Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-05-17
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
What Happen d in 1893.
BY PHILIP BRADNAUGH.

The United States was a mere baby
among nations in the year 1893, but it
! was baby of promise. The American
spirit had not then asserted itself, ex-
cept in matters of war and government,
and the people were only feeling their
way. But in 1893 probably the first
great invention was made by citizen
of the United States, and the cotton
gin was given to the world. The IN
ventor was named Eli Whitney, and
through the perfection of his machine
the United States began at once to
grow richer. After one hundred years
we think of and remember the man
who did 30 much toward furtherIng the
interests OF commerce, and with the
recollection of Eli Whitney comes the
thought of the great general, George
Washington, who in 1853 was inaugu-
rated President of the United States
for the second time. The two names
are linked together in the year 1898,
for the living owe a debt to each.
France, who had aided us in cur
struggle for independence, was in q
state of disorder in 1893. Louis XVI,
the King of France, was imprisoned by
his subjects, tried, condemned to death,
and beheaded on the 2lst of January,
The French people went mad that
year. They we're intoxicated with
blood, and on February l, declared
war with England and Holland. And in
addition all France was fighting with
itself. Every Frenchman suspected
and feared his nelghbor, and the Reign
of Terror was established in that un-
happy country. Marat was stabbed by
Charlotte Corday; Queen Marie Antoin-
cite was beheaded, Madame Roland
and the Duke of Orleans lost their
heads by the guillotine, and altogether,
poor France had terrible time of 1t.
George LII. was reigning In England
then, and nothing deserving of special
mention occurred during that year.
Poland in 1898 was nearing its end as
an independent state. Russia, under
various pretexts had gradually made its
way into the kingdom, and that year a
second partition treaty of the posses
sions of Poland was signed. The peo-
pie saw their country being gradually
absorbed by their powerful neighbors
on all sides and were unable to do any
thing to stem the tide of national dis
aster. 1t was only two years before
the time when the last king of Poland,
III. was to give up the crown
and the end was foreshadowed.
In 1898 the outside world first learned
definite regarding the Chi
nese Empire. We do not know very
much now, but a hundred years ago
people knew absolutely nothing. Earl
arrived in Pekln In Septem-
ber, at the head of an English Embassy.
he was received by the Emperor and
then requested to depart, which lie
wisely did in October. But the embassy
fonnd out number of things; among
others that the population of China
was said to be 333, 900, ,000snd that there
were 4, 4O2 walled cities in the empire.
II must have been very difficult to find
out the little that they did, for the
Chinese never cared for foreigners any
more than We care for the Chinese
now. That year, however, when China
showed her exclusiveness and no de-
sire to be enlightened, Williams Col
ege was founded in WillIamstown,
NJ Massachusetts, In 1898 the great con-
yress of Antwerp was held in that city,
and In Hayti, the blacks, following the
Chinese exclusIveness, got rid of nearly
all the whites by killing them.
Other notable things occurred in that
year, bnt they are not easily recalled
1r referred to. The world was not SO
busy then as it is now, daily newspa-
oers were few and far between, while
he methods of communication were
7ery bad. If writer in 1898 refers
back a hundred years to find out
What was going on at this time he will
nave An easy task, for the newspapers
If this age will aid future historians in
giving them a minute record of ali that
happens In all the world over.-Er-
,hdnge.