The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-06-04
A WONDER THEN AND NOW.

A WONDER THEN AND NOW.
Our young folks, or, more strictly
speaking, our little folks, open their
eyes with wonder as we tell them sto-
ries of the olden time, when there were
no railroads, no telegraph wires, no
steamboats,; and when messages were
carried by men on horseback or slower
stage-coaches, and when people trav-
eled along leiSurely, never imagining
that they would ever be whirled
through the country by steam-cars or
exchange the canal packet for the
palatial and swiftly-going steamers.
To those of us who for many years
have enjoyed the benefits of all these
modern improvements it is difficult to
realize the incredulity of the masses of
the people about them when they first
appeared. Yet it is true that so recent
ly as 1887, Fernando Wood, who had
served his country long and well, and
had been in Congress for many years,
was considered fanatical and visionary
because he had faith in Prof. Morse
and his invention. Fernando Wood
was member of the Congress which
appropriated thirty thousand dollars to
Prof. Morse for his experimental tele-
graph line between Washington and
Baltimore, and on account of it was
defeated after his next nomination to
Congress. The people wished to pun
ism the man who had so misrepresented
them as to vote for so visionary q
project as transmitting intelligence
through the air upon wires strung
upon poles. Prof. Morse waited year
after year for Congress to pass the bill
appropriating the amount for building
the first line, and the last night of the
session he went to his rooms discour-
aged, being told that it was scarcely
possible that it would pass. But, to his
great delight, a young lady brought
him the good news, few hours after
wards, that just before the adjournment
the bill passed with the President s
signature. The professor was over
joyed, and said to the young lady who
had brought him the word: You shall
send the first message over the wires;''
and she telegraphed from Baltimore to
Washington,
Z" What hath God aOrOught"
A short time after this, when a politi-
cal convention was in session in Balti-
more, the announcements of the nomi-
nation of a candidate was telegraphed
to Washington, but so reluctant were
the people to believe in this new inven-
ton. that they regarded the message as
a pure fabrication, and would not pub
fish it in the Washington paper until a
courier arrived from Baltimore confirm
ing it. And we wonder how that the
people were so slow to believe in these
great inventions.
In the memorials of Quiet Life"
by Augustus Hare, the incident is re-
lated that in 1929 company of noted
people were invited to Liverpool to see
the first locomotive and train of cars,
and to ride in them. One who was
there writes:
"To as who have no turn for these
things, and therefore cannot or do not
realize any description, the seeing them
comes with such novelty and force, and
brings such train of new thoughts;
this thing, which is to convey carriages,
people, goods, everything, from Liver
pool to Manchester, thirty miles IN an
hour, running half the warehouses at
Liverpool, by making Manchester into
a seaport town, the goods landed at the
docks at Liverpool being henceforth
transported at once into the warehouses
at Manchester in as short time as they
now take in being carried from the low
er to the upper part of the town. The
effect of the velocity is that when you
stand on the railroad, and watch the
machine coming, it seems not to ap-
preach, but to expand into size and dis
tinctness like the image in a phantas-
magoria. We were soon seat
ed in one of the carriages. and started
off at the rate of thirty miles an hour;
our speed increased as we went on, per-
ceptible only from the strong current OF
air, and our passing objects so rapidly.
never felt so strange. so much in a
state of magic, of enchantment, as if
surrounded by new powers and capa-
bilities. tell you al this, yet you will
hardly believe, as did not, what is do
ing till l had seen it."
The majority of the people in Europe
and America were incredulous about all
these inventions until they had seen
them, and some would scarcely believe
their own eyes.
l well remember our first sight of and
experience with sewing-machine. My
father, who, although college profess
sor of one of the dead languages, had a
good knowledge of mechanics, nearly
thirty years ago examined with delight
and entire satisfaction the first sewing
machine brought to the city in which
we lived. After testing the new inven-
ton thoroughly, he came home one day
stating to my mother that he had seen
the machine stitch shirt front and
cuffs in five minutes, and that we could
hardly estimate the value of one in
large family. remember our aston
ishment at the statement, and our moth
er's words
"Well, John, can hardly believe that
until see it with my own eyes"
A few days after the machine was
purchased, and its coming proved
red-letter day in the history of our fam