The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-10-03
The DISSEMINATION q eEaal.

w hat superb career steel has re-
nounced. It had shaped the world; 1t
had carved out history; 1t had formed
the nations; it had fixed the limit of
languages and the geography OF char
acter and thought; it had vancuished
the strong; it had rebuled the proud;
it had succored the weak; it had been
the arbiter of honor and the accom-
plisher of Justice The sword was, as
the ancient chronicles said, the oldest,
the most universal, the most varied of
arms, the only one which has lived
through time. All people knew it; it
was everywhere regarded as the sup
port of courage. rs the enemy of per-
fidy, as the mark of commandment, as
the companion of authority, as the en-
blem of sovereignty, of power, of
force. of conquest, of fidelity and of
punishment And all of this has steel
to become rails. Look at what it
was, and what it is. Its aspect was
brilliant, its habits were punctilious.
its manners were courtly, its connec-
tions were patrician, its functions were
solemn, its contact was ennobling, even
its very vices were glittering. for most
of them were simply the defects. of its
superb qualities. 1t is true that it was
.
of action were distinctly sanguinary,
but those reproaehes apply to all other
weapons, too. Throughout the ages 1t
grandly held up its head and haughtily
bore its name. 1t lost no caste when it
allied itself with lance and dagger,
with battle-ax and helm, for they were
of its natural kindred; and even when,
in later times, it stopped to generate
such lowly offspring as razors, lancets,
knives and needles, the world saw no
real abasement in the act, for the chiv-
alrous blade was still the image which
represented steel to man.
Steel is now bursting cearsely on the
earth at the rate of thousands of tons
a month. 1t is positively made into
steam-engines, and cannons, and ships,
and all sorts of vulgar. heavy, income
", useful objects. Worse than all, it
is becoming cheap! Steel cheap! The
steel of old, the steel of legend and of
story, the steel of the paladin and tue
chevalier, the steel of the noble and the
brave, the steel of honor and of might,
the steel that was above price, that
knew not money and cared naught for
profit-that steel is no more. 1t has
been driven contemptuously out of
sight by metallurgic persons called
Bessemer, Knapp, and Seirhs, and
these destructive creators have put In
TO it's place a nineteenth century sub
stance, exactly fitted to q mercantile
period, but possessing no tie whatever
with time or fame.
No more viii steel append its per-
sonal signature, its glaring recogniza-
BILE autograph to the great events of
history. The dagger that slew Cesar,
the glaive that Brennus hurled into the
scale to weigh against the liberty of
Rome, the ak that gashed off Mary
Stuart's head, the knife that MANNED
the hand of Charlotte Corday-of
course they were not all steel, but they
admirably represent the notion of it
are mere faded antiquities. Steel has
other functions to discharge now; it
has given up marking dates in the
worlds life, and has gone in for trade;
it has ceased to be history, and has be-
come actually; it is in state of new
departure; it ne longer incarnates q
sentiment; it is nothing but fact. 1t
has turned its back on the blades of
Damascus, on the armor of Milan, on
the shields of Au9sburgh, on the ra-
piers of Ferrara, on the halberts o
Flanders, on the poniards of Biboa,
and ut this very moment is forsaking
almost the last refuge which was left to
it, and is deserving the marvellous sa-
bres of Japan. In the place of its
former glories. it is taking up all sorts
of low associations; it is being manu-
featured in big furnaces; it is being
tscast," as if It were mere clownish
pig-iron; it is being rolled, as if it were
uneouth s'bar;" it is condescending to
be boiler-plates and axletrees, and
driving shafts and Orders. To this is
steel reduced. - lackwooGs Maya