The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-06-23
THE SHIP OANAL-THB MAOEDON
IAN CRY FROM BALTIMORE.

!
IAN CRY FROM BALTIMORE.
AS viii be seen in our local col
umus the mass meeting to be held in
the Academy of Music, Baltimore,
on Monday evening next, promises
to be "big" demonstration.
Providence has in the past put in
the way OF the merchants and CAPT
talists Of Baltimore splendid oppor-
tunities for commercial advancement,
which like the ships passing in the
night, were spoken, and then sank
into the oblivion OF outer darkness.
Retail merchants OF Baltimore once
protested against city passenger cars
passing their store doors, because
the wheels of their rich customers
carriages might be turned awry
and lose the name OF action" on their
iron tracks, while Eastern capitalists
asked for, and easily obtained, valu
able city railway franchises at Anna |
polls.
But these were conservative freaks
of the too long ancient and Rip |
Van Wlnklein capitalists of our
dearly beloved, but once tortoisian(?) |
metropolis of Maryland, the recollec-
ton whereof is doubly grevious to
them and to us, ard to the progress
i've native who revels in the rural but
advanced walks OF Maryland lie.
But the superb selEcomplacency
which once marked the easy going
shopkeeper OF Baltimore, who when
Drawing the dangers of journey by
rail eastward, imagined himself on
Pennsylvania soil, the moment the
romantic Susquehanna was crossed,
has been rudely shocked by his
latter, day contact with the outside
world.
The prick and spur of competitive
commercial enterprise has Stirred
him wonderfully, and the best of it
is, Baltimore's entire commercial
household has been stirred up along
with him.
We dream Of an old Baltimore
merchant, with the respect born OF
our boyish recollection OF him!
What fragrant air of Chesterfield
ian responsibility hung about hlm
How genial by nature, how gen.
erous in habit, what a handsome
type OF splendid manhood, only
marred by the traditions Of Southern
education, and the fatal conservatism
OF locality.
He was a gentleman born,
though not the mushroom growth
OF single generation.
We have before US at this writing,
the mental picture of him, as photo
graphed fifty years ago.
Led by kind parental hand into
his office, then timid child, our
first impression Of him has never
been efaced.
Business was subordinate to the
social courtesies OF the hour, which
found generous expression in the
mellowest brandy and the iragrantest
Haban,.
Then, business gained reluctant
recognition.
But this was old Baltimore town,
not very many years after, the late
afluent, Thomas Kelso, then a
poor boy, tended sheep in sub
urban tavern shed on East Baltimore
street, where afterwards his city
residence stood, and near which
marble statuary graced the modest
lawn of another prosperous Baltimore
merchant.
But now how changed!
The new Baltimore, like the new
South, smiles at her primitive com.
mercial raiment, which like her
business ancestors, she respects, but
would not resurrect.
As the mixture OF Celtic with other
bloods has produced the best races
OF the world, so Baltimore modern
business blood, made up OF Southern
yigor, Northern snap, Western grit,
and Eastern pluck, should constitute
her the commercial gateway of them
all.
Now, she wants a ship canal, as a
highway Of commerce between this
country and the rest Of the world.
Old Baltimore would have choked
over the magnitude OF the CONNER
cial project, but the new Baltimore
will-we Topographic it success
fully.
We Of the counties should help
her, not merely by sympathetic |
words, but by substantial aid, with |
which Heaven has blessed so many |
Of our people.
Cecil County has a special interest
in helping her, simply because the
ship canal may finally mean an
enlarged Delaware and Chesapeake
canal.
A goodIy showing OF CeciPs
citizens should be at the Academy |
meeting On Monday night next.
The Macedonian cry comes to us
from Baltimore, and Cecil county !
can best help herself in this Case
by helping others.
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THE Baltimore Meas of Sunday
contained a biographical sketch, repub-
lished from the G1cenbag OF Boston,