The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-06-18
The Past and Future.

nus permitted TO take a horoscope
view of conditions fifty years hence,
it would reveal wonders in material adj
We may form partial
estimate of the marvellous achievements
which would unfold themselves by a |
retrospect of the past half OF century.
Our national growth has been phenom-
email. Science and invention have rev.
olutionized physical conditions and
appliances. Space has been annihllated
nv steam and electricity. The continent
has been spanned by iron bands. The
desert has been made to blossom as the
rose. The school house and the church 4
have been erected upon the hunting
grounds of the Indian. CIVILIZATION
has planted its outposts on the farthest
verge of our national domain, and that
enlarged by war and diplomacy, to EN-
brace twice the extent that it did nifty
wears ago, until our national drum beat
reverberates from the Atlantic to the
Pacific and encircles Ia continent. Inc
whir of machinery and the appliances
and agencies of civilization have taken
possession of the range of the buffalo.
The dream of De Soto. that the whole
range of the Rocky Mountains was an
Eldorado. and that the golden huas OF
the western horizon were but the refiec-
ton of the auriferous element that
was entombed in the mountain fast
nesses, has been verified. The Cross has
shed its light into heather minds. and
the worshiper of images, the common
faith of the North American aborigines,
has bowed before it's efTulgence and
power. Political theories aud religious
dogmas and creeds have been modified
or exploded under the fierce scrutiny of
a broader mentality and a higher stan
dard of intellectual achievement. Su-
perstition has fled before the advance
of reason, and the logic of events has
reyolutionized. mental processes and
physical conditions, SO that we stand in
an arena of thought, inspiration and
action, indicating a higher civilization
and more comprehensive understand
ing of the forces which control in the
intellectual moral and physical worlds.
The genius and research of man have
penetrated into the mysteries Of earth
and sky, and brought under human
control the subtle agent, which gives
motion and life to our rolling sphere,
and the things that people it. Achieve
ments in every department of science
of art, of religious thought. OF social
and civil aspiration. have been w0n
derful, and yet consummated so quietly
and gradually and naturally as scarcely
to be cognizabie in attritions or start
ling in processes and results. From the
rot of hoary creeds and conditions and
Anticipated theories and formuias has
sprung the vigorous growth of our pres
ent enlightened civilization, wherein is
opened up new fields OF research and
study and for still more startling, yet
benefcent achievements, to illus
trate the infinite possibilities of the
human mind, and its affinity to that
Great Power which spake into mov>
ing, throbbing. pulsating existence
a world. What fifty years hence will
reveal it would be almost impious to
predict Science will continue in its
march, unfolding new wonders in the
physical world. Harvesting the ele-
ments of earth and air for the use of
man; development will succeed degel-
opment in material relations; the do
main of philosophy, geology and min
eralogy will be canvassed for new
sources of wealth and force; the political
and religious fields will be subjected to
still more rigorous Investigations inven-
tion will enlarge its arena and mechan-
les exert a still more potent influence
in economizing labor, time and space
The extremities of the continent will
be brought yet closer together, and in
tercourse carried on between distant
peoples as though they were elbow
neighbors. Intelligence will be more
widely diffused: distinctions in classes
lessened if not obliterated. Political
systems will be upheaved and reyolu>
tionized to conform to the warnings of
justed to popular demands and res
: tricted forms made to conform to more
liberal ideas and policies. Darkest
Africa will emerge from its Cimerian
gloom and be clothed with the light and
promise of Christian civilization, and
the whole civilized world will move upon
a higher plane and be stirred by higher
resolve.
And in the light of this wonderful
progress and these marvellous achieve
ments what will the great boon that has
been bestowed upon this immediate
section reveal as modern appliances and
agencies are dedicated to the develops
ment and utilization of its resources?
Here we have entombed wealth vast
enough to endow an empire. It's de-
velopment and appropriation to the uses
of man and the demands of commerce
would imply multiplication of indus
tries to shape it into all the forms that
invention has devised, indefinite in their
diversity and capacities. 1t would
mean a continual succession OF shops
and factories, from Iron Gate to Clifton
Forge and on to Covington. A denser
population than inhabits the industrial
districts of England would follow. The
hills and valleys would be dotted over
with CHEEKY and comfortable homes
and innumerable places of trade The
streams would be caught up by machin
cry to vitalize the forces of nature and
contribute to the general wealth and
prosperity Hundreds of furnace fires
would light up the whole district
Thousands of people would find occupa-
ton where dozens now are employed;
and one busy round of life, enterprise
and progress would mark the revolving
wears and crown the efforts and energies
of man with comfort, contentment and
wealth.
This is no fancy picture. 1t is all
within the possibilities of the not far
distant future. The initiatory move
ments have already been inaugurated, |
which will assure consummations not |
now dreamed of by the pessimst, and
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