The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1889-05-04
4 Century Of Progress.



In celebrating to- day the centennial
anniversary Of the Inauguration Of the
first President of the United States,
this country should remember more
than the mere deeds Of the great man
TO whom more than 10 any other we owe
our national existence, the value of his
services They can be only fully meas
nrrd hy contemplating the progress
the connlry has made since that anspil
cious event of IL century ago.
O-day is not only commemorative
of the greatness of the 'Father of His
County, the immortal Washington,
but it also is the centenary of the es-
tablishment of Il constitutional form of
government for the United States,
hence it is appropriate to briefly CON
slider the progress made during the
century, as the wisdom of the laws un
der which these hundred yeals have
been passed ca2 only be determined
blythe fruits they have borne.
When on the Both day of April, 1880.
Washington took the oath of office as
the first President of the United States,
the orig inal colonies, which had severed
their connection from the mother coan
try, were Impoverished by the sacrifices
of 4 long and saDguinary war. In
population the whole thirteen States
barely exceeded the number of people
gathered to- day in the city OF New
York to celebrate the centenary of the
nations birth. To-day the banner
which tlnated over the first president
when he took the oath Co uphold the
constitution-then all untried-waves
over seventy million people, who COM
pose the most powerful nation in the
world, as we'll as the richest in point of
natural resources and in aggregated
possessions.
This is a cOnsummation the most glo-
lious in history, and it records in undy-
ing characters the wisdom Of the laws
that have built up SO wonderful fab
ric, as we'll as the patriotism and love
of liberty of the fathers who laid the
cerner stone of the edifiee. 1t is there
fore proper that this day should be re-
membered with every form of patriotic
celebration that the age can devise, the
more SD that the past reveals nothing
that tells of decay in the yivifying in
fluences that have developed the coun-
try.
In commerce as in all things else the
improvement of the first hundred years
of the country's existence has been
phenomenal. According to official re-
ports the imports of the year 1889
reached in value tfITa sum of $23, ,000, 900,
and the exports $4,000, 900, whilst last
season commencing with 1889, they
were $733, 100000 and $723, 500, 600
respectively The foreign commerce
of New Orleans alone is annually mere
than double that of the whole country
century ago Take for example the
of the country's existence only $58, 4O8
worth of the staple was exported, while
at the present time the annual exports
of the same article exeeedoi in value
$500, ,00O, 900. This example gives q
fair idea of the progress that has been
made in all other industries.
The improvement that has been made
in methods of transportation are shown
by the comparison of the time 1t took
Washington to travel from his home at
Mt Vernon in Virginia to New York to
Ut iuduS SuIdtcOt WHICH "ds dOOut tNo
weeks, and the time it took the Wash
ington Artillery to travel from New
Orleans to the metropolis, a distance of
1900 miles, which was but trifle over
two days. A message that in Washing
toms day took weeks to reach its desti
nation eau now be sent to the confines
of the globe in an instant. Such are
the changes that a century has matte
and of which those that witnessed the
Inauguration ofeSW sshington no more
dreamed than they did of the greatness
to which their infant government was
destined to rise in so short space of
time.
N. O. City Item: Straw has been
used in various manufactures since the
time that the Tsraelites worked in the
Egyptian brick yards. 1t is now about
to be employed on large scale in
making gunpoNder The straw is pull
vefized, chemically treated, and then
finished in granular form, The new
explosive is said to he $50 per cent
stronger than gun powder, and smoke