Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-04-23
"STEP QUICK"
Motto Sam Jones Would Hav,
Preacher and Christian Adopt
The Church Of God Must Have tn. Pm.
gressive Spirit OF the Age III IL
Woulo stiII 30 Power.
fui Factor.
ICoPrRIGHT, 1881

to the employees: "Step quick. We
| want no slow steppers here" This Is a
hustling age, and the fellow who does
not hustle gets left. Nearly all of the
great inventions of the past five years
have been machinery for saving time
and taking near cuts. The American
people are crowding five years into one
| by means of the various kinds of time
saving machinery. In the field of agri-
culture, with the steam plows, drills,
reapers and threshers, one man does the
work Of ten. In the business world,
with the telephone, the telegraph,
stenographer and typewriting machine,
one man can do the work of five.
In the world of literature, with the
thousands of books of condensed
thought, facts and figures, a lecture
which in former years would have re-
quired weeks in it's preparation can be
prepared in an hour in this age In
the world of travel, with the lightning
express and electric cars threading every
county and city, man may change
places SO rapidly as to almost bewilder
himself-supper in one city, and q
quiet nights sleep and breakfast in
| another hundreds of miles away; a
| residence six miles from a business
| place, yet with electric cars run in and
out as il it were only q few hundred
| yards; with the telephone talking
backward and forward as II it were
a few steps.
On the shores of China a few years
ago one hundred Cinnamon were en-
ployed to bail the water from the YES
sells anchored to the shores, and a hum
| dred salaries were paid. An American
steam pump was hauled over, put
| to work and one hundred Cinnamon dis
missed. They stood on the shore for
| little while looking ut the strange
American machine doing the work of
| one hundred men. The leader cried to
the band: american devilee steal
Cinnamon bread" and down they
pounced upon this American machine
| and beat on 1t as if to destroy it. This
is but figure of what is occurring all
over this country. Our new machin-
cry is displacing thousands of men and
women in the various callings of life.
This is great factor entering into our
| present civilization, and 1t is one of the
factors to which our people have not
become properly adjusted.
The lightning express of the nine
teenth century has rung the gong,
pulled open the throttle and moved out
leaving many fellow standing on the
platform. The common people of this
age have not yet caught on fully to it's
lightning spirit. 1t will take us few
years to become adjusted to this age.
The electric cars and steam farm imple-
ments have displaced thousands Of
mules and horses and that has confused
and puzzled the stock markets. The
telephone and the stenographer and
the thousands of labor-saving pieces Of
machinery have displaced thousands of
men and women and the laboring
classes seem in q puzzle. More men
than jobs is the cry all over the coun-
try. With all these facilities for rapid
motion and lightning speed executing,
few of the quick, practical men Of
this age are able to grasp the situation
and work the situation, and they are
rapidly becoming immensely rich.
The common people not yet adjusted
picked, and, like the countryman in
city, don't know where to turn or what
to do. In the meantime much rascality
and devilment is getting into the age.
Schemers are becoming thieves and
manipulators of the situation are be-
coming oppressors, and the organizing
machinery Of the rich and the corner
ing process is becoming nefarious and
hurtful But what of it oil? believe
In a very short time the masses OF the
people will grow up to the situation.
We will learn how to combine manual
labor and machinery. We will have
more to consume, and consume more;
we will create more luxuries and enjoy
more luxuries. We will manufacture
more products and use more products.
There will be place for every ma
chine and a place for every human
brain and hand.
All classes are waking up to the fact
that we are in a hustling age. The
farmer has laid aside his old methods
and adopted new methods and new ma
chinery, and the farming interest is be-
ginning to hum all over this country.
The merchants are catching on to the
machinery and the hustling methods,
and quick steppers are demanded In
every mercantile house. The profess
sional world is utilizing these new ap-
pliances and methods, and the doctor
and the lawyer and the author are
working the spirit Of the nineteenth
century. Every phase OF business and
worldly interest seems to be catching
the spirit of progress, but the church
seems to be standing on the platform
watching the trains go by.
The preacher is sticking to his dingy
manuscript, preaching his sermons
made forty years ago. 1t tickles me to
see dry, dogmatic preacher dressed in
his cold, conventional suit, with his
dingy manuscript of sermon prepared
thirty years ago, stand In the pulpit OF
forty-thousand.dollar church and read
his soporific message to the slumbering
forty. Mr.. Wesley caught the spirit OF
his age, which was very slow age, but
moving in the front rank he blazed the
way and reached the masses, ana ac-
complished great work as the fore
most spirit of his age; but it was the
age Of no telegraph, no telephone, no
lightning express, no electric cars; u
was the age of footmen and the OK
wagon. He was o grand man, and MS
methods up to his age; but II seems sii-
IL "a ma that Ia this age wc should per