The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-02
THE CENIURYS GLOR|ES
Ingersoll Says That It's Laurel
~. Is on Darwin's Brow.
THE POETS AND NOVELISTS
The Nineteenth Century Has Excelled
ALI Except in the Marbles of Greece
and the Plays Of Literature-Dar-
win the Great Iiberator.

1.-THE laurel of the 10th century is on
Darwin's brow said Robert G.. Inger-
soil the other day This century has
been the greatest of ALL The inven-
lions, the discoveries, the victories on
the fields of thought, the advances in
nearly every direction of human effort
are without parallel in human history.
In only two directions have the achieve
,ments of this century been excelled.
nThe marbles Of Greece have not been
equalled. They still occupy the inches
dedicated to perfection. The sculptors
of our century stand before the mira
cles of the Greeks in impotent wonder.
They cannot even copy. They cannot
give the breath of life to stone and
make the marble feel and think. The
plays of Shakespeare have never been
approached. He reached the summit
filled the horizon. In the direction of
a the dramatic, the poetic, the human
mind, i'll my Judgment. in Shakes
peare's plays reached its limit The
field was harvested, all the secrets of
the heart were told. The buds of all
hopes blossomed, all seas We're crossed
and all the shores were touched.
with these two exceptions, the Gre
& clan marbles and the Shakespeare
plays, the 18th century has produced
ss1nore for the benefit of man than all
the centuries of the past. In this cen
fury, in one direction, I think the mind
= has reached the limit. I do not believe
! the music Of Wagner will ever be ex-
L celled. He changed all passions, long
z ings, memories and aspirations into
Z tones, and with subtle harmonies wove
tapestries of sound. whereon We're pic
a-tured the past and future, the history
No H.
sgs~course Copernicus, Calico, Newton and
ss;Kepler laid the foundations of astron-
" omy. 1t may be that the three laws of
e Kepler mark the highest point in that
y direction that the mind has reached.
In the other centuries there is now
s. and then, a peak, but through ours
There runs mountain range with Alp
on Alp-the steamship that has con-
= quered all the seas: the railway, with
it's steeds of steel with breath of flame,
covers the land: the cables and tea-
graphs, along which lightning is the
y carrier of thought. have made the ma
S tons neighbors and brought the world
: to every home; the making OF paper
from wood, the printing presses that
made it possible to give the history of
the human race each day; the reaperss
mowers and threshers that superseded
the cradles, scythes and fails; the
4 lighting of streets and houses with gas
and incandescent lamps, changing
might into day; the invention of
matches that made fire the companion
of man; the process of making steel,
discovered by Bessemer. saving for the
world hundreds of millions year; the
: discovery of anaesthetics, changings
pain to happy dreams and making sur
gerry science; the spectrum analysis
that told us the secrets of the suns; the
telephone that transports speech. unit
ing lips and ears; the monograph, that
holds in SDtc o nd ,arlkc a 1f
our words: the marvellous machines,
that spin and weave, that manufacture
the countless things of use, the marvel
lous machines, whose wheels and levers
seem to think; the discoveries in chem
istry, the wave theory of light the in
destructibility of matter ana force: the
discovery of microbes and bacilli, so
that now the plague can be stayed
without the assistance of priests
'The art of photography became
known the sun became an artist, gave
us the faces of our friends, copies of
the great paintings and statues, pic
lures of the worlds wonders, and en-
riched the eyes of poverty with the
spoil of travel, the wealth of art. The
cell theory was advanced embryology
& was studied and science entered the Sc
cret house of life. The biologists guild
ed by fossil forms, followed the paths
? of life from protopasm up to man.
Then came Darwin with the Origin of
Species Natural Selection, and the
Survival of the Fittest.' From his
brain there came a flood of light. The
old theories grew foolish and absurd
The temple of every science was re-
built That which had been called phil
s.osophy became childish superstition.
The prison doors We're opened and mil
lions of convicts, of unconscious slaves,
roved with joy over the fencelass fields
of freedom. Darwin and Haeckel and
q Hny1av and their fpIIOw filed
the night of ignorance with the glitter
ing stars of truth. This is Darwin's
century. He gained the greatest vic
tory, the grandest triumph. The laurel
of the 10th century is on his brow"
s How does the literature of to-day
compare with that of the first half of
the century. in your opinion?" was
asked.
There is now no poet of laughter and
tears, of comedy and pathos, the equal
of Hood. There is none with the subtle
delcacy. the aerial footstep. the flame
like motion of Shelley: none with the
amplitude, sweep and passion, with the
strength and beauty the courage and
royal recklessness of Byron. The nov
salists of our day are not the equals of
Dickens. In my Judgment Dickens
-wrCte the greatest of all novels. The
Tale of Two Cites' is the supreme work
hf fiction. It's philosophy is perfect.
The characters stand out like living
statues. In its pages YOU find the blood
and fame, the ferocity and self-sacr-
flee of the French revolution. In the
shosom Of the Neneeance is the heart of
sthe horror. In los. North Tower sits
zone whom sorrow drove beyond the
.verge, rescued from death by insanity,
>and we see the spirit of Dr. Manetta
'tremblingly cross the great gulf that
lies between the night of dreams and
the blessed day, where thines are as
they seem. as tress of golden hair,
while on his hands and cheeks fall T.u-
.Scille's blessed tears. The story is filled
with light and shadows. with the tragic
eand grotesuue. While the woman knits.
while the heads fall. jerry Cruncher
snaws his rusty nails and his poor wife
'flops' against his business. and prim
Miss Pross. who in the DESPERATION and
terror of love held Nine Defarge in her
arms and who in the fash and crash