The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1901-01-03
NEW THINGS.
What Children Now See.
AGAINST 100 YEARS AGO.

Southern Farm Magazine.
Do girls and boys OF today ever ST
down and consider how much moTe
knowledge they possess than did grown
folks 100 years ago? They are SO Tor
tunate, not because their forefathers
hadn't just as good brains as they, bu t
because century of invention and
discovery has made common property
of facts which were undreamed Of in
1901.
There is photography, for instance.
Some children look with wonder ct
daguerreotypes of their grandparents.
These are about the first successful
pictures taken by the sun. Yet few OF
them can be found. more than fifty Or
sixty years old.
When Thomas Jefferson became the
third president of tho United States
the cotton gin had just begun to make
extensive cotton-growing in the South
possible. Here and there power looms
and spindles we're in operation, but
most of the clothing worn IN America
was the product Of the spinning whesl
and the hand-Ioom. Not lnfrequently
all the process of clothing manufature,
from raising the flax or cotton to sew-
ing the completed fabric, were corfin-
led to the farm or plantation. Sewing,
too, was by nand. Nearly half cen
fury was to pass before the sewing ma
chine was to be practical.
Grain and forage crops were roaped
with sickle or scythe, wheat was
threshed with fails. The harvester,
drawn by horses, or, for wholesale oper-
atlons, by steam, cutting and binding
the wheat, the steam threshcr, the
steam road machine, the drill, the ar.
tesian we'll, the force pump, were all to
come.
Many years were to pass before
Morse, sending his spark between Bal
tlmore and Washington, was TO open
the way for the multlplex telegraph,
submarine cable, the telephone and
wireless telegraphy.
The printing press was still operated
by hand. It was not until about 1910
that men began to think Of the steam
press printing and folding newspapers
and the machine which should practi-
cally do away with the competitor at
his case.
The idea of machine which would
make pen a burden in comparison
with it would have been preposterou.
had 1t been suggested, and the man
who should have proposed to invent
al instrun ent whereby the words Of
men or the notes OF musical lnstru-
ments could be captured, preserved
and reproduced many years later would
have been thought worthy OF admission
to lunatic asylum.
No steamship had ever crossed tie
ocean. Not until 1919 did such yes
sol, sailing from Savannah, s.artle the
Old World as it loomed upon the hor-
lion with combination of sails, side
wheels and smoke.
If men wanted TO travel they had
option of their own feet, ox-car;s, ium.
oering coaches, sailboats or horseback
There were no steam railroads in Amer
ca, and electric cars ard automobiles
were waiting for the dawn OF the cleo
trio day. Men were yet to pass
through the camphene, coal-oll and
gas stages into that of the incandescent
lamp.
Electricity and steam have revolu-
the ordinary affairs OF the
world, and at tho same time have ad-
ded an immense amount to human
knowledge which Is acquired by child
rem almost instinctiveIy and without
books.
How many OF them ever realize how
great is their heritage?