Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1885-11-26
4 Historian Sees Cause for Thanks.

Win O"i ehNi0he Nustohii thanksgiving LAY
has been set apart as one of national, not of
individual, thanksgiving. We ought to be
thankful not for the particular number Of
bushels of corn we have raised, or the num-
Der of dollars we have made since the last
Thursday of November 1884. but for all the
accumulated prosperity which we, as n great
people, enjoy And for this prosperity ev-
cry man amongst US, whatever his walk in
life, has reason to be deeply thankful. There
is belief abroad that things are very diff
ferent now from what they were thirty years
ago, and different for the worse. The coun-
try, we are told, is filled up. Old ways to
success are closed. 1t is harder for young
man to make living than it was for his
father, and for his father than his grandfath-
er Happily this is deuson. Every man
to-day earns more money, wears better
clothes, eats better food and of more kinds,
lives in far more comfortable home, knows
more of the world, holds broader views,
than he could possibly have done when the
nineteenth century came in. So late as
1900 poor emigrants who came to this coun.
try came As RedemptiOners; sold themselves
into temporary slavery to pay their passage
money and served out their time. And
when their time was out the wages paid
them for labor would now be thought shame
fully low The soldiers received 81 a month,
unskiled laborers 50 week In Vermont
farm hands were given SIS year. about 81
a month, and found their own clothes On
the canals of Pennsylvania workmen were
housed in sheds. fed coarse food and paid s.
n month from November to May, aud s.
from May to November.
Out of wages so scanty the most thrifty
could save nothing. ii sickness kept him
from work, he ran in debt for medicine and
food-if the debt was not promptly paid the
creditors could hurry him to Jail. 4 debtor,
however honest was no better than a thief,
aud might bc made 10. share with one :he
same dingy and filthy cell. With the abo-
lition of Imprisonment for debt went many
modes of cruel and savage punishment
Who among Us has ever behed man on
the treadmill, in the stocks, or cropped or
branded? All this was but the first fruit Of
that humane spirit which, in our own time,
having swept away slavery, has covered the
land with homes aud hospitals, in6maries
and asyums, aud now extends its protection
to children and dumb brutes. What would
now be thought Of n State in which there
are no free schools? How many of the sew
enteen States of seventy-fve years ago had
free schools? With the diffusion of knowl-
edge have come broader minded, more liber-
al men. In 1880 the Gregorian calendar
was not entirely in Use in Kentucky and
Virginia and there Washington's birthday
was still celebrated on the llth of February.
There it was customary 10 gather mandrake
in the dark of the moon, TO scrape the bark
Of certain tree upwards for an emetic and
downward for purge, to bleed COWS struck
10y lightning and to believe that fres kin.
died by electricity could only be put out
with milk. We sre still subject TO medical
delusions. Patent medicines are still n
source of great wealth. Yet, it behoyes us
10 be thankful that better knowledge of
medicine, of surgery, of laws of drainage and
of health have already added four years 20
the average of human life. and well-nigh ex.
tirpated many terrible diseases Long after
the century came in, the cities Of the North
were annually devastated by "Yellow Jack"
Before vaccination was introduced one face
in seven was pock-markcd.
We are told again that this is the age and
the country Of monopolics. What would be
thought Of a asteamboat company having ex-
elusive right to use steam on the waters Of
this State? Yet this right was given to
John Fitch, and he might have enjoyed IL in
Virginia had he placed two boats on the
james River. Fulton had like exclusive
privilege given him by New York, and used
it, The whole business Of transportation by
steam is something that has grown up in fif-
ty years. The capital Of the Pennsylvania
Railroad is greater by sixty millions than
the national debt in 1900 The revenue Of
the Pennsylvania Railroad is larger by one
million than the United States Government
ever received till 1851 That such corpor-
ations can exist is a sign Of progress for which
we may well feel grateful In every branch
OF human industry il is easier 10 acquire
wealth to-day than to acquire a competence
eighty years ago.
But it is idle TO attempt to sum up the in
Vulnerable blessings peculiar to our own
time and for which we should give thanks
We should be thankful that the men Of
Europe are seeking homes with Us, aud not
we with them; thankful for the boundless
resources and fertility Of our land: for the
thrift, the energy, the marvellous ingenuity
Of our people for the great things we have
done in the past, and for the glorious pros
pect which opens before us.
Arouse the faculties, stimulate the circu-
iation, purify the blood, by using Ayers
From Col. G. H. Hackey, 32d Iowa In
fantry / have derived more benefit from
Ely's Cream Balm than anything else /
9. / -. ..,..., -. go. :.