The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1908-07-23

Henry William Elson, that gifted
and brilliant historian, asserts that the
natural highways of those early days
the rivers and bays-were scarcely
employed. Whatever of minor useful
ness they offered was rarely adopted
by the colonists. Few ever travelled
far from home. The great majority
lived and died in the neighbOrhoOd
that witnessed their birth. Mail was
carried by post riders who followed
their way over the wild trails and
bridle paths of the forest as best they
could. The coach was rarely employed;
and when, on special occasions it VEN
tured forth, to brave the wilds of trav-
ell, it met with untold peril. If it stuck
in the mire the passengers must alight
and lend their aid. When it came to
q stream there were no bridges and it
must either ford, or, as last resort,
employ the cheap and dangerous speci-
mems of water crafts, which my Oppo-
nent praises. But say to you that,
always, were such deeds perilOus and
distasteful. Newspapers were carried
by private agreement, after the preca-
rious fashion of those days. At the
time of the revolution there were 81
newspapers printed in the Colonies
and their combined circulation was a
paltry 5000. Today there are 2l,451
papers, and their circulation amounts
to millions of copies. These crude
methods of transportation and inter-
course were alone prevailing thruout
the first 200 years and more of our
.country's existence. The remaining
years tell a different story, tell of 80
years as romantic as any of the Ara
bian Nights: as real as the life we live.
Our Fathers struggled for hun
dred and fifty years to gain the strength
of freedom, and where was the boasted
shipping thru all these generations?
will tell you. 1t lay along our coast
inviting danger. It was born of puny,
livid form and lived its life cadaver.
1t was the bone of contention that
kept our Colonies in bondage and
turmoil. 1t was conceived to enrich
foreigners and all along its struggling
uncertain way was discomfort and
strife, sorrow and eternal shame. The
Revolution came and-passed and we
found ourselves an independent con-
federation of states. Thirteen small
untried states that sheltered some-
thing over one million Eve hundred
thousand souls. Massachusetts,, Vir-
ginia and Pennsylvania accommodated
the greater portion of these. The
Paris Treaty fixed the Mississippi as
our western boundary, but we were not
to know its valleys and its prairies for
many years. Vessels were to ply it's
length, to fish IN its waters and to dot
dts shores with sporadic settlements,
but its riparian richness was not to
be developed as we know the word. or
those who found home in the great
valley on the western side of the Ale
ghanies, few were ever seen again by
friends that remained in the East. Our
nation at the dawn of the 10Th century
was still nation of farmers blessed
with poverty, bad roads and deplorable
postal services. Yet boats and water
crafts had Travelled around us wher-
ever it was possible for them to 60.
The Revolution was not an unpol-
iuted blessing, for with it came shak-
en- society and q demoraliziDg realiza-
tion of the task which lay ahead.
The new nation had undertaken q
gigantic work, that of binding half a
continent into national unite. And
who is there who can say that she had
succeeded by the old methods to which
this affirmative pays tribute?
At the beginning of the 18th century
we look in vain for the inventive gem
ius, the unwearied industry, the great
self-confidence which was soonto blos-
som forth in single event to make
this nation mighty factory. on in
the distance the stars Of Faith and