Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1900-01-11
WALIALIIN, :. C.:
JAN. II, 1000.
The Last Year.

strikes twelve times and repeats once
in its short cycle to measure day
and night. The ccnturial clock
strikes one hundred times. Ninety
nine of these strokes have sounded,
and at twelve, midnight, December
the thirty first, the last stroke will
sound and the largest cycle that man
ever lives to measure will have gone.
Certainly no year of the century has
been so full OF reflections as this will
be.
OF the billion OF people who saw
the century come in, only Il few thou
sand will see it go out and all these
saw its entrance with the undiscrrn-
ing eyes OF infancy and will see its
exit with the dim, lacklustrc eyes OF
dccrepit age. What II volume, in
pantomimc, is this on the brcvity Of
mans life at best But while the
generations pass off, the race goes
on, and each company OF actors finds
itself on higher plain of movement
and with a wider range of Vision than
that which preceded ii.
When We cast about to see what
have been the achievements Of the
century, We cannot but bc impressed
with the fact that all of the greatest
discoveries and inventions are the
products Of this solitary century, and
most of them Of the latter half OF il ,
and that the period OF greatest ac-
tivity in the invention Of forms for
the application Of power is embraced
in the last two decades.
While tentative efforts had been
made i'll the latter half Of the prccc-
ding century, to apply steam to loco
motion on land and sea, the success
full use Of il is confined to this cen
tury. The first Of application Of
steam to railroad loc0mution was
not until fourth of Il
century had gone. In the last three
quarters so rapid has been the drvrl-
opment that there are now more than
three hundred and fifty thousand
miles Of railway enough TO mir,llr
the globe more than fourteen times,
the annual receipts from which en-
cccd two and Il hail billions of dol
lars. The use Of steam ON the other
great branch Of movement, the track
less sea, has not been less wonderful.
From the four m ilcS-a hour rate Of
the lirst steamboat we have come to
iioatng palaces whose prows split the
sea at rate more than six times us
great. The whole sweep of the .At-
lantlc Is now compaSSrl within about
five and a half days. The steamship
and the cable have almnSt, in one
good sense, fulfilled the prophecy
that there shall be II" more sea.
Cndcr these great bowers the sea no
longer signifies in movements Of
commerce, and other feat turcS Of civ.
llization, what it did when tn" CEN
tury dawncd.
Electricity, which did not begin
to be applied till the latter half Of
this century, is now the wonder of
mankind in its various forms Of ap-
plicatlon. Tclrgraphy atone has
grown until there are now five mil
lions of miles OF wire, or enough to
90 around the earth two hundred
times; while in another form, that
OF the telephone, electricity puts
under contribution another half mil
lion miles Of wire. The use Of rlcc-
trlrity for lighting purposes has al
most turned the darkness OF our
towns and cities into daylight, while
It's use as a motive power for mills,
Factories, printing presses, street cars,
automobiles, etc, has piled up figures
Of force which are beyond the com.
prchension Of man. Perhaps the
supreme achievement in this line was
that OF Field in laying the ocean
cable.
The advancement made in surgery
and it's implements is 50 amazing
that its movements look almost like
an invasion Of the very realm Of lie
itself, and its wonders are not at an
end. The same is true Of the Science
of chemistry in its manifold rryc-
lations, and their applications to the
good OF men. Indeed, the progress
Of chemistry in this century is the
supreme wonder OF the world Of
science.
In the mechanic arts, mining, civil
engineering and manufacturing the
strides forward have been no less as.
founding.
We shall leave ovcrto thrnrNt cen.
tury at least three Great lines Of muvr-
m"nt: tclcSraphy without wires,
which is already far ON the way :;
AERIAL navigation, and rapid mali
transit by electric tubes.