The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1903-06-11
HHIS question often occurs to
me: What are the feelings of
the person who has reached


me: What are the feelings of
the person who has reached
the age of "three-score years
and ten," allotted to man, as he looks
in retrospect at the wonderful growth
and progress made in civilization dur
ing the past fifty years? How his
heart must throb in exultant pride as
memory takes him back over the few
short years in which so much of the old
has given place to the new. How he
must glory in the strenuous genius of
his countrymen who have conquered
Natures forces and subjected them to
mans use. Even to those of us whose
memory can scarce recall the croWding
events of the quarter of a century last
past, there comes thrill OF pride and
we cannot refrain from boasting that
we are a part of and living in this era
of stupendOus advancement in the me-
chanical and scientific arts.
How the past half century has revo-
lutionized the methods of earlier years
even in agricultural lines, may be seen
by brief comparison of the old and
the new implements used for that pur-
pose. Our forefathers had made but
little advancement in the way of i'm
proved farm machinery; apparently
they were content to labor on with the
same primitive implements of husband
ry as those in use in ancient times.
Not so with the ambitious toiier of the
nineteenth century. He early saw
that his struggle was combat with
Natures forces, and that only by in
creasing his power to perform labor
could he hope to triumph. He set his
fertile brain to work, and, out of the
sickle he evolved the moving machine;
the cradle he transformed into the self
binder; the common wooden-tooth
rake was superseded by the two-horse
hayrake; the small bag of grain slung
over the shoulder and from which the
grain was scattered by hand, has been
exchanged for the seeder end the press
drill; the fail has evolved into the
modern self-feeding, self-stacking and
automatic weighing threshing machine,
which is operated by the aid of the power
full traction engine capable of moving
from place to place, drawing the ma
chine and tender tank behind it. The
past fifty years have also bequeathed
to US the horse-planter, the gang-plow,
the disc, acme, lever and spring tooth
harrows and many other implements
which have had part in causing our
western farm lands to blossom as the
rose. Perhaps one of the most valu-
able gifts of the latter part of the nine
teenth century is the cream separator;
a mostryalued addition to the creamery
and dairy interests of this country.
Fifty years ago the taIlow candle had
not made way for kerosene lamps and
the electric light was not thought of.
The houses, of rich and poor alike, were
heated either with stoves or by use of
the old-fashioned fireplace. Steam
heat, hot water and hot air for heating
purposes are more recent innovations.
Elevators, or lifts, have taken the place
of the stairway in practically all public
and business buildings of any conse-
qnence; electricity is doing much of
the work formerly done by steam; gas
oline engines are driving hundreds of
machines throughout the land; and the
inventions Of mans brain are doing
the work once performed by his hands.
Fifty years ago the railroad and the
telegraph were in their infancy, and our
wonderful system Of communication
between San Francisco and New York
City by rail and wire was undreamed of.
1t required months of arduous travel
to perform the journey across the con-
tinent now accomplished in ease and
comfert, may, even in .luxury-in a
few days. Alexander Graham Bell has
made it possible for us (by aid of the
telephone) to sit in our homes and talk
with our friends hundreds Of miles
away; we can also talk to those who
are not our friends, in such a-mannel
as would perhaps lead to dire results