Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-31
PITTSBURG. SATURDAY, DEC. 81. 1897
PAGES.
THE RETROSPECT OF 1892.

midnight the record Of the year will be
finally closed, and, as 365 of the 366 have
already been posted up for good or for
bad, the character of the year is practi-
cally determined. 1t is customary and not
altogether improbable to take a retro
spect of each year, in order to determine
what of its events is to be emulated in
future, and what to be deprecated.
The data for such a retrospect are to be
found in the chronological record for 1892
appearing in this issue of THE DISPATCH
In some respects the year just closing
presents features which are not to be
taken as examples for 1893 to follow. 1t
has been year of disaster, famine and
pestilence. While war has not plagued
any part of the worId-except the
French invasion of Dahomey and the
| guerrilla campaigns of the slave hunters
in Central Africa-the miscarriages Of
peace have proved themselves nearly as
destructive of life. Flood and fire in the
oil country towns, though not so. stu
pendously murderous as the same causes
of destruction at Johnstown, present a
total only second to that awful event.
Famine throughout the breadth of Russia
has inflicted suffering and death on
millions. Pestilence either born of the
famine or given quick spread by its re-
suits has also ravaged that unfortunate
land, and extended its threat to the entire
world. The perennial struggle between
employers and employed has in our
own county and elsewhere risen to a.
height that set the laws at naught and
cost many lives to suppress. A sister re-
public has been brought to the verge of
revolution by the exposure of wholesale
corruption and gigantic frauds in the
highest circles. In these, as in the minor
details of fatality and crime, 1892 has
many features which humanity would fain
see mitigated or abolished in succeeding
years.
In the death of the worlds leaders 1892
has not so fatal a record as some of its
predecessors. In literature the names of
Tennyson, Whittier and Walt Whitman
have been removed from the list of the
living. In craftsmanship it is notable
that although this country has expected
the death of its greatest statesman, Mr..
Blaine, and although Gladstone is bearing
the weight of extreme old age, and Bis
marck is in retirement, none of the world
famous statesmen have been actually re-
moved by death. Mcdonald, of Canada,
Lord Sherbrooke and General Da Fonseca
are the most prominent losses of the year
in craftsmanship. Among the monarchs
and princes, Tewfik Pasha, Prince Albert
Victor the English heir, and the Grand
Duke Constantine of Russia lead the list
of deaths. 1t is rather singular that
death has been most busy in the
ranks of scientific writers and ex-
plorers, the list in the former class in
cluding the names of De Lavelaye, Sir
George Airey, NJ. Jean Quatrefages,
Ernst Seyd and Prof. Card, while the
ranks of explorers have been thinned by
the deaths of Grant Junker, Stairs and
Schwatka. Three world-known prelates,
Manning, Simeoni and Lavigerie, and
the famous evangelist, Spurgeon, are
numbered among the dead. OF iurists,
Bradley, of this nation, Cotton of Eng
land, and Richie of Canada, lead the
list Drs. Morel Mackenzie and D. HAYES
Agnew are the most prominent physicians
who have passed away. In literature
George VIM. Curtis and Ernst Renan
represent widely differing talents alike
terminated by death; while of famous
women, Mrs. Harrison, Amelia B. Ed
wards and Rose Terry Cooke are to be
mentioned. The list of men famous for
their wealth who have passed away
would be long, but the name of Cyrus W.
Field is separate from them by the fact
that it represents a career by which the
world was benefited rather than the
wealth that was lost before his death.
While many of the features of 1892 have
unpleasant recoIlections, there are even
greater benefits. Plenty, peace and gen.
eral prosperity have continued the rule
especially in this country. We have pre-
sented to the world a magnificent example
of how the fiscal policy of a nation NAV
py the verdict of the people be reversed
without disorder, and without even a dis
turbance of public confidence. These
things are so much a matter of course
that they pass without especial notice.
Yet they are greater factors in the sum of
human life and happiness than the dis
asters and misadventures which impress
themselves most fOrcibly on our memories
Of the }, r.