The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1885-04-01
The sman Size OF the World.


1t is safe to say that good deal OF
the most valuable material contained
in popular literature is, to 8 consider
able extent thrown away According
to the statistics, boys and girls in their
teens constitute the majority Of the
reading public. The close analyses of
| character, the just reflections, and the
somewhat cynical tone, by which the
/ best works of fiction are characterized.
are hardly to be appreciated by people
I who have not lived and learned for
themselves. At sixteen certain kinds
OF philosophy are puzzling. "The
world is so little, says Obenreizer with
a smile, curling his mustache about
his nose. There are so few persons
in the world that they continually
cross and recross. One cannot get rid
OF a person. To Master Roundabout.
who is still in elementary algebra and
the five declensions, this is simply alb
surd. He has had geographical troub-
les enough to know that it is very
wide and populous world. How far Is
it to Uruguay and Paraguay, he would
like to know; or the Straits of Babel
Mandeb or the Island of Van Dieman's
Land? Are there not in the United
States alone over fifty millions OF peo-
pleP He recognizes wide, wide world
which is vast complication of tides
and climates, and swarms with innu-
merable millions. Mists hang low down
over it. The masts of the shipping at
Hong Kong blend with the infinite.
Among grown-up people the impress
sion that we have small world is
widely entertained and gains ground
every day. As far as you and | are
concerned, the population of the world
is some hundreds at the most. A few
schoolmates and society acquaintances.
ones immediate relatives, the family
into which he marries, his business
house and its correspondents, conSti-
tute the roll of the living. The remain
ing millions or billions are merely ac-
cessories. They dot the street, IS one
bustles to and from the few persons
with whom he has tangible relations,
and constitute, with the hitching- posts,
the telegraph poles, and the sign
boards the detail of the scene. One
may doubt whether they have any real
existence. He will never touch them,
hear them speak, or be involved with
them in any way.
Formerly this scanty population lived
principally in ones own town or state.
Since the advent of rapid transit, it
stretches around the world and occu-
pies the whole of it. Out OF half a
dozen school friends one is LAWYER in
San Francisco, another "a commission
merchant in Australia, another a Lon
don banker; one has 81 cattle rancho in
Texas, the fifth is in the China tea
trade, and the last has visited almost
all of them in the respective lands Of
their adoption. If one has a brother
in-law in the island of Madagascar, or
a sweetheart at Valparaiso, and ex-
changes frequent letters and presents
with them, those dim localities lose
their remoteness. With the present
for travel, the circuit of the
world is an inconsiderable feat.
This state of things has its inconve-
niences. If you have done something
in your native village in the interior
Of Vermont or Indiana, as the case
may be, which you would rather not
have known; if there was, say. an awk-
ward love affair, or your social position
was not all it might have been, as like
ly as not some old acquaintance of
yours will mention it casually to some.
1ew one at Constantinople or John
O'Groats. There are now scarcely
my recesses in which trouble or crime
nay be hidden. This perfect inter-
communication will ultimately develop
nto force in the interests of morality.
Having no longer any refuge to which
le may escape and preserve the re-
pect of his fellows, the would-ba GRIM
nal will, perhaps, pause and overcome
lis temptations.
These times, when men run to and
ro, and knowledge is increased, are
elieved by some theologians to be the
after days. When the millennium comes
is TO be hoped that people won't
lind being crowded. 1t certainly looks
$ If they were going to be.-W H.
'iStop.