The times., 1899-01-01

Happy New Year!
An EyentfuI Lifetime.
Yesterday the funeral ceremonies over
the late Senator Justin s Morrill, of Ver-
mont were held in the United States Sen
ate Chamber in the presence OF note
worthy gathering. The dead statesman
had been known as the Father of the Sem
ate by reason of his unparalleled length
of service. 1t was natural that, aside from
his personal qualities and his part in
shaping the destinies of the nation, pub
lie man of his years should be interesting
as a link with the past. 1t must have
impressed every person who witnessed the
ceremonies that the life just gone out be-
gan almost with the century that is now
SO near its close. Twenty men of his
years touching hands would reach almost
to the time of Christ-four to the days
of Columbus. He might have sat on the
knee of man who had known William
Penn. A man no older than Senator Nor
rill was at the time of his death. would
have been twenty-seven years old when
Braddock was slain, and still only eighty
nine when Morrill, was seven. AT that
age he could have told the child of
the Stamp Act, which was imposed
and resisted when he was thirty-six
There were many people alive who had
seen the meeting of the First Continental
Congress when young Morrill, was a sturdy
youth. When he was born Washington
had been dead for only eleven years.
The American Union, under the Consti-
tuition, was organized and the First Con-
gress met twenty-one years before the
birth of the dead senator. All the severe
tests it has borne came after Only three
years before the trial trip of Fulton's first
steamboat had been made, and no one had
conceived OF all the possibilities of steam
as motor which have been realized. He
was a year old when the battle of Tippe-
canoe was fought, and year later war
was declared against England. That was
the year of Perry's victory and Jackson's $
campaign against the Southern Indians.
He was four years old when this city was
captured by the British and the Capitol
was wantonly burned-Dolly Madison
making her flight on foot among the
panic stricken and rowdy crowds. He was
seven when Monroe was inaugurated, and
eight when the first steamboat moved on
the Great Lakes, and at eleven he could
have known of the cession of Florida to
the Republic. He was fifteen when John
Quincy Adams was inaugurated. and six
teen when the Baltimore and Ohio estab-
lished the first railway for passengers.
When the future senator of Vermont cast
his first ballot Jackson was President, the
Black Hawk war was in progress, and
notification in South Carolina centered
public attention. He was deep in politics
when Texas declared her independence of
Mexico, and was man of twenty-seven
when Martin Van Buren was inaugurated.
1t is certain that he was keeniy alive to all
public questions in the time OF Harrison
and Tyler, when Texas was annexed, Polk
inaugurated, and the Mexican war fought.
1t is impressive to recall that he was en-
tering middle life when the discovery Of
gold in California agitated the country,
when the fugitive slave law was enacted,
the Know Nothing party was organized,
and the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed.
He was of as mature years as most of the
men who were conspicuous at that time
and who made the Halls of Congress the
scenes of a sectional strife that was soon
TO reach the last resort OF domestic war.
Few of the men of his age at that time
were in active public life when the war
ceased.
The late Senator Morrill, was fifty years
old when Lincoln was first elected, and
was figure in the politics of Vermont.
During the whole of the Civil War he
was a representative in Congress and in
the thick of all the crowding events of
that dreadful time. AS a senator during
the reconstruction period he was the in
innate associate or the party antagonist
of men who shaped history and of whom
he was the sole survivor in the present
Congress. There are other men whose
years go further back, but he was alone as
participant in the greatest events OF
our national life. To have known him, TO
have seen him only a fortnight since in
earnest and lively discussion over legisla-
tive measures, was to have a strange feel
ing of nearness to men and things that
have appeared to be distant. From a
Union OF few States near the Atlantic
seaboard, he has seen the American Re
public grow to a great nation extending
across the continent, with a population of
seventy-fiye millions. The development of
inventive genius in his lifetime has made
it possible to communicate across seas
and continents in an instant. and to go
from Washington to San Francisco in less
time than was required to come from YER
mont to the Capital in his childhood days.
When he was young mana voter-it
took many weeks to learn the result of an
election, and many more weeks to send
the information to the scattered inhabi-
tants. He lived during the most interest
ing eighty-nine years OF American his
tory. and one year less would have robbed
him OF knowledge of one of the most
momentous of American events-the in
auguration of the era Of expansion.
Certain Types of Folly.
State Factory Inspector Campbell. OF Pennsyl.
yana, in his annual report TO Gov Hastings con.
cerIing the operations of his department for the
year ended October 81 suggests that "some of the
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