The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-11

! stage. As late. for instance, as May. 1880,
hiohxcs instead Of steam locomotives were
used on tho railway from Baltimore to
Ellicott's Mills. on the railway, also,
from Charleston to Hamburg in South
Carolina, the horse at first furnished the
motive over. ID .
Although the means OF. transportation
then used seem to us rude and inefficient,
news could by 1880 be transmitted with
notable rapidity from the seat Of govern
ment to distant parts of the republic.
This was exemplified by the carriage OF
the Presidents. message According to
the post Office books five hundred and forty
four miles, from Washington to Portland.
Me-. was covered in SO hours, but ~ hours
was consumed in conveying the message
to Albany. On the great Western route
the time was "a hours from Washington
to Columbus. o., a distance OF 40 miles.
The great Southern route to New Orleans
a distance of 1889 miles. was traversed by
the Presidents MESSAGE in six days.
Our author notes that by the fourth
decade OF the nineteenth century serious
opposition was no longer offered to Sunday
travel in the majority of the States. Stage
coaches rolled through the towns, ferry
boats piled on the rivers, and Sunday excur-
sions were not uncommon. In Philadelphia
the privilege long enjoyed by churches OF
hanging chains across the streets during
divine worship, and so stopping all travel,
was taken away. Another fact worth mark
ing rs that, wealth and taxable property
having increased in the Eastern and Middle
States. lotteries no longer constituted an
indispensable means of raising money with
which to build churches and schoolhouses.
ave streets, construct turnpikes and
bridges and buy fire engines. The lottery,
therefore, had come to be looked upon as
an institution dangerous to public morals,
and State after State had put it under the
ban, but in Maryland and Virginia it still
flourished as a source of revenue for town
and city improvements. One or two other
characteristic facts should be recalled.
When in 1890 masquerade balls were intro
ducedsin New York and Philadelphia they
were promptly prescribed by law. To sup
prees them in New York was not possible,
but. when'a masked ball was held in the
Park Theatre a mob gathered. jeered at
the makers and threw stones through the
windows. On seeking protection from the
constahles the managers were told they
were lawbreakers and could not have pro-
lection. Then, again, when the Chanting
Cherubs" Of the sculptor Powers were ex-
hibited in Boston it was necessary TO drape
their loins with linen, and like treatment
was accorded to an orang outang which
visited the same city about the same time.
Yet, as Mr.. McMaster points out, these
representative communities which could
not gaze upon a nude statue were indiffer-
ent to many forms of real immortality and
human suffering which did not happen to
be publicly displayed. Nothing called
more loudly for reform than the condition
Of the jails, n no prisoners in them were
so cruelty treated as lunatics. To the
credit OF the country. however, reform was
under way. and by 1880 some results were
already visible. Already, too. an agitation
had begun for the abolition of imprisonment
for debt. The necessity for this movement
will be comprehended when We recall that
in 1923 it was estimated that in the United
States no fewer than $4,000 persons were
sent to Jail annually for debt.