The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-06-29
A Glance at Progress.

From the printers block has grown
the rough wood cut, the copper plate,
followed by the steel engraving, the
photographic, photo-lithographic and
photo-engraving processes that enable US
to produce in a few hours fac-similes to
any scale of the most elaborately lined
drawing. BY the aid of the camera we
can reduce the proportions of the ele-
phant to those of mouse without dis
torting line, and enlarge those of
microscopic animalculae to the scale of
a mammoth without disturbing the ap-
parent relations of the most minute
parts.
Equally astonishing is the increase in
the facilities for communicating with
distant places. The mail rider was sue
ceeded by the coach, the railroad train
and steamboat. But people had been
dreaming of realization of the old
Jesuit prophecy, uttered in the fif-
teenth century, that in time people could
communicate their thoughts to. great
distances by means of cords or wires
stretched from place to place. A
wire was laid to Washington
and needles, whose movements
were arranged to indicate the let
ters of the alphabet, were operated by
the electrical impulse, SO that men COM
municated their thoughts and expressed
their desires over two hundred and forty
miles. Invention followed invention
until we find many messages going over
one wire at the same time. Can any,
thing excel this? Is it possible that dis
tance is to be wholly conquered? The
bottom of the Atlantic has been made
the bed on which are stretched mighty
cables. Wires network continents.
Calcutta and San Francisco are brought
within an hours communication.
Pshaw! this is nothing. We talk now
with as much ease through five hundred
miles of wire as across parlor The
next discovery may be one that will en-
able us to see things hundreds of miles
away, by some curious teleoptic appara-
tus operated by the electric wire that will
at once bring men visibly face to face
while they converse through the tele-
phone. Distance is no more. 1t is Time
that remains unconquered.
But surely Time, the destroyer, will
remain supreme. Nothing of human
fashioning will survive his assaults.
Even the mountains bow their crumbling
heads before him and the great rivers
hide themselves in his presence. There
is nothing so enduring as time. The
feeting sounds of the song of merry
music, of sighs iahd laughter-these are
the contrasts hrendurance to time. They
are heard and are dead forever. That
might be said before Edison discovered
the phonograph Now sounds are fixed
for all time in enduring metal.
They are heard and sleep to awake
again in succession of utteranees whose
sameness proves that the chords or word
held chained in that metallic prison hayt
I become immortal in their alliance witt
the imperishable. Darkness, first assailet
with the pine torch, was followed up b,
the rpdge grease lamp, the candle o
tallew, sperm oil and wax. Finally Goa
gas was discovered by the indesatigabl
searcifers, ana siiofie on 1ifasfy part
of the realm of darkness. Gas was re
garded as the light of the future. IL ha
come in year or two to be regarded a
an oid-fashioned light of the past Wha
will replace it? We cannot preserve sun
I light as we do sound for future use. w
, do not want it. The earth, the air, al
l matter is the reservoir of our light ant
! we will draw on it as we. desire. Th
5 mysterious essence of force and action
! electricity is our prisoner.
L In ancient days disturbances an
9 clashings of terrestrial forces were re
garded as the struggles of contendin
gods. and helpless man stood awe-strue
d by the warfare which threatened hiI
: momentarily with destruction. HoN
y bravely we have got over all that now
e Our stately steamers plow the domain G
' Neptune with contemptuous disregar
r | e., I. g 10 foil xyhov1 hn,
y and whence the storms are coming, an
/ by our control of electricity we send th
/ news away in advance of the tempest
II bidding all prepare for its coming. Al
e tronomy is revealing new spheres in tf
s immensity of space, satellites of planet
l. and new stars revolving within the burr
II ing radius of the suns immediate il
e fiuence. The spectroscope is telling l
e what these distant worlds are made o
e and speculative science is penetratin
a where the ordinary calculations of di
l. tance cannot follow. Chemistry reacht
d the elemental base of matter and solid
lie fies gases. Physiology anatomises |
fusorSe from the awful depths of tt
III ocean. Perhaps the day is not distal
1T when the surface of the earth will be
st familiar in all its details as that of UniC
m Square, because geographers are ind
Tx fatigable in their researches. Over Il
wide, wide world of civilization there
Lh an active warfare being pushed again
Sc the unknown, and many and glorio'
lg ARE the trophies won in the contes
We Right, left and center the legionaries
rY science are marching onward, cuttir
iy down with the swords of keen intel
IS, gence the obstructing forests and unde
n growth of ignorance, fording the swami
re and rivers of doubt and battering t
it citadels of prejudice. The newspape
g. the great educator of the masses, is lea
es ing the van, and the music of the marc
y, ing hosts is given by the concert
en- printing press, locomotive, telegral
ng sounder, loom and sewing-machine, sa
". mill and steam-drill, ringing anvils al
th clinking hammers. Regtst'
Ip- European Baboon.
or As the chamois is the only antelo
n found in Europe, the baboon is the on
he quadrumma on that continent. 1t
ge found on the rocks of Gibraltar. 7
Tor commandants of the forts have orders
'ry protect these apes, and record all curio
facts regarding them. 1t appears frt
this register that at present the tribe
balloons consists of twenty-five indivi
,at uals, which always occupy that side
nj the rock which is sheltered from
,no wind. 1t is supposed that the win
"a from whatever direction is hurtful
,0o them. They avoid it with the create
,G aII care; and they can detect chan
ad twenty-four hours in advance, so tn
| art when the officers see the apes shift
,ha from one side of the rock to the 9th
,nt they look out for change of wealth
per ne 0 apes eau Siaee WIN ery iue
all Dulos' lesPecialty 'loee VI UAsl.sl W "
on- plives anu 1nI Il uio " ali IT. " =
his grows naturaliy On 'ne ioCh ii: my
,ad not touch any Iruils 'he soluioiS ~ i' P". =,
Jas Ihel way eH0oPT SlaPes, y. 49, -, :,
n, ito the gardens of the town in search
ami ont figs. The apes drink at spring in