Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1889-02-22

at the battery required her to unseal it and
give 1t to him word for word. "Oh, no,
indeed" she responded. II thought you
could send it just 80, but II you can't, I'll
send 1t by mail"
The telephone for short distances, at least,
seems To be an improvement on the telegraph
inasmuch as no operator intervenes between
the persons conversing by 1t. All that any
one has to do is to use his tongue at the end
of q line connecting two mouths, and con-
versation can be carried ON. That it can
ever suppant the telegraph for all purposes,
seems at present highly improbable.
The invention of labor saving machines,
since the advent Of the present century, sur
passes, in my judgment, "the seven wonders
OF the world" among the ancients. Under
this head may mention, first, the amazing
facilities for printing pictures and languages.
Printing In some form and by various
means has been in use for ages. The Egyp-
tians and Assyrians stamped characters on
bricks before they were hardened for build
ing. The Hebrews had names and other
devices engraved on seals and set in finger
rings. Printing on stone and blocks OF
wood was practiced by the Chinese and
Japanese in remote ages But Coster and
first to print with movable types, about the
middle Of the 18th century; and Peter
Schoffer was the first to use metallic type
instead Of wood or any other material. 1t
is said that about the same period, no less
than 220 printing presses had been set up in
different parts Of Europe; and in 1889, the
first press was set up in America, in Cam
bridge, Mass. But what complicated i'm
provements have been made within the last
80 years!
In the Patent Office, Washington City,
Franklin's old hand press may be seen,
which will pass as fac smile OF all the
presses before it; but what clumsy, un-
weldy machine it isl With it two men
could give only 200 impressions on one side
of paper in an hour! The next in
vention enabled two men to print $50 copies
per hour, which was an advance hardly
worth talking about, and unworthy the
name of an improvement. In November,
2Sth, 1914, the London Times astonished the
publishing fraternity by announcing that
by m-power press, invented by Fried.
rich Koning, OF Saxony; it could give 1900
impressions in an hour. In 1888, this en-
terprising establishment procured press
which gave off $500 impressions in an hour.
Yet even this astonishing result was thrown
far into the shade when Rich'd Hoe, OF New
York, invented the first successful revolving
cylinder press, and now the ten-cylinder
PRESSES Ol NeW OIh dud lI0nuoh Piius ooeh
sides of papers, at the same time, and print
$4,000 copies per hourl Surely this speaks
something for inventive genius during span
of only forty years.
Let US now glance at agricultural machin-
cry and see if anything has been accom-
plshed lately in that line. The first man
that God made was gardener, and after
wards farmer. We can't know what kind
of pillow Adam used, but when was boy
the farmers turned over the sod of their fields
with wooden mouldboards, and had theil
coulters set and sharpened by blacksmiths.
They moved grass with hand-scythes, cut
crops with sickles and scythe- cradles; they
raked hay and bound sheaves with wooden
rakes and such other implements as God
Himself had given them, and it was no IN
common thing to see blushlng maidens 10
the meadows or raking wheat tor binders
after the reapers. Like Ruth cleaning in the
harvest fields of Boaz, they kept close by the
young men, and the binder who could obtain
an eligible partner to rake for him would be
sure to keep up with his binding, and was
about as happy as any lover in these days
could be when listening with dreamy affect
atien to his lady love at the piano. The mu.
sic of the harvest-field was just as sweet and
as soothing under such circumstances as il
could possibly be in spacious and elegant
" furnished parlor. But times have changed
things since then and people have changed
with them Now we have steel plows, NOW
ing machines, reaping machines, binding
machines, drilling machines, threshing ma
chimes, and for no other purpose than t
keep in health and good order, the old-iash
Toned eating machine. Solomon simply
spake truth when he said: "All the labor o
man Is for his mouth" A man with twt
horses may now cut down as much grass o
grain as thirty persons could in the time o
which have spoken. If he is feeble or to-
lazy to walk, he may sit in an armchair
cross bis legs and smoke cigar, and the un
complaining animals will drag both him ant
the machine along, and the work will go Oh
all the same
In this connection we may mention thu
timely improvements for manufacturing fab
RIGS to protect and adorn our bodies Wher
was yet quite young nearly all necessary
wearing apparel was made and made VI
within the circle of mans own family
Mothers picked cotton and wool with theil
own expert fingers, then carded it will
hand cards The daughters spun the cardet
rolls into yarn and then wove it into clotf
or knit it into socks. Why as late as 1889
when l first began to preach on the Eastern
Shore of Virginia, the girls Of my congrega
ton supplied me with all my socks, anG
they were the best ever had. Hand cards
spinning wheels and weaving looms wer,
articles of household furniture that coulC
not be dispensed with, and they were as com
mon in families as organs and pianos ar,
now. In those thrifty days if a young wo
man could not milk half dozen cows before
breakfast, spin yarn, weave cloth and MAKE
her ewn llnsey- woolsey fabrics into gar
ments she was not regarded as very goot
catch by wife-hunters. Butsince Arkwrigh
invented the cotton genny, and we can buy
cloth at ten cents per yard, am glad tina
the girls have easier times.
There was also more health aud vigor il
the young men than there seems to be now
The plow and the axe and the hoe did 70
them better service than clerkships anc
soft places in cities are doing now. The,
did not have to play base ball to enlarge ant
strengthen their muscles and limbs, but toll
ing in the open air, under the sunlit hcav
ems, they returned at night with the odor o
the fields and the woods In their garment
and realized through the night that 18th,
sleep Of laboring man is sweet"
JOSEPH WALKER.