Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-12-07

From the Detroit Free Press.

From the Detroit Free Press.
In one of Louis Figuer's Imaginative scien-
tfc books he places a spectator on distant
star which the reflected light from the earth
does not reach in less than 100 years. Equipped
with sufficiently powerful glass, this individ-
ual could in the course OF long life behold the
principal eventsand prominent men that have
made the history of the world for a century
past. He could, as young child. see the war
of independence. the French revolution, the
rise and fall of Napoleon, the wonderful mod
ern inventions. from the steam engine to the
telegraph. the figures of Washington and Bona
parte. wellington and Bismarck Goethe and
Herbert Spencer, Byron and Tennison, Scott
and Charles Reed. all, OF course. 100 years late
but still distinct and consecutive. Were he a
former inhabitant of this EARTH diving on his
lCosh birthday. he could that distant star
live over a ain his earthly life and see his career
as drowning people behold their own. passing
before him like panorama.
What the Frenchman's imaginary inhabitant
of the star could see the still vigorous and vivid
memory of a veteran like Thurlow Weed can
now behold as in a vision. The S5th anniVer-
sary CT his birthday was celebrated last week,
AID is suggestive tie of "reminiscences between
this are and the last
Born in 1877, he must. at two years of age
have heard, perhaps understood. the account of
the death of Washington. At seven he could
have read the report of Jeffersons reelection
Nap0ie0ns coronation as Emperor of France
the battle of AusterlitZ and of the first steam
locomotive on the Welsh tramway. As cabin
boy on the Hudson river he saw Fulton's first
steamboat ascend that stream. While ne himself
was, as a soldier in the war of 1872 freezing in
the winters of the northern frontier NapOleOn's
army was overwhelmed i'm the SHOWS of Russia,
and the close of his military life was simuItane-
Gus with the destruction OF the French army at
Waterloo. Byron had not yet walked on that
celebrated morning and found himself famous
by the publication of Childe Harold" and the
pleasure of reading ScOtts rOmances as they
appeared fresh from the press, was reserved
until Weed had for some time been printer at
ALBANY.
The clothes he wore when a boy were home
spun and hOmewOven: his garments now are
an iGflitessirnal fraction of the $500 eco 600 or
500, 0C0,O goo worth annually produced in this
country. The week which. cabin boy, he
spent in going from New York to Albany will
now suffice for the journey from the Atlantic to
the Pacific ocean. He has seen nearly every in
venti0n characteristic of this mechanical age
ori&inated and developed The steamboat, the
railroad, the steam loom. the power press. the
telegraph. sewing machine, the telephone. gas
light and electric light; even the humber but
no less useful ACCOMPLISHMENTS for illu;ni-
nation, anthracite coal for fuel, the cast-irCn
plow. and the phOtograph-have come within
his personal knowledge. He has lived under
the administration of every President from
Washington to Arthur: seen France travel the
whole circle from the first republic through two
empires and two mOnarches, back to republic
again; Prussia and Italy emerge from congo
ries of small. weak states to mighty empire
and a consolidated kingdom. As a boyin petit
coats he might have taken the hand of an old
man who. while a boy. had seen one OF the pill
grim fathers in cid age, and as an old man HIM
self may take the hand of a boy in petticOats,
who will see the 200th anniversary of the indie
pendence of the United States; thus touching
on either side generations that are separated by
the gulf OF three centuries and half