Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-09-26
THIS GOLDEN AGE.
IS THE MILLENNIUM AT HAND, AND
WE DON'T KNOW 1T?

Julia Ward Howe Makes n Suggestion,
Progress in the Nineteenth Century.
ON the Borders of More Important
Discoveries-P Only Is Lacking.
Julia Ward Howe in recent address
suggested that we might now be actually
living in the millennium without know
ing it, That period was, according tc
the prophecy, to exist for thousand
wears. During that era there was to be
4 state of peace. All wars and tumults
would cease. and there would be a rapid
advance in religion. In fact the r"lt-
gious atmosphere would be over all the
world. There was also to be great ma
terial prosperity. The world would
settle down into a condition of content
mcnt. striving only for mutual advance
ment along the lines of honorable COM
petition. The millennium was simply to
be a ripper period of the world, when
human progress was to be greatly ac-
celerated and every discovery should
make for the benefit of mankind. That
has been the dream of the ages. Some
where in the future there was to be a
golden age-one better than the world
had ever known.
Now, as compared with all former
periods, this is the Golden Age. 1t is
better than any preceding one. There Is
more security for human life, more prog
ress that benefits humanity, more great
inventions that are creating peaceful
revolutions. more science turned to the
account of the masses. In short, the up
lift of humanity was never so great as 1T
is now. But all this has hardly brought
in the millennium; or if so, then 1t Is
quite evident that it has found no uni
versal recognition. 1t is possible that
such an era might glide in so quickly as
to fail of general recognition.
If a thousand yc,.rs ago the condition
the world had been set forth as a proph-
ccy lust as it exists to-day, that condition
would probably have been recognized as
belonging to a milIennial period. There
would have been included the wonderful
advance of knowledge. That was to be a
prime characteristic of the new era. The
world could be circumnavigated i'll less
than 80 davs. People would cross contl-
nrnts at the rate of so miles an hour,
feasting and sleeping as they SKINNED
over the earth. They would cross oceans
in floating hotels lighted by electricity at
the rate of more than 20 miles an hour.
They would send messages all around the
globe and receive answers in few min
utes. They would talk audibly with each
other from points 1000 miles apart.
| They would read in the morning and
evening papers every important event
that had occurred in the last "A hours in
all the world. They would light up
| houses, stores, churches, and ships by
that subtle element that was seen blazing
along the sky
One would have only to touch a button
| to illuminate his h luse or set in motion
the most ponder us machinery. He
would only have to touch another button
to call to his aid the doctor, the police a
carriage, or a messenger for his service.
lie might, in fact, treasure up speech by
another instrument, SO that he could
have repeated to him over and over
| again a speech or a song which had been
given thousands of miles away. lie
might, in fact, hear the words once more
of the dead uttered while they were
! living. Instead of the slow process of
writing on tablets of wax or on parch-
ment, he would have only to touch the
KEYS of little machine, when his
thoughts would appear on neatly
printed page. Pictures of himself and
all his living friends could be made in an
instant, catching the very moods and ex-
pressions Of life.
Now, all the gains here noted have
been made within century. No one
would have doubted a thousand years
ago that if the sum of them could even
be realized, that would be the miIlennial
condition so long foretOld. If it had
been brought in suddenly no one, even i'll
this age would have questioned that the
fulfillment Of prophecy had been realized
The transition from an old condition into
one so radically new would have OBJ
,ained universal recognition. 1t is tritC
saving that "the world moves" But il
has never moved SO fast as in the last
half of the nineteenth century.
Many are ready to affirm that it is moi
possible that there can be any such prog
ISSS Ill tlHOlltl CclltuIy an tllt llliCf
of discovery and invention as has beer
witnessed during the present century
There is no tenable ground for such the
ory. The world is probably now on the
borders of as important discoveries a.
nave been recorded in any of the moderr
ages. There were never before such {
number of scholars, scientific men, anC
others working on lines of original in
vestigaton. Some new fact is added tC
the worlds stock of knowledge almos
every week. There are no visible sigu
of arrested development.
The transition from an old condition t.
one radically new may be so gentle ant
come with so little observation that i
VIII fail of universal recognition. JUL;
" ri Howe certainly had some reason
tu. the suggestion that possibly we may
now te living in the millcnnial perio,
without recognizing the fact For tn
| di,iluuuishing evidence of that was to b