Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-01-31
atlistellaneuu5 Aeadins,
IN 1911.
What the World Was Doing a Century
Ago.

pect. Inc peOpIS VIII lidNciSu Ds
stage coach when they travelled at all,
who felt full of the spirit of daring
adventure in boarding one Of the few
steamboats,, seem to the present gen.
less the people of 1911 esteemed them
selves fully up to date, and they were
right in 80 considering themselves.
They had the latest thing of their per-
iod, and they were pointing with pride
to the increasing number of steamboats,
as evidence of the coming of new
era, with themselves in the vanguard.
The Americans were full of pride in
the westward trend of population.
The west, they remarked, was growing
amazingly. The redmen in the terri
tory Of Indiana were giving trouble
and there were rumors Of great con-
spiracy among the tribes to curb the
white mems advance; but Ohio, for
nine years a state was almost strong
enough to take care Of itself, with
little assistance from such Fedora
.rooDs as were there. Here in Boston
people were noting the scalping of
Beacon Hill to make way for improve
ment Thirty feet down from the sum-
nit the earth was 10 he removed. An
old landmark was to disappear With
The swelling summit at the rear of the
state house. Boston was then a civ
If scarcely $4,000 inhabitants. and III
lowering of Beacon Hill was an al
sorhing topic to its people in the in
tervals of the receipt of foreign news
tidings from that great Europe which
IN stirring first quarter of the nine
teenth century furnished so much sem
sational reading matter.
The records of Europe in 1911 did
not abound with so many incidents that
compelled attention as did those Of i'm
mcdiately preceding years. No nation
fell: no old dynasty was pushed aside
by a newer or ruthlessly reduced to a
second rank. There was a war in
progress in Europe. France and Eng
land continued to fight one another by
sea and land. Napoleon had his hands
full in Spain and Portugal. where We'll
lington was winning victories that ena-
bled him to hold his own. There were
triumphs won on the defensive, as
when he defeated Massena at Fuentes
de Onoro on May 5, and Soult at AL
buera May 16, for the British were not
strong enough to make good their stay
in Spain. Wellington had held the lines
of Torres Vedras, in Portugal, all
through the autumn and winter. and
only emerged from them when the
baffled French, falling back, afforded
him a chance to strike them some
quick, sharp blows. Peace reigned,
however in the greater part of con-
tinental Europe. There was no fight
ing in Germany, Prussia was still hum
bled and dependent Russia kept on a
mask of friendliness for France, and
Austria. besides being allied to France
by the marriage of Napoleon with Ma
rie Louise, had too vivid recollections
of Wagram to seek prematurely re-
sort to arms.
NIl MdICI ~ llldl IllOSl uhioPPS "a
princes, Napoleon's son, successfully
known as king of Rome, prince of Par
ma and duke Of Reichstadt, was born.
His birth was everywhere hailed as an
event of the first order Of Importance.
It was believed by ninetynine COM
mentators out of one hundred to be
the most effectual guarantee of the
Bonaparte dynasty. The clouds that
hung over its future were thought to
he dissipated by this new smile Of good
fortune.
A baby's hand had strengthened
that mighty hand which had so lonT
held the rod of empire. so poets said
and so diplomatists thought. Now a
few relics of his childhood and youth
kept in the imperial treasure house at
Vienna and shown to the curious are
the only souvenirs of NaDoleon's son
On March 90, 1911, the visions were all
snlendid to the Parisians, who counted
the discharges Of cannon that an
nounced the birth of an imperial child.
It had been announced that If Napo-
leon held a daughter in his arms twen-
ty-one guns would he fred. When the
twentv-ffrst report was followed by the
twenty second the thousands in the
streets went wild with JOY, for they
knew that a son had been born to the
sovereign. The cannon ceased firm"
only at the hundred ard first round
There was no electric telegraph to flash
the tidings in a second TO the utter
most parts of the empire. but the
sCmaphore was working and news was
at once transmitted to Strashur@
where a special courier with relays OF
horses held ready in advance was
waiting to start for Vienna. MaJo"
Rohelau, noted as a horseman and
hustler, had been chosen for this ser
vice. and it was related at the time, as
showing how rapidly distance could lie
covered when expedition was organ
lied. that though the king Of Rome was
born at a. m. March 20, Major
Robelau delivered his message at the
French embassy in Vienna at 1918 a.
m. March 23 That message set Wen
ma wild with JOY, for the people hailed
it as presaging long period of peace
in the maintenance Of which both the
imperial families of France and Aus
tria would he interested. While Major
Robelau was urging horsehesh to its
utmost speed and endurance Nine
Blanchard. the aeronaut, was career
| ing through French skies in balloon
from which she scattered handbills an
nouncing the birth of a son and heir of
the emperor
| Many a peasant or laborer looking
up at the balloon ran to catch tlutter-
ing paper and learned from it that there
was a new inhabitant Of the earth des-
tined to be Napoleon II. if all went
we'll All did not go well, and there is