The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-11-07

1867, which by appropriate legisla
ton, has since become the West Viz
ginia University-the educational
center of the State. The school
buildings and grounds of the Mon
ongalia Academy" were purchased by
the Board of Education of Morgan
town Independent school district for
the use Of its free school, than which,
outside of Wheeling, there is none
superior in the State.
Thus, our male schools have
passed out Of our local management
and direction, into the control Of the
State Should our interest in them,
therefore, relax? BY no means.
Let them still have the hearty sym
patty and cordial support of the
town and the county. These being
given without stint or reservation,
and the enlightened and liberal pa
tronage of the state still extended
to them, we may reasonably hope,
that our second Centennial shall
find the surrounding picturesque To-
calities of our young University,
crowned with many more imposing
academic edifiees, whose halls shall
be filed with hundreds of the youth
of this and the surrounding states,
without distinction of race sex or
previous condition.
1t is the deeds and character of
men which make the history of
towns, as well as states. And SO,
the poet has inquired and answered.
What constitutes statel
Not high raised battlements, lahored
mound,
Thick wall or moated gate;
Not cities proud, with spires and
turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad armed ports.
Where, laughing at the storm, rich )
navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts,
Where low-browed baseness watts
perfume to pride.
No:-men, high minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes,
endued,
In forest, brake or den
As beasts exceed cold rock and
brambles rude;
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing
dare maintain,
Prevent the long aimed blow,
And crush the tyrant, while they
rend the chain
These constitute state.
Morgantown has furnisheda cred
liable quota to the ranks of men not
without high reputation in church,
and state, and in the fields of science;
and if that duty had not been imposed
on others, it would have been TO me
a grateful task to enumerate its sons
and daughters, who have distin-
guished themselves less or more in
the various departments of life.
And now we come to stand on the
line dividing two centuries. We
have presented rapid and imper-
feet. retrospect of the past 100 years.
Who shall forecast the results of the
100 years to come? Our progress as
a town, has not been remarkable.
Yet what contrast there is between
our conditions in 1855 and 1886!
And if we shall be judged by the
scriptural rule, that our RESPONSE
bilities are to be measured by our
the present and con-
ing generations have need to bestir
themselves. In 1885, Morgantown
was nearly ON the line marking the
western boundary of the inhabited
portion of the United States. Now
it is hundreds of miles east of the
center of population. The vision of
the poet has been realized
/ see the living tide roll on.
1t crowns with fiery towers
The icy capes of Labrador,
The Spaniard's Land of flowers
1t streams beyond the splintered
ridge
That parts the northern showers
From eastern rock to sunset wave,
The continent is ours.
Then the total number of inhabi-
tants in the United States did not
exceed three millions; now it is b5
millions. Then we were just emerg
ing from the wreck and desolation
of the long and bloody "War of In
thirteen isolated and
states having hardly
found a place on the map Of nations;
now, we are recognized among the
first powers of the world. Then our
of popular government
was problem, now, it is demon
strated fact; and the principles Of
civil and religious liberty, enunciated
by our fathers, have modified and
in no small degree, the
social and political condition Of the
human race. Then the prodigious
forces of steam, were still hidden
among the secret treasures of nature;
now, the slow and toilsome processes
of handicraft in thousand depart
ments of human industry have been
by the swift and resist
less enginery of this mighty factor
of mechanical production; the tardy
voyages of the sailing vessel strug-
Cling for months against wind and
tide, have been displaced by the
rapid transit of the ocean steamer
blowing it's course through wave and
tempest, from London to New York,
in 8 or 10 days. Then there was not
a mile of railroad in the world; now
there are more than one hundred
thousand miles in the United States.
Now, measuring distances by the
time taken to travel over it we are
nearer Europe than we were then to
the capital of the state.
Then a newspaper in the family was
q fact of rare occurrence and the
news it furnished, whether domestic
Or foreign, was several months old
before it reached the reader; now we
read in the morning papers a synop-
sis of the principal events happening
the day before, not only on this con-
tinent, but all over Europe and in
large parts of Asia and Africa.
Then there were few school anywhere,
and none at all in Morgantown; now,
mo box,a ~ our dnoro avarv facility