The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1902-02-13
Some Changes of the Nine
teenth Century.
IA paper recently read before skowhegan
wemans Club by Miss Louise Il. Coburn.l

their morals. But time does not change
and human nature, times noblest Off
spring, is fount whose ripping
waters issue century after century from
the same unfailng springs. When we
read the old literatures, it Is the life
that is the same as our own, the SYM
pathies, emotions and passions to
which our own thrill responsive, that
hold our absorbed interest. We feel
that the differences of the centuries are
but ripples upon the stream. A touch Of
nature makes all time as well As the
whole world kim
Undoubtedly we have more IN com
mon with our great-grandparents Of a
century ago than we have Of uuibeness
TO them. And yet We try for moment
To put ourselves In their places, and to
imagine ourselves without the things
that they did not have, and ignorant OF
the things that thy did not KIN y, when
we think Of the history OF the l9Eh century
as not having been acted, and a. The SCI
ence of the 18Th century as not having
been born, and of the literature of the
l9th century as not having been writ ten,
and of the life of the 18th century as
not having been lived, when We Try to
narrow our vision by their horizon. and
to Limit our actions by their possibilities,
we feel as If we were separated from
them not by century, but by "A cycle.
Jackson fought the battle OF New Or.
leans three weeks after the treaty Of
peace between Great Britain and the
United States was signed at London, and
while the news that would hive spiked
the guns was coming across the ocean
as fast as the white. winged couriers of
that day could carry it. One of the
simplest expedients now known 10 mt di-
cal science would have saved the life of
George Washington. When John Adams
went as commissioner to France he spent
eight weary weeks in his passage. When
the representative of Old Canaan went
10 Boston to the General Court in 1901,
he was the best part OF week on his
journey. 1t is difficult for us to think of
such every day necessities rs sidewalks
and street lights and friction matches
not having come into existence. 1t is a
far cry from the tallow dip to the mean
descent light, from the packet ship to
the ocean greyhound, and from the
stately correspondence Of our grand
fathers to the telegraph and the tele-
phone. But ii IL not OF the physical
changes which the century has brought
that | would speak, those magical trans
formations which have come Lear to an
nihilitating time and space, and darkness
and cold. Alas! modern improvements
have not yet annihiated poverty nor
sickness, and they are impotent in the
face OF sin and death. | will rather take
up a few of the social and moral changes
which have come with the physical, and
which place us at the close of the cen,
fury at somewhat different point of
view towards the world from our an
cestors of the beginning.
Is the world growing better? is q
question which we often ask and some
times try to answer, and the answer
given by each one is apt to depend upon
his individual temperament. The Opt
mistic mind sees the world rising step
by step up the ladder OF progress; the
pessimistic thinner sees it rushing help
lessly and rapidly upon the down grade.
ln truth, there are two powerful and
opposing forces operating in the worlds
activities; one making for retrogression
and decay, the other for righteousness
and social and moral uplift. According
to the spectators point OF view he be-
comes aware OF the onward impetus OF
either current. But the person who sc.
rously thinks that society as a whole is
on a lower level than it was one hundred
years ago is probably misinformed OF
the condition OF things at that time.
la the last century we have relegated
one or two relics of barbarism into the
everlasting past. One of them is slavery
and the slave trade. Slavery has existed
as recognized social institution
in every civilization of which we
have any record from the dawn OF his.
tory. Ii immemorial usage could make
an institution divine, it had that sane
ton. At the end OF the 18th century
while the slavery of the market was out
of date In Europe, the slavery of the
soil WAS almost as hopeless as ever. liz
nearly all the rest of the world, includ
ing most European colonies, the slave
trade WAS firmly established. The man
hunters OF Africa supplied a regular and
active market. The French revolution
struck off the peasants yoke throughout
Europe, and with the beginning OF the
10Th century the movement of liberation
was inaugurated which has succeeded at
its end in giving the death sentence To
ono Of the wor1d,s anrient institutions
The Rri,ish and American slave trad,
was forbidden nv Inv in lS0s The amos
ties NJ emancinstion in England fonnf
their worL crownad with snecess in 1s3S
nv the aholition of slavery in the RritisI
colonies, France abolished slavery il
her colonias in 1915 Russia liberated
her serfs In 1891 Tirroln issued IN,
proclamation of emancipation in 1868