, 1889-12-19

| bi' '"iiiicu W litt iIiiNo'''A A'"AASs"
Browning, whose name will be
coupled with his i'm all the future.
-=
THE ANNIHILATIoN OF SPACE.
Rapid as has been the evolution
of electrical science and the applica-
ton of steam, few people have u
realizing sense of the mighty revo-
luton that has been effected in the
means of transportation and inter-
communication within half cen-
tury. The slow stage coach has given
place to the steam car, and the
transcontinenta journey from New
York to the Golden Gate, which in
40 would have required as many
months, may now be accomplished
I'm five days, rate which would al
low one to make trip around the
world in fifty days. The trip to
Europe is now made by the fast
transatlantic steamers in incredi-
bly, short time, and the voyage from
San Francisco to Yokohama Is made
in almost as rapid transit.
The great dailies present the news
of the world to the public, only a
few hours after the events have oc-
Cured, from the proceedings of con-
gress to those of the reichstag, and
from events in Australasia to those
in Zanzibar.
Space has practically been ami
hilated. There is plenty of room,
but distance is not that barrier to
commerce and travel that it once
was. For many years Ben Holla-
days stage line was the only regular
means of freight and passenger traf
fic between the Missouri river and
San Francisco, and 1t was consid-
cred wonderful piece of enterprise
in those days.
In the principal cities of the
world, too, electric and cable cars
are rapidly displacing the old horse
car systems, electric lighting has SUI
perseded petroleum and gas, and the
telephone has become the most use
full of modern inventions. Business
Is transacted with thousand-fold
the rapidity of old, and the world
has sloughed Off the cocoon of its old,
slow-going ways and has developed
the active enterprise of the latter
half of the nineteenth century.
Formerly, every community was
self-ccntered world In itself, and
the largest cities had communica-
ton with each other only at long
and uncertain intervals. Commerce
was only in its incipiency, and sor-
didness and moderation were fos-
tered to the utmost extreme. To-
day, what change! Life and ac-
tivity have taken possession of every
avenue of life, and the pulsations
of trade throb in every city.
1t is II commercial age, an
age of industry i'm every branch
of human endeavor. Every small
town aspires to be city, and every
poor man is striving TO better his
condition and, If possible, accumu-
late n competency. The emulation
is legitimate and inspiring, and
gives zest to even the trifling in
cidents of life.
Many people deplore the fact that
we live in so fast an age, but Is not
life in such an age far better worth
living than in the ages that have
gone before? Superstition and pref
udice are fast giving way before the
light of scientific facts; cruelty and
oppression and groundless wars are
disappearing before the calcium
light of better civilization; even
sectional and race hostilities are be-
coming things of the past; colloqui-
alisns are discountenanced; and
every nationality and language un-
der the sun Is mingled with every
there in homogeneous mass.
Every city aims to be, and is, more
or less cosmopolitan, and is be-
coming more so year by year.
Should we not rather rejoice at the
worlds progress than mourn
for the less worthy past?
With Tennyson we would ex-
claim: "Better fifty years i'm
England than n cycle of CatheyW -
And 1t is to such men as Edison,
Gray, Guyot, Stanley and Others,
pioneers in the realms Of science,
that the world owes most. BY the
presclence of their genius they have
unlocked the mysteries of nature
and opened up vista after vista of
achievment for those who shall fol-
low in their footsteps. They have
begun to solve the riddle of the
Sphynx, and they have discovered
those applications of natural laws
which have reduced space to a mini
mum, and have done most to make
this an age Of practicality, activity,
enterprise and achievement.
THE CRONIN VERDICT.