Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-11-28

No wonder that at some Of the learn
ed institutions, like the New Jersey
State Normal school, and Rutgers Fe-
male institute, and Elmira Female col
lege, acquaintance with the sewing ma
chine is requisition. young lady not
being considered educated until she
understands it. Winter is coming on,
and the household must be warmly
clad. "The Last Rose Of Summer viii
sound better played on q sewing ma
chine than on piano. Roll on, 0
wheel of the sewing machine. until the
last shackled woman Of toll shall be
emancipated! Roll on!
Secondly, look into the agricultural
world to see what the wheel has ac-
complished Look at the stalks Of
wheat and oats, the one bread for
man, the other bread for horses. Coat
off and with O cradle made out Of five
or six fingers 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 painful boyhood memories is that
of my father in harvest time reeling
from exhaustion over the doorstep. too
tired to eat, pale and fainting as he
sat down. The grain brought to the
barn, the sheaves 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 cessa-
ton of sound. Thump, thump. thump.
thump. thump, thump! Pounded once
and then turned oyer 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.
Wheel of the Reaper.
But bark to the buzz Of wheels in
the distance! The farmer has taken
his throne on reaper. He once walk
ed; 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 chariot the gold Of the grain is
surrendered, the machine rolling this
way and rolling that, this way and
that, until the work which would have
been accomplished in many days is ac-
complished in a few hours, the grain
deld PROSTATE before the harvesters.
Can you imagine anything more
beautiful than the sea island cotton?
I take up the unmelted snow in my
hand. How beautiful it is! But do
you know by what painstaking and
tedious toll it passed into anything like
If you examined that
cotton, you would find it full of seeds.
It was severe process by which the
seed was to be extracted from the
fiber. Vast populations were leaving
the south because they could not make
any living out of this product. One
pound of green seed cotton was all that
a man could prepare in one day, but
Eli Whitney, Massachusetts, Yankee.
woke up, got a handful of cotton and
went to constructing wheel for the
parting of the fiber and the seed.
Teeth on cylinders, brushes on cylin-
ders, wheels on wheels. South Caro-
lima gave him $4,000 for his inven-
ton, and, instead of; one man taking a
whole day to prepare a pound Of cot
ton for the market, now he may pre-
pare three hundredweight. and the
south is enriched, and the commerce of
the world is revolutionized, and over
100000 bales of cotton were prepar-
ed this year. enough to keep at work
in this country 14.30o,00O spindles, en-
ploying 10000 hands and enlisting
S2S1, ,400,0 Of capital.
Thank you, Eli Whitney. and L. s. /
Chichester of New York, his successor.
Above all. thank God for their invent
i've genius. that has done so much
for the prosperity Of the world.
Cause For Thanks.
Thirdly, I look to see what the wheel
has done for the travelling world. No
one can tell how many noble and self
Inventors have been crush
ed between the coach wheel and the
modern locomotive, between the pad
die and the ocean steamer.
I 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 2lst of January, 1743, was the fatal time of
bringing me into existence. I know Of nothing so
perplexing and vexatious to man Of feeling as a
turbulent wife and steamboat building. expert
snced the former and quit in season, and had
been in my right senses should undoubtedly have
treated the latter in the same manner; but, for
,ne man to be teased with both, he must be
looked upon as the most unfortunate man in the
world.
Surely John Fitch was in a bad pre-
dicament. If the steamboat boiler did
not blow him up, his wife would. In
all ages there are those to prophesy
the failure of any useful invention.
You do not know what the inventors of
the day suffer. When it was proposed
to light London with gas, Sir Hum
phry Davy, the great philosopher, said
that he should as soon think of cutting
a slice from the moon and setting it !
upon pole to light the city. Through |