisco is flashed to the ear and
heart of Christendom. Nineteenth
century civilization grips the planet
with arm of iron and hand of steel.
Eighteenth-century civilization only
touched it here and there with finger
tips. We of to-day can hardly imagine
world in which there were no steam
boats or steamships, no railroads Or
telegraph lines, no revolvers or rifled
cannon, no sewing machines or friction
matches, no planting or reapingma-
chimes, no steam press or steam fire-en-
gines, no ether to rob the surgeons
knife of its terrors, no gas to dispute the
gloom of night, no photographs to catch
and hold the linements of loved ones,
no street-cars to assist locomotion-
none of the modern inventions and i'm
provements which tighten and lesson
the burdens of life. Yet it was such a
world that Nine. Billion entered ninety,
nine years ago. When changes so mar
velous as these can be wrought between
birth and death, let us not say the
age of miracles has passed. Let us rath-
er say that it is just beginning, for the
miracles which have been are as moth
ing compared with those which shall be
st. Louis Republican,.