Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-05-26
srORR,s GRAFTON.

sATURDAY EVENING, NAY 20, 1888
sTORRs GRAFTON.
At tho Big Bridge opening.
In the course of his Grafton at the OPEN
ing of the New York and Brooklyn bridge
r. 8. Storrs, orator of the occasion, said ::
"The day seems brought distinctly
nearer when tho nation, equipped vi : the
latest implements furnished by science,
shall master and uso as never before its
rich comain. Not only the modern spirit
il here, even in eminence, which dares
great effort for great advantage but the
Chiefest Of modern instruments is here,
which 10 the ancient intractible iron trans
figured into steel. 1t was sign, and even
Q measure of ancient degeneracy, when
the age of gold was followed if not forgot.
ten by ono of iron. Decadence of arts, of
learning and laws, of society itself, was
implied in the fact. The more intrepid
intelligence, the more versatile energy,
amid which We live have achieved the sue
cess of combining the two SO that while
it is true, now as of old, that no mattock
plunges q q golden edge into the ground,
and no nail drives silver point into the
plank it is also true that under the
stimulus of the larger expenditure which
the added supplies of gold make possible,
the duller metal has taken fineness, a
brightness and hardness, and a tensile
strength before unfamiliar. The iron, as
of old. quarries the gold and cuts it out
from river bed and from rock. But under
tho alchemy which gold applies, the
iron takes nobler properties upon
it. Converted into steel, in masses
that would lately have staggered mems
thoughts, it becomes tho kingliest
instrument of peoples for subduing the
earth. Things dainty and things mighty
are fashioned from it in equal. abundance
gun carriage and cannon, with the solid
platoon on wh3n they rest, the largest
castings 2Id heaviest plates, as we'll as
wheel axle and rail, as we'll as screw, o,
NY, or saw. 1t is shaped into the hulls OF
truss, balcony, roof, and springing dome
To the loom and the press, and the boiler
from whose fierce and untiring heat Their
force is supplied, it is equally apt q; while,
as drawn into delicate wires, it is coiled
upon springs, woven into gauze, sharp
ened into needles, twisted into ropes
it is made to yield music in all
our homes electric currents are sent
upon it along our streets, around the
world I; it enables us to talk with cores
pondents afar, or it is knit, as before oul
eyes, into the new and noble causeways OF
pleasure and of commerce. hardly think
that We yet appreciate the Specification OF
this change which has passed upon iron
It is the industrial victory of tho century
not to have heaped the extracted gold il
higher piles, or to have crowded the
bursting vaults with accumulated silver
but to have conferred, by the sovereign
touch of scientific invention, fexibility
grace, variety of use, an almost etherea
and spiritual virtue, on this stubbOrnes
of metals. The indications of physica
achievements in the future, thus inaugu
rated, outrun the compass of huma,
thought.
''The present structure" continued the
speaker, mot only illustrated the dimes!
here to attempt unparalleled works and
the disdain of difficulties in unfalterins
reliance on exact calculations, but in the
material out of which it was wrought
showed the new supremacy of man over
the metal which in former times he scarce
ly could use save for rude and coarse i'm
plements. The steel of the blades OF
Damascus or Toledo is not here needed
nor that of the chisel, the knife blade, The
watch spring or the surgical instrument.
But the steel of the medieval lance head
or sabre was hardly finer than that is here
built into a castle, which the sea cannot
shake, whose binding cement the rain.
cannot loosen, and before whose undecay
ing parapets open fairer visions o
island and town, of earth, water and sky
than from any fortress along the Rhine
There is inexhaustibie promise in the fact
The desire for swift intercommunication
which is to be an energetic, enduring
salutary force in building the na-
tion was also impressively before
them on the present occasion. 1t was also
not fauciful to feel that in tho history of
the bridge and its peculiar construction it
became noble visible symbol of that
benign peace amid which its towers and
roadway had risen. From that very spot
they could look out at the sig ght OF
the shipyard from which in March
1862, went forth the Monitor
which was built largely of similar
material to that in the bridge. The con
trast between the products was great
"The ship" resumed Dr. Storrs, was
for war, and the bridge is for peace, the
product of it almost, one might say, its
express palpable emblem, in its harmony
of proportions, its dainty elegance, its ad
vantages for all and its ample convenience.
The deadly raft, floating level with the
waves, was related to this ethereal struc
ture, whose finest curves are wrought in
the strength of toughest steel. We could
not have had this except for that insight
ly craft, which at first refused to be
steered. which bumped headlong against
our piers, which almost sank while
being towed to the field of its
fame, and which at last, when it's mis-
sion was fulfilled, found it's grave in the
deep over whose waters, aud near sheir
line, its shattering lightuings had been
shot. This structure will stand, we
fondly trust, for generations to come even
for centuries. while metal aud granite
retain their conference not only emit.
ing, when the winds surges or plays
through its network, that aerial music of
which it is the mighty harp, but repre-.
senting to every eye the manifold bonds Of
interest and affection, of sympathy and
purpose, of common political faith
and hope, over and from whose
mightier chords shall rise the living
and unmatched harmonies of continen
tai gladness and praise. While no man
therefore can measure in thou sht the vast
PROFESSIONALLY 0OO, 600 year, it already
is computed-which shall pass back aud
forth across the pathway, or shall pause
on its summit to survey tho vast and
bright panorama, to greet the break of
summer morning or watch the pageant of