The commonwealth., 1901-01-10
NINETEENTH CENTURY.
A GLIMPSE AT IT'S WORK.
Wonderful Things Indeed.
Charlotte Observer.

| V4!0VAACA = iA.iAE0 6AAseSSAs
| Charlotte Observer.
Hand in hand, they die together
two aged beings, the Year and the
Century both venerable, but one i'm
| measurably more time-worn than the
other the one the child, the other Its
great-great-grandsire. And with their
death is born twin brothers, but one
destined to far outliye the other--the
New Year and the Twentieth Century
a century--one hundred years--is a
| long period as man counts, but to God, !,
Himself from Everlasting to Ever
lasting, and to Whom one day is as a
! thousand years and thousand years
as one day, q century Is but a small
thimbleful dipped from the Ocean of
Tine.
But from our human point OF view
it is a century of wonderful progress. IT
there were fair in honor OF the Ages
of Time, and the Centuries should
come to it, exhibiting their jewels and
crownlng giories, the blue-ribbon
| should go to the Nineteenth "a. d.
| next after the o+.1er-the Century, in
deed, that all Others of time date
forward to or back to, that Century OF
the Star and the .tWise Men, of the
Shepherds and the Angel Song, OF the
! Manger and the Cross; that heaven
kissed Century that gave an Ark to a
sir-wrecked world, Redeemer to the
planet Earth and it's people.
Two nations which have made
ladders ct opportunity and climbed
highest toward the pinnacle of progress
| are our own country IN the Occldent
and Japan In the Orient. The United
States in 1900 numbered 100000 in
| habitants in 1900 they number 49,
0O,OO0-a gain OF II 100000. In 1900
the United States occupied S27, ,S44
square miles Of territory in 1900 they
extend over an area OF 5 3,537 600, not
counting some islands of the sea,
the title for rational possessions OF
which is yet in dispute. In 1926 there
| were four miles Of railroad track in the
! United States il 1900, 245, ,0CO miles.
In 1900 the majority OF the people OF
our country lived along the Atlantic
| seaboa1d within 80 miles Of the coast.
There were no great cities and the far
mer and planter were the men of in
huence. Ts,ere were few country
| mansions s like George Washington IS
Mount Vernon aud Thomas Jefferson 8
Monticello, but the average farm house
had only one large room serving
| for kitchen, dining and sitting room.
This room had a gaping mouth in the
shape Of huge fireplace, which ate
up wood by the cord. Over this the
daily meals were cooked. The kettle
hung from the great, smutty crane and
sang to contented sleep the house cat
! that colIed upon the rag carpet woven
by the thrifty housewife and her dau-
| ghtels. The wooden trencher was in
| evidence on the table, for china dishes
we're still scarce, and tbs napkin was a
| useiu! institution, because the folk had
not come into general use. They ate
breakfast at night, in those good old
days of yore, by candle-light Or fire.
light, and dinner at 1l--12 o'clock was
g little late for the midday meal. A
writer i n Every ybody's Magazine des-
cribes a good dinner at John Adams
New England home as consisting OF a
! pudding of corn meal with moiasses
and butter, veal and bacon, and neck
of mutton with vegetables. Sugar, cut
from a cake, was used when company
Was to dinner. Ordinarily a "long
sweet" OF molas.es or honey sufficed.
Cider was a universal drink. The
women spun and wove, and clothed
the household. Plant life furnished
the needed dyes. The juice of the
goldenrod, mixed with indigo and
alum, made brilliant green, the poke
berry yielded its crimson blood, and
petals OF the iris violet. The lighting
plant Of those pioneer days was the tai
low candle mould. A few have Tapped
oyer into the twentieth century and
many OF Us have seen them keeping
company IN the garret with the dis
carded grandfather's clock and grand.
mothers spinning. Flint, steel and
t.nder made the fires; it was slow work
to start flame, and family disaster
If 1t ever went out. Matches came
later. In 1900 families of from twelve
to twenty children were common. The
forefathers had enough arrows in the
culver to transGx whole troop OF ad
versities that might come III old age
The generally existing present dread oI
/. large family came along with the
rest of the progress of the eentu,y's