The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-08-23
VALUE OF THE PAST,
How It's Influence Is Indelibly Stamped
the Present.

How It's Influence Is Indelibly Stamped
ON the Present.
The power of the past over every
instant OF the present is so subtle in it's
operation that it tells in the most in
significant acts. One of my friends,
who has had much experience in
tuition, tells me that he knows imme-
diately, without asking questions,
whether young man has had CLASH
cal education or not. A close observer
might possibly guess from the slightest
movements if young man had been
accustomed 10 athletic exercises.
In all the arts there are momentary
difficulties that only the most dexterous
can fully overcome. In other words,
the labor of years is concentrated in
the skill of a moment the extensive
past operating with all its accumulated
force upon the narrow present. On
witnessing these mOmentary displays
of skill that is almost incomprehensi-
BILE thoughtful person is chiefly inn
pressed by that marvellous law of
nature which makes years of previous
labor available all at once.
The great difficulty in employing the
present we'll is that the use of it must
form part of some consistent scheme
or we'll devised arrangement of life.
There is no satisfactory present that
is not firmly rooted in the past. 1t is
the sense of this great need of the
past which drives people who have no
steady pursuits to a perpetual waste of
time. They feel that desultory efforts
are useless, and they can not determine
to undertake those that might be effect
ual and continuous. Hence the great
advantage in the trades and profess
siOns, that they insure continuity; they
keep the cobbler to his last. the painter
to his palette. 1t is thus, in the ar
rangements of nature, that the present
is made so valuable, that men are on
the whole, SO wonderfully efficient now
when we want their services, and do
not put US off with promises of future
utility. This is the one admirable re-
suit, that civilization helps us now
that the telegraph is ready to take our
message and the steamer ready to
start, and the FIRE engine ready to stop
the confagration. The increased ex-
perience of the human race is leading
it more and more to appreciate the
Importance of the present, and to look
upon the future only as that which will
be the present in it's turn.-Scribner
Magazine.
Among the interesting and sue
cessful recent inventions is a rolling
mill for producing sheet metal direct
from the molten state, instead of roll
ing it from billet or bar. A machine
of this character has been a work for
some time at the can-factory in May
wood. near Chicago. 1t is used for
making sheet solder, six or eight
inches wide, and 15-1OO0 of an inch
thick, which it produces at the rate Of
400 feet minute.
"A new rotary engine, as proposed.
presents some novel features. 1t has
a series of cylinders secured radially
on hub which forms a valve seat,
with ports and an exhaust chamber,
the former leading into the cylinders.
in which are pistons having central
openings on the rim of wheel that is
held eccentrically to the hub. The ar
rangement thus indicated is alleged to
enable the engine to be operated by
water. air or steam