The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-07-21
PROGRESS.

The automobile is getting con-
siderable boom from the New York
Herald and the San Francisco Call, a
young man and his wife have started
to cross the continent in one of the
vehicles, and accounts of their progress
occur simultaneously in the two cities.
This is advertising on an extensive
scale. But the call for automobile is
very large even without this adver-
tising for one of the largest firms en-
gagged in the manufacturing of these
motor cars claims to have orders to
the amount of $S,O0OOOO. 1t is extra
ordinary how soon a craze for this kind
of thing springs up. But with such
rush of orders, as are reported, it may
be doubtful if we see automobile in
Honolulu, as soon as has been expected.
In arts which assist man to get the
better of time and distance, this cen
fury is ahead of all it's predecessors.
In many things, with all our boosted
advancement our predecessors have
been our equals and at times our supe
riors. In architecture, in painting, in
| fancy, former generations have done
| quite as well, and some think better
But in speeding across land and sea,
and in communicating to a distance we
have done what none others have done.
The steamship, the railroad, the tele-
graph, the telephone, the bicycle and
| the automobile are the mechanical
triumphs of the century. The power
that they have given has revolution
lied the social status of the world.
When moving from place to place had
to be done on horseback or by a lum-
bering coach, few people moved far
from home, and the population was
provincial, showing it's isolation by
separate evolutions of speech. In Eng
land each country has it's dialect, in the
United States groups of states evolved
their peculiarities. In France there is
the same story between north and
south, and the same story is true of all
nations. These linguistic differences
are dying out, thanks to the ease with
which people move about, meet one an
other and rub off their provincialisms
This is the work of the railroad and
the bicycle.
When men had to put to sea in sail
ing ships, with their long uncertain
voyages, and their many discomforts,
few moved out of their own country.
When it was a matter of weeks to cross
the Atlantic, the number of passengers
to and fro was very small now it runs
into the millions. The consequence is
that much national crudeness and pre-
JUDGE is rubbed off and disappears I'M
der the growing cosmopolitanism. This
is entirely due to social effect of the
steamship.
The telegraph not only facilitates
business in a marvellous degree, but il
has, through the newspaper had a
wonderful mental effect upon the whole
of western human kind. Instead OF
having no knowledge of the outside
world, the news of three continents is
at the door of any one in the United
States, who may wish to have it, This
has it's effect mentally upon a whole
people. They no longer look only at
'''Nii C"h ii"IiOiihi pul lIlCy
look at the affairs of others, and again
have their prejudices rubbed off.
1t is too early to notice the full men
tai effect of all these various devices.
1t will be noticed and theorized upon
years hence. But there can be no doubt
of the immense effect that has taken
and is taking place. The old style of
conservative thinker and liver is going
out, People formerly lived very much
on the same pattern. They might run
generations after generations, with the
same mental attributes, the same pre-
JUDGES and even the same features.
But the younger generation is losing
these traits of individuality and is
! taking on the traits of universalism.
So our bicycles and our automobiles,
our railways, our bicycles, our tele-
graphs and our telephones are really
a wonderful mental force in the world,
which will WELD it's influence nightly
as time goes on Physical force con-
quered, produces mental force enor-
mously broadened. The greatest and
most to be remembered teachers of the
world, are really its master mechanics.