News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-08-14

ltSO UHe udy is over anu we Dlu auleu.
! l.. W.
No Demand for "Good Old Times"
An accident like the burning of the
Western Union telegraph-office in New
York shows how dependent the pub
lie becomes in n remarkably short
time on appliances of which their an
cestors never dreamed and never felt
the need. 1t is but few years. com
paratively, since the electric tele-
graph was unknown. Yet the bust
ness Of that period was carried on
very successfully, as the people then
thought. There was buying and sell
ing and getting gain, just as there
now is; and though the merchants of
this country were compelled to wait
for days or weeks for the market re-
ports, on which so much depended.
no man felt it hardship, because
each was as well off as his neighbor
and competitor. But now, when the
business of the country and the world
has adapted itself to the changed
conditions, when almost everything
In the way of important business
communication is transmitted by tel
egraph, the smallest interruption in
the service is widespread calamity.
If New York should be cut off for q
week from telegraphic communica-
ton with the rest of the world, the
loss entailed would be equal to that
occasioned by the failure of an i'm
portant crop, devastating flood or
a consuming fire. 1t would be the
same if any important link in the
railway system of the country should
be suddenly paralyzed and to a GER
tain extent if the telephone or cleo
tric railway service should be badly
crippled. We have becomes so accus-
toned to these things, that, though
once luxuries, they have become ne
cessities.
There is an occasional philosopher
who queries whether we are. on the
whole, any better off for these addi-
tlons to our appliances for doing the
work of the world and ministering to
our comfort and happiness; but the
great majority of mankind is thank
full for all that the progress of science
and invention has done for us, and
could not be persuaded to return to
the old ways for all the quiet content
which is said to have been their ac-
compartment. One reason is, per-
haps, that they could not go back if
they would. They have tasted of the
fruit of the tree of knowledge and IL
ls impossible to get the taste out of
! their mouths. There ia a vvelI-r,und-
ed doubt. besides. whether. the old
| days really were any happier-vvbefb-
er there was any more contentnnent
before the railway and the telegraph
and the telephone and the electric
light came-than now We livemore
rapidly, no doubt, but it is by no
means certain that this is in itself an
evil. Even if the average of human
life were shortened under thenew con-
ditions-as it is not-it would still be
longer when measured by results
than the life of the old time 1t is
rather fortunate that the majority
of mankind is in sympathy with the
new order of things which progress
has brought, for progress is the law
and there is no escaping it's opera
ton.
In view of the marvellous discover
les which the last half-century has
no one can doubt that
there is quite as much that is marvel
Gus to come. The dweller on the
planet in the year 2000will undoubt-
edly look back on these times with a
good deal of the same feeling that we
of the present day have for those
who lived in the days of the stage
coach and the weekly mail; and it is
quite likely that the philosopher of
that period will speak of ours as the
''good old times" But however that
may be, and whatever the advance
they have made in our condition, we
may be sure that they will find all
their improvements as necessary to
existence as wenow find the telegraph
and railroad and electric light. If
they have discovered aerial naviga-
tion and established intercommuni-
cation between the planets, they will
be just as dependent on those new
features as we are on the latest appli-
ances of our civilization. And if the
air line to Jupiter should break down
in such way as to cripple the Mars
cutoff or the branch to Saturn, the
public will be just as much hindered
and embarrassed as we are by wire
disabling blizzard in the commercial
metropolis or fire in central tele-
graph Office. Detroit Free Press.