The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-12-01

needle, once an oppressive tyrant, be-
comes a cheerful slave-roll and rum bic
and roar until the family wardrobe is
gathered, and winter is defied, and sum-
mer is welcomed, and the ardors and Sc
verities of the season are overcome;
winding the bobbin, threading the shut
tie, tucl1ing, quilting, ruffling, cording,
embroidering, undertaking, set to mu-
sic; lock stitch, twisted loop stitch, cro-
chet stitch, a fascinating ingenuity. All
honor to the memory of Alsop and Dun
can and Greenough and Singer and Will
son and Grover and Wilcox for their
efforts to emancipate woman from the
slavery of toll! But, more than that, let
there be monumental commemoration
of Elias Howe, the inventor of the first
complete sewing machine. What it has
saved of sweat and tears God only can
estimate. In the making of mems and
boys clothing in New York city in one
year it saved $500, 900, and in Massa-
chusetts, in the making of boots and
shoes, in one year it saved $7,000,000.
Secondly, look into the agricultural
world to see what the wheel has accom-
plished. Look at the stalks of wheat
and oats, the one bread for man, the
other bread for horses. Coat off and
with cradle made out of five or six fin
gers of wood and one of sharp steel, the
harvester went across the field, stroke
after stroke, perspiration rolling down
forehead and cheek and chest, head
blistered by the consuming sun and lip
parched by the merciless August air,
at noon the workmen lying half dead
under the trees. One of my most pain
full boyhood memories is that of my
father in harvest time reeling from ex-
haustion over the doorstep, too tired to
eat, pale and fainting as he sat down.
The grain brought to the barn, the
shcaves were unbound and spread on a
thrashing floor, and two men with fails
stood opposite each other, hour after
hour and day after day, pounding the
wheat out of the stalk. Two strokes,
and then a cessation of sound. Thump.
thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
Pounded once, and then turned over to
be pounded again, slow, very slow
The hens cackled and clucked by the
door and picked up the loose grains and
the horses half asleep and doing over
the managers where the hay had been.
But bark to the buzz of wheels in the
distance. The farmer has taken his
throne on a reaper. He once walked;
now he rides; once worked with arm of
flesh, now with arm of iron. He starts
at the end of the wheatfield, heads his
horses to the opposite end of the field,
rides on. At the stroke of his iron char
lot the gold of the grain is surrendered.
the machine rolling this way and roll
ing that, this way and that, until the
work which would have been accom-
plished in many days is accomplished
in a few hours, the grainfield PROSTATE
before the harvesters.
Thirdly, 1 look to see what the wheel
has done for the travelling world. No
one can tell how many noble and self
sacrificing inventors have been
crushed between the coach wheel and
the modern locomotive, between the
paddle and the ocean steamer.
l will not enter into the controversy
as to whether John Fitch or Robert
Fulton or Thomas Somerset was the
inventor of the steamboat. They all
suffered and were martyrs of the
wheel, and they shall be honored.
John Fitch wrote:
The 21st of January, 1743, was the fatal
time of bringing me into existence. know
of nothing so perplexing and VexatouS 10
man of feeling as a turbulent wife and
steamboat building. l experienced the
former and quit in season, and had been
in my right senses l should undoubtedly
have treated the latter in the same manner;
but for one man to be teased with both, he
must be looked upon as the most unfor-
tunate man in the world.
Surely, John Fitch was in a bad
predicament. If the steamboat boiler
did not blow him up, his wife would.
In all ages there are those to proph
esy the failure of any useful inven-
ton. You do not know what the in
ventors of the day suffer. When it was
proposed to light London with gas,
Sir Humphry Davy, the great philos-
opher, said that he should as soon
think of cutting a slice from the moon
and setting it upon a pole to light the
city. Through all abuse and carica-
ture Fitch and Fulton went until yon-
der the wheel is in motion, and the
Clermont, the first steamboat, is going
up the North river, running the dis
tance-hold your breath while 1 tell
you-from New York to Albany in
80 hours. But the steamboat wheel
multiplied it's velocities until the Lu-
cania, of the Cunard, and the Males
tic, of the White Star line, and the
New York, of the American line, and
the Kaiser Wilhelm, of the North Ger
man Lloyd line, cross the Atlantic
ocean in six days or less, communica-
tion between the two countries so
rapid and so constant that whereas
once those who had been to Europe
took on airs for the rest of their NOR
tai lives-and to me for many years
the most disagreeable man 1 could
meet was the man who had been to
Europe, despising all American pic
lures and American music and Amer
lean society because they had seen
European pictures and heard Euro
pean music and mingled in European
society-now a transatlantic voyage
is so common that a sensible man
would no more boast of it than if he
had been to New York or Boston.
All the rivers and lakes and seas have
turned white with rage under the smit-
ing of the steamboat wheel. In the
phosphorescent wake of it sail the
worlds commercial properties.
Through the axle of that wheel nations
join hands, and America says to Ven
ice: "Give me your pictures" and to
France: "Give me your graceful ap-
parel," and to England: "Give me
your Sheffield knives and Nottingham
laces and Manchester goods, and l will
rive Won braoJr4r%e oorr a1J 80 81