Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1900-01-06
Looking Backward from the New
Wear.
Year


peoinning today on the last year of the
dvny century it is natural that the new
u.er habit of looking forward should be
laid aside to some extent, and for once,
and that the principal mental attitude
sbould be one of retrospect, not simply
~ 1899 but of the century as n whole,
savs the Pioneer Press. The coming
wear NAV add something to the sum of
riches that the other ninety and nine
have laid up for future generations-but
it can give hardly more than touch
bere-fllip there. The nineteenth cen
turv has been described as can age of
consolidation, in which the slow, en-
pircal growths of the preceding century
or two have ripeped into the common
Mace truths of daily life and into their
concrete mechanical application through
ont the whole domain of activity"
What is to be the character OF the next
century's contribution TO human pro-
oress it is difficult to guess. But it may
he get down as reasonably certain that it
will not change more completely the
whole material aspect of life on this
planet than has the one that will close
when the midnight chimes shall ring on
the last day OF the.new year.
For there is no department of the hui
man thought or human activity that has
not been almost transformed by the de-
yelopments of the nineteenth century.
II we look back to TIE close of the pre-
ceding one and realize how much has
been added to the sum OF human know
ledge since then, itseems that men must
have been tremendously handicapped
in the mere struggle for existence, to say
nothing OF the fight for progress. Think,
for example, of what medicine and
surgery were when Washington suffered
his last illness; think of the thousand
limitations that have been lifted from
commerce; and finally think OF how little
man knew, in those days, of his origin,
ofhis relation to the universe and of his
actual duty and responsibility for his
kind. Such a comparison fills the child
of this era with wonder at what was ac-
tually achieved in those earlier days. For
they were, as matter fact, days of vast
Importance. Europe was making his
tory then with an electrical rapidly
The United States was laying its founda-
tons SO solidly that superstructure OF
then undreamed dimensions has not
tested them too far. They were great
days-they were good days. And if the
nineteenth century should go to the
eighteenth as the Queen of Sheba went
to Solomon "to prove him with ques-
TONS" she might we'll lay down her
great wealth and splendOr and achieve
ment abashed before the gift to the world
OF great national ideal, brought into
life and given habitation and name.
Yet if the nineteenth century is leay-
ing the world no single legacy so great as
that, it has nevertheless added incalcula-
bly, to the sum OF human virtue, wisdom,
wealth, safety. enjoyment; it has, in
spite of its vast material accomplish
ment, stimulated and developed to an
amazing degree all the higher moral
qualities of the race. 1t has leveled
ranks and driven dogma from religion !;
it has forced the operations of justice to
higher plane it has made sins and
stigmas of what were once the venal
faults OF men; it has opened the hearts
and purses of the fortunate to wiser
philanthrophy it has seen the reform
of penal systems; it has witnessed the
adoption of gentle methods for the care
of those detectives who were formerly
left to the doubtful mercies OF ignorant
jailers; it has not abolished war, nor
performed the miracle OF making it hui
name, but it has alleviated its evils to
some extent and it has seen, very near
its close. the first war ever undertaken
by strong nation for the salvation of a
weak but alien people. 1t has been a
wonderful century, and its last year,
whatever may mark its passage, cannot
greatly add to the wonder, as it certain
ly cannot dimlsh it.
q