The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1899-12-01

Oceanic, 704 feet long. The ocean wheel
turns swifter and swifter. filling up
the distance between the hemispheres
and Fastening the time spoken OF In
the Book Of Revelation when there
shall be no more sea.
While this has been doing or the wa
ter James Watts wheel has done u
much ON the land. How well | remem-
Der Sanderson's stagecoach, running,
frvln New Brunswick TO Easton, as he
drove through Somerville, N. j., turn
ing up to the post office and dropping
the mail bags with ten letters and " o
or three newspapers. Sanderson him
self on the box, six feet two inches and
well proportioned, long lash whip in his
hand, the reins of six horses in the
other. the leaders lathered along the
line of the traces, foam dripping from
the bits.
It was the event of the day when the
stage came. 1t was our highest ambi-
ton to become a stage driver. Some Of
the boys climbed on the great leathern
boot of the stage, and those Of us who
could not get on shouted: Cut be-
hind!" l saw the old stage driver not
long ago, and ! expressed to him my
surprise that one around whose head l
had seen a halo of glory in my boyhood
time was only a man like the rest of us.
Between Sanderson's stagecoach and a
Chicago express train what a differ
ence, all the great cities of the patton
strung on al iron thread of railways!
At Doncaster, England, / saw George
Stephenson's first locomotive. If in
good repair it could run yet, but be-
cause of its make and size it would be
the burlesque of all %railroaders. Be-
tween that rude machine, crawling
down the iron track, followed by a
clumsy and bouncing train. and one Of
our Rocky mountain locomotives, with
a village of palace cars, becoming draw
ing rooms by day and prince.y dormi-
tories by night, what b%ewitching prog
ress!
See the train move out of one of our
great depots for a thousand-mile jour
ney! All aboard! Tickets clipped and
baggage checked and porters attentive
to every want, under tunnels dripping
with dampnesst that never saw the light,
along lodges where an inch off the
track would be the difference between
a hundred men living and a hundred
dead, full head of steam and two men in
the locomotive charged with all the re-
sponsibility Of whistle and Westing-
house brake. Clank! clank! go the
wheels. Clank! clank! echo the rocks.
Small villages only hear the thunder
and see the whirlwind as the train
shoots past, a city on the wing. Thrill
ing, startling. sublime, magnificent
spectacle-a rail train in lightning pro-
c~ession.
When years ago the railroad men
struck for wages, our country was
threatened with annihilation, and we
realized what the railroad wheel had
done for this country - over 10000
miles of railroad in the United States44r
in one year over 81, 900, 000. 900 received
from passengers and freight; White
mountains, Allegheny mountains,
AsoNhv olCIAa 4NCN dudS,U O"-
ing to the iron yoke; all the rolling
stock of New York Central, Erie, Penn
%sylvania. Michigan Central. Georgia,
Great Southern, Union Pacific and all
the other wheels of the tens of thou
s"~a~ Or f'eIght cars, wrecklng ears, ca
bosses, drawing room cars, sleeping
cars, passenger cars, OF all the accom-
mediation, express and special trains.
started by the wheel Of the grotesque
locomotive that | saw at Doncaster.
For what it has done for all Chmsten-
dom l calculate in the language of the
text, 20 WHEEL"
While the world has been rolling on
the eight wheels of the rail car or the
four wheels of the carriage or the two
whee.s of the gig it was not until 1876,
at the Centennial exposition at Phila-
delphia, that the miracle of the nine
teenth century rolled in-the bicycle.
The world could not believe its W
eyes, and not until quite far on in the
eighties were the continents enchanted
with the whirling, flashing, dominating
spectacle Of a machine that was to do
so much for the pleasure, the business,
the health and the profit Of nations.
The world had needed it for 5000 years.
Mans slowness of locomotion was a
mystery. Was it of more Importance Z,
that the reindeer or the eagle rapidly
exchanged jungles or crags than that
man should get swiftly from place to
place? Was the business OF the bird or
the roebuck more urgent than that Of
the i%ncarnated immortal? No. At last
we have the obliteration of distances by
pneumatic tire. At last we have wings.
And what has this invention done for
woman? The cynics and constitution
al GROWERS would deny her this man
cipation and say: "What better exer-
else can she have than a broom or a
or a churn or rocking a cradle
or running up and downstairs or a walk
to church with a prayer book under
her arm?" And they rather rejoice to
find her disabled with broken pedal or
punctured tire half way out to Chevy
Chase or Coney Island. But all sensible
people who know the tonic of fresh air
and the health in deep respiration and
the awakening of disused muscles and
the exhilaration of velocity will rejoice
that wife and mother and daughter may
have this new recreation. Indeed life
to so many is so hard a grind that ] am
glad at the arrival OF any new mode Of
healthful recreation. we need have no
anxiety about this invasion of the
worlds stupidity by the vivacions and
laughing and jubilant wheel. except
that we always want II to roll in the
right direction, toward place Of busi-
ness. toward good recreation. toward
hilopthrorv %oV.opd ,pcae,,1uosa "a.