Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-05-19

Ewart Gladstone was born, the paint
was still fresh on the only steamboat
in the world Thus far and no farther
had proceeded the evolution of human
passage by waterways and rivers. The
methods Of preserving life and the
means of destroying it were scarcely
improved or modified since the middle
ages. In January of that year Sir John
Moore, at Coruna, won his fatal VIC
tory over the French with tiintlock
muskets. All the arts of modern life
We're still in the rudimentary stages.
In Great Britain it cost fourteen
pence to send letter 800 miles, and in
the United States seventeen cents for
the same service There was not an
iron barred tramway on the face of the
globe. Men hoped to fly through the
air, but had no expectation of being
propelled by steam. In that year, af
ter his sixty-sixth ascension died Fran
co.'s Blanchard, first aeronaut to cross
the English channel In the farm
sheds of the world there was perhaps
not single pillow with iron or steel
mOldboard. The harvest hands in the
land to the Alleghanies cut their grain
with sickles. The most rapid transit
on the earth or sea was the sailing
vessel, and that might be surpassed in
speed by race horses.
Mans knowledge of nature was only
rudimentary Uranus was then the
outside member of the solar system.
The first four asteroids had been dis
iy,t ts1t ION II iToer NC.
Humphry Davy was just recovering
from the nervous fever with which he
was FRUSTRATED on his discovery of So
dunn and potassium. The greatest tel
escope of the world was the 20-foot re-
fector of the elder Herschel. Young
Fraunhofer, in the Institute of Mu-
mich, was experimenting with his
lenses and prisms, trying to analyze
the solar spectrum.
The social and domestic life of man
kind was equally far away. In Great
Britain the system Of servitude was
still protected Only year before the
slave trade in the United States had
been openly practiced by the mer-
chants Of Boston under the constitu-
tion. In the home life of England the
right of husbands to whip their wives
as freely as they might whip their
slaves was denied by few scoffers
who had no influence.
In the political state of the world
history had appointed France and
France had appointed Napoleon to lead
q revolutionary storming party against
the ancient order in Europe The
European countries were crouching
down close to the walls, hoping that
the storm might pass and that they
might emerge again to sit on thrones
and hunt in parks and gather beauty
of doubtful reputation into courts
where fashion reigned and virtue was
not even remembered
In our own country the third Vir-
ginian president had in the preceding
spring come to the chief magistracy of
the young republic. Our brief federal
ascendancy had yielded to a moderate
democracy impersoDated in Madison
and his secretary of State Hamilton
was five years dead. Henry Clay was
leader of the House. The elder Ad-
ans was contributing to the Boston
Patriot letters in defense of his, policy
while president. Children born on the
day of the death of Washington were
completing their tenth year. Pitt
and Fox were three years dead. On
the 9th of July Napoleon fought his
great battle of Wagram and on the
10th of December he divorced JOS
ephine
1t was under these conditions and
these stars that William E. Glad
stone was born. His life line has
been drawn lengthwise through the
century, but other great lines are there
also Gladstone did not come or go
alone. The year 1909 was as conspic-
uous for its human products as had
been that fortieth preceding year
which brought into being the two
world conquerors. Humboldt and b.
naparte The planetary tug was DOW
erful in 1909. On the 18th of Febru-
airy in this year, and coincidentally or
the same day, came into the world
Charles Robert Darwin in England
and Abraham Lincoln, in America. In
this year also was born Alfred Tennv-
SON. chief singer of the Victorian era
and Edgar A. Poe. the somber spirit
of the west In this year also came
Mendelssohn the great and Oliver
Wendell Holmes, the chief wit of the
new world
1culidl III THIS Slbuh Oh lnlmOrtalS
was the son of Sir John Gladstone
born in Liverpool on December %,
1909. to be educated at Elton. trained
privately for two years bv DR..
Turner (afterward bishop of Calcut-
tar and finished enthusiastically by the
university discipline at Christchurcb
Oxford, from which he was graduated
in 1891.
Gladstone BEGAN public life as
Conservative. He was the son of a
merchant He inherited that CONNER
cial shirt which regards business as
the first concern Of human life. II is
doubtful whether Gladstone ever in
his career considered any great oues-
tion without first estimating its bust
ness effects on Great Britain and its
commercial aspects in relation with
the affairs of the world. He was
strictly business statesman. His
temper was cautious and reserved. He
believed in disturbing things-with
words and in reforming things-with
legislative enactments.
The conservative spirit of Gladstone
manifested even in those parts of his
lite which are regarded as radical and
reformatory, was always predominant
lie was courageous in the conflict of
debate and audacious at a distance.
NO statesman ever more eagerly en-
harked in foreign affairs, none was ever
more radical as it respected conditions
in the East, but none was ever more
prudent about disturbing British So