The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-02-08

because unprotected against the pauper
abor Of Europe, but awaiting better
day under wise protective system
which opened up whole mines of
wealth which hitherto had been un-
touched because fifty cents in England
and Belgium in wooden, cotton and
other fabrics, discounts dollar and
quarter in free America. But we have
grown strong and self reliant. Our
graharies we're overhowing and might
have delighted the eyes of the sons of
Jacob. There came the first great test
of our free institutions which tried the
very ligaments of government, the civil
conflict of 1861, the most exhaustive
of modern times. This we sustained
in spite of foreign hate, thu Union of
thirty-six states was restored to its
proud position in the gallery of nations,
and two as brave and gallant armies
as ever trod fhe earth returned, amid
the applaudits of Christendom,to peoe-
full vocations as if nothing had occurred.
Since then a new era has dawned
and the nation has awoke to new life
and new energy. 1t is significant
fact, saws a writer, that the vast region
Jeyond the Mississippi has been ex.
plored and settled almost wholly with
in the last thirty-five years, and, at
least three fourths of it since the close
of our civil war. Never before did we
make such strides in material develop
ment. Scarcely had the roar of artil-
lery died away among the hills of old
Virginia till the golden spike was
rlveted that united the Central and
Union Pacific railways spanning the
continent with iron bands. Busy
humming cities have settled all along
their track. Forests have been trans
formed into blooming gardens, and
mines of untold wealth forced to yield
their secrets. The locomotive and
steam engine have broken the seals of
secrecy stamped upon them since the
dawn of Creation, and manufactures
have lit up every plain, hill and valley
faom Maine to California, and from the
Lakes to the Gulf; and now the music
of toll huns its notes throughout every
inch of our broad domain. Science too
has been lavish of her gifts, and inven-
tion has conquered the forces of nature.
Mountains no longer offer obstacles to
engineering skill. Rivers are spanned
in day. The harvester gathers the
wheat in the morning. Good house
wives prepare it for supper. The old
canal boat and the emigrant train over
the plain are relics of the past. In
seven days, by the former, goods were
transported from Philadelphia to Pitts
burg. Now by steam they leave New
York on Monday morning, and in seven
days are in the hands of consumers in
San Francisco. We have outstripped
the world in patents, annually issuing
four times as many as the country that
gave us birth. At a late Electric expo.
sition in France five gold medals were
offered for the most noted inventions
and discoveries. How many came to
America9 Only five. Education here,
too, is abreast of the TINES. Our free
school system is the glory OF our Re.
public, while we have colleges and
universities, all over the land, with
professors earnest. devoted, and as
eminent for their scholarship as any in
Germany. From these are issuing an
nually a stream of young men and
women who, if they are less skilled in
the subtle refnements of Philosophy,
have less of its blighting infidelity.
To sum up the past and the present
The sun of 1776 rose in gloom. 1t
now shines upon great and prosper.
GUS Republic. Once we were an in
fant, now giant. Then thirteen
dependent Colonies, now thirty eight
Sovereign and independent states all
directed by our Constitution and al
bound together with inseperable ties;-
crowned with the sheaves of plenty
blessed with peace, hands and hearts
united in love and fraternity and linked
in the bonds of union across a colti
nent-1n 1776 three millions; 1861
thirty three million: and now 1889
siyty-three million pc pie!
But what of our future7 Patrick
Henry said, 81 know of no way o.
judging of the future but by the past.
The strength of the giant oak lie.
wrapped in the little acorn. The boy
is father to the man. To solve one ele
ment of our destined supremacy W,
have but TO look at the vastness of ou
territory. An able writer says; 81
may surprise some TO be told that j
our Republic were petitioned off i
would form seventeen states as large
as Spain: or thirty one each as large a,
Italy; or sixty-four, each as large a,
England or Wales: or that you cal
take a map of six of the leading pow
ers of Europe-France, Germany, Aus
tria, Great Britain and Ireland. and
Italy, attaching as an annex Switzer
land, Portugal, Spain, Greece, HOLLAND
and Denmark, and lay them all dowr
on the map of the United States Yves
of the city of New York, and you will
cover little more than one third of th,
territory, What an Empirel' Or a
Gladstone says-"the greatest continu
GUS empire ever established by man.
Now for some facts and figures start
ling but none the less true. The thre,
Gro wniDg elements in our supremacy
present and prospective, are in our un
equaled agricultural, mining, anC
manufacturing resources. A bre
consideration of each will close thi
paper. The same writer puts it forcibl,
when he says: HAS it ever occurred
to you to ask how the Empire of Chin,
supports a population of 350,0OO,OOO
We know they are not commercial
or manufacturing people. The con
olusion is, that they derive their supper
mainly from the soil. Now on wha
do they do thisi Her area is little les
than ], 100000 square miles. The are
covered by mountains is about 800, 90,
square miles. Take anotherr 10000
for her barren plains, and the oalcula
tion shows her arabic land to be abou
100000 square miles. OFF this he
swarming millious support themselve
and the government" We boast tina
in 1880 we fed population of $4,000
600 and cent to the hungry firesides O
Europe, of all kinds of cereals, 2Sa,O0