The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-07-28
A HALF CENTURY.
Changes Wrought in Fifty Years Amount
ing Almost to n Transformation.

ing Almost to n Transformation.
After an interval of more than fifty
years l propose taking second look at
some parts of Europe. This will give
my readers, as well as the writer, a
vacation to which we both seem en-
titled. 1t is Rip Van Wrinkle expert
ment which l am promising myself.
The changes wrought by half century
in the countries Visited amount almost
to q transformation. l left the England
of William the Fourth, of the Duke OF
Wellington, of Sir Robert Peel; the
France of Louis Philippe, of Marshal
Soult, of Theirs, of Guizot. l went
from Manchester to Liverpool by the
new railroad, the only one | saw in
Europe. looked upon England from
the box of age-coach, upon France
from the coupe of diligence, upon
Italy from the chariot of vetturino.
The broken windows of Apsley House
were still boarded up when | was in.
London. The asphalt pavement was
not laid in Paris. The Obelisk of Luxor
was lying in its great boat in the Seine,
as remember it. l did not see it erect
ed it must have been sensation to
have looked on, the engineer standing
| underneath, so as to be crushed by it If
it dsgraced him by falling in the pro-
cess. AS for the dynasties that have
overlaid each other like DIR. Schlie-
mann's Trojan cities, there is no need
OF moralizing over history which in
stead OF FINS is constantly ending with
What nert?
With regard to the changes in the
general conditions of society and the
advance in human knowledge, think
for one moment what fifty years has
done. / have often imagened myself
escorting some wise man Of the East to
our Saturday Club, where we often have
distinguished strangers as our guests
Suppose there sat by mel will not say
Sir Isaac Newton, for he has been too
long away from us, but that other
great man, whom Prof Tyndall names
as next TO him in intellectual stature,
as he passes along the line of master
minds of his country from the days OF
Newton to our own-Dr. Thomas
Young, who died in 1929. Would he
or be the listener, if we were side by
side? However humble might feel in
such presence, | should be so clad in
the grandeur of the new discoveries, in
vent ons, ideas, had to impart to him
that should seem to myself like the
Ambassador of an Emperor. / shoule
te him of the ocean steamers, the rail
roads that spread themselves like cob
webs over the civilized and half-civil
lied portions of the earth, the telegraph
and the telephone, the photograph ant
the spectroscope. should hand him ;
.. paper with the morning news from Lon
don to read by the electric light, shoul'
! startle him with friction match,
should amaze him with the incredible
truths about anasthesia, should aston
ish him with the later conclusions of ge
ology, should electrify him by the full.
] developed doctrine of the correlation o
~"s, l should delight him with TIL
for,-.. ne, | should confound hin
cell-doetr'-- 'onary apocalypse o
with the revols~ "hange in the as
poets, position, beliefs ~ ,s,s death
since the time of DR.. 1o,,. IN fror
the date ii my own graduah~
college
ought to consider myself highly ia.
vored to have lived through such a hall
century. But it seems to me that, in
walking the streets of London and Pari:
/ shall revert to my student days, ant
appear to myself like q relic OF q forrmel
generation. Those who 1--we been bor1
, into the inheritance of tff4 new civiliza
ton feel very differently about it from
those who have lived their way into it
To the young and those approaching
middle age all these innovations in Lit
anA thought are as natural, as much
matter OF course as the air the