The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-03-14
A RETROSPECT.

Amusing ms Well rs Instructive 'Sih-
rarisons-- The Ocean Cable and Its siokiy
infancy Men who Have since Carved
Enduring Names, Etc.
The twenty.fith anniversary and the
graduating exercises Of Packard's Business
college took place last evening in the Acad-
envy of Music. There was large attend
ance. The graduates were seated on the
stage with the invited guests. Rev. William
Lloyd prayed, aud Justice Davis made a
neat speech. Mr.. Packard was then called |
upon. and he spoke in part as follows;
On the LIST of May, 1853, the institution
which we meet tonight 10 honor began its
life, in little room on the second floor OF
the Cooper Union building. This building
had lust been completed, and the CONNER
DIAL college OF Bryant, Stratton & Pack
ard was its first tenant. Mr. Cooper
was then comparatively young man of6I
vigorous, active, intelligent and public
spirited--iust as we find him today. The
first Atlantic cable was abont being laid.
A few months aitorward the Ameri-
can end of IL was landed at Trinity Bay.
Congratulations were exchanged between
President Buchanan and Queen Victoria,
and the co intry was wild with enthusiasm.
,
fete day was proclaimed, and Mr.. Field as
the hero of the occasion, rode at the head of
grand military and civic procession, which
made its way through countless throng OF
excited people. A few weeks thereafter the
electric current, as II pulsed through the
three thousand miles of insulated wire grew
fainter and fainter until at last IT ilickertd
and went out. The people were dismayed;
hope began to waver; strong reaction set
a
the whole thing u h0ax-a smart adverts.
ing trick to enable spectators to cover
their shorts" One eminent electrician went
so far M to write book OF some 400 pages
TO prove the utter mpossibility of trans
Atlantic telegraphy He was merely re-
pqatng history for simnar thing had been
dUle for steam navigation more than y
hjatred years before. Thanks TO Peter
Cooper's faith and funds, and to Cyrus w.
Fields Yankee grit, the ambitious essay
proved too much; the cable was success
iully laid in spite OF IL. At this period the
elder Bennett owned and edited tho New
York Herald, which had not yet displaced
BAnum's museum on the corner of Br0au-
way and Ann street, but was modestly
domiciled In plain brick building at Full
ton and Nassau. Mr.. Greeley, at the green
age Of AZ, was writing editorials in the
fourth story OF the dry goods box set on
end" known Us the Tribune building,
which ornamented then, US the moro I'M
posing structure does now, Printing House
square. William Cullen Bryant, in the
vigor OF his ripe manhood, held his place
az the editor OF the Evening Post and was
In the daily habit Of walking from his home
III Sixteenth street to his Office on the cor.
ner OF Nassau and Liberty. The New York
Times, with Henry j. Raymond at its head
and George Jones at its back, wasa prom.
Using youth of six summers. The World
had not sprung into being; but the Sun wa,
then an ancient luminary, having years be
fore, In Its memorable "Moon Hoax" es
tablished itself as humorous daily shin
ing for oil at one cent shine while the
Journal OF Commerce and the Express Il,
morning papers, and the Commercial as nj
evening sheet, made up the quota of oui
daily press.
The city in which wo live was thriving
town Of 100000 souls, extending from tn,
Battery on the south to Forty.second stree
on the north. Yorkville and Harlem wer,
outlying villages accessible by horse cars
and the Central park had been surveyed
some trees planted, a few paths made
rcady, and the large reservoir was beinl
excavated. The new courthouse had mo-
been built, and the Brooklyn bridge la,
dormant In the brain OF Roebling. Abra
ham Lincoln was u rising lawyer in Iii
nois, Captain Grant was hauling cord woo,
in Missouri, and the unpleasantness be
tween the two sections OF our common
country had hardly risen TO the dignity c
family misunderstanding, John Brown
body had not begun to moulder in tn
ground, but IN connection with his soul
was marching on through the plains Q
Kansas. The clerk uiu pl ttbbSnyiithsssH had re
been heard OF, aud Vennor and Wiggiu
xHar .gta,l alA hul, ul.srs. al
thought II worth while to strangle in thel
cradles. Edison was small boy wit
more interest In marbles than In duple
and quadruplex currents, and gas and Ia
l0w-dips wore doing their best to light Il
tho globe when the sun went down, Tor eve
petroleum lay unspouting in its little be,
and nobody had as yet struck oil. III
word telephone had not found It's way int
Websters Dictionary; and elevated raj
roads, though vaguely talked about, wer,
with balloonsand lying machines, relegate
to the twentieth century. Commodol
Vanderbilt had not boun TO work on Ion
lines, Jay Gould was mappeddler
Delaware county, and the man who W,
out of debt and had five or six millions
his credit In the bank, was thought to |
tolerably well OIL.
Those were days of modest achievement
simple tastes and quiet expectations. Eve
In matters of education old methods We
stillin vogue, and chickens, instead of beiI
Matched by steam in few hours, were Co
strained to peck their way into tho wor
under the tutelage of the faithful he
Pestalox2i and Froebe and Colon
pafker had not combined to tul
our school methods topsy-turvy, viii
Yale and Harvard and Princeton and O.
umbia were moving quietly on in their ella
steal grooves, with no thought OF electi
courses Of study, and no premonition
vexed debates growing out of the aggress
demands OF women for an equal chance
the race. For Matthew vsssar was st
giving his mind to ale, and Sophie Smi
was quietly raising tobacco on the battle
meadows,
The New York system Of graded schoe
was held up as u model tor civilized comm
mites, and yet the college of the City
new YORK did not exist, even on paper, al
the normal college for girls had scarce
beon dreamed Of. Professor Dwight's "
ono or two medical schools we're brave
coming to the surface in spite of the SUI
rtor advantages Of Philadelphia. The col
incrcial schools OF the city had failed To
tract attention, and young men and BIO
were Drawing fate by going down town
business before receiving their diplomas.
was at this iuncturo and under the
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., mat the school now q
oprathg It's twonty,ffsh anniversary bog
vs. work IN New York. There ale n,
probably five hundred such schools with
aggregate Of forty thousand pupils.
these pupils are not drawn from OF,
schools, but are almost entirely those W
wimout the special Inducements held q
by business colleges would not be in schS
ut all, the work which these Institute
arc CARED upon to perform seems to DO /,
out for them In an nnmistakable way. mi
nuNe simply TO do what has been lait I,
done, and what, without them, would ,
90 done; Thus, instead Of assuming a ,
sltion OF antagonsm to schools of gene
SgInfe, they are forced, from, the very 10
OF THEIR position, 10 work In harmony W
such schools and to supplement theirlab
They may not DO IN tho strictcst sense \,
essional, and yet they do Tor the accom-
ant and man OF affairs what the In
medical and theological schools do
sNnt Aru.. n