The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-01-12

TINS, but instead, said IN language
that should and will make his name
immortal, Let us have Peace"
This alone should make us forget
the bitterness of that strife, and hon
or this flag and teach our children to
do likewise.
1t is the emblem of progress-the
! emblem of enlightenment-a beacon
light to the nations of the earth.
1t was Alexander H. Stephens, vice
president of the Confederate States,
who said that this flag fioated over
the freest government the sun ever
shone on And that is true, and none
should appreciate that fact more than
the citizens of the south, because her
patriots and her heroes helped in a
large measure to make it so.
But what connections exist between
schools and freedom-between educa-
ton and liberty? You had just as
we'll ask what connections exist be-
tween the tree and its fruit-between
vine and flower. If you touch one you
touch the other also, and if you kill
tree or vine, fruit and flower will with
er and perish.
Education is the key to tae hidden
mysteries of nature-it is knowledge,
and knowledge is power. Apply the
knowledge that education brings and
what is the result? Take iron, for ex-
ample. It's value in the earth is only
estimated by the ton. Made into bars
it is worth So, but if bar is shaped
into horse-shoes, it is worth $40; con-
verted into steel and made into nee
dies, it is worth $3.50; into knife and
razor blades, over $4,000, and into bal
ance springs for watches, as much as
$685.
Looking over the century, what
hath education done? What hath been
our progress. In all the departments
and applications of chemistry, the cen
fury has created a new world. Our
progress has. been. wonderful our in
ventions numerous and marvellous
| Compared with ours, Washington liv-
ed in day of utter darkness. He
knew nothing of machinery; the iron
pillow had only been patented two
years before his death, and it was a
failure-farmers asserting that it poi
sOned the soil" There were no NOW
ers, reapers or harvesters. Steam
boats were practically unknown and
the railway had it's birth forty years
later. Washington did not know the
great convenience of so simple a thing
as friction match, but had to content
himself with the tinder-box. He had
no knowledge of gas and not the
slightest conception of artificial light
by electricity, and Mrs. Washington
knew nothing of the blessings of the
sewing machine, which is now the
common property of every home. The
invention of the cotton gin, and every
thing co-reltaing thereto; the electric
telegraph, that connects the ends of
the earth together, and the steam
printing press, that collects and codi-
fies the news from every quarter of
the globe and has it ready for distri-
button at the earliest morning hour,
and the colossal engines that carry
these papers across the continent at
a speed of nearly sixty miles an hour,
have had their birth since Washing
toms day, and are the triumphs of our
century!
Things have not only been quick
ened but in like manner have been
cheapened
For instance, at the beginning of
the century, % cents was required to
carry a letter any distance over $50
miles, and in the appendix to Post
master General Wanamaker's last re-
port, We are told that not daily mail
existed anywhere in this country at
the beginning of this century; the
number of postoffices did not exceed
lone hundred; the total length of all
mail routes did not exceed 1000 miles;
| the entire annual revenue of the SER
vice was considerably less than $780,
1000; the expenditures now reach six
ty-one millions; the mails are trans
ported according to fixed schedules of
arrival and departure, and over such
innumerable routes as to make their
| aggregate journeys every working
day in the year, equivalent to forty
one times the circuit of the earth.
At the beginning of the century
there was not more than a thousand
letters day handled in all the postof-
fees of the country, and there was no
such thing as postal card, a postal
note nor postal money order. Now
there are steadily dropping into the
numberless receptacles of our great!
postal system mail matter at the rate
of 5000 every minute, and an army of