The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-06-13

PiOICCl uuse.
Memorial day who heard my father
preach a camp-meeting sermon in
wartime which sent a hundred men
into the Union army. There are
still old soldiers left among us,
though their ranks are thinning.
There are a few of the real old set
lers left in the Blue Earth valley.
General j. H. Baker died only
couple of weeks ago. Yet there
are many of us who remember from
tiers left in the Blue Earth valley.
state. | have myself seen deer in
Blue Earth County, and it is not so
long ago that wolves might be heard
along the river.
Progress in Civilization.
'.The wonderful thing, however,
is not that Minnesota has developed
marvelously in fifty or thirty years.
1t is the marvellous progress of civil
ization in that time. The civil war
was fought with muzzle-loading mus
kets. Wounds were treated with
neither anti-septics nor anaesthetics,
and more soldiers died in hospitals
than on the field of battle. The
telegraph was hardly twenty years
old, and the telephone, the electric
| light and wireless had not been
dreamed Of The first home which
| | remember in Blue Earth county
was furnished with splint-bottomed
chairs which my father made him.
self, and he could WELD a woods
mans axe as few can do nowadays.
The generation which he represented
was brought up on homespun cloth
! ing and homegrown food. The
/ farm produced all that it's denizens
needed, save little sugar and cot
| fee. All the wonderful develop
ment of modern commerce and in
dustry, all the progress in comfort
and convenience, all the vast in
crease OF civilization is the product
of these last few years.
The Social Progress.
1T is not my purpose to dwell at
length on the details of modern in
! dustrial progress. The world has
been making equally marvellous prog
ress politically and socially. Min
nesota was admitted to the Union
the year that Lincoln and Douglas
were holding their great series OF
debates on slavery. Five years
were to pass before the great pres.
h, CT af n frpn6
four millions of slaves. Today
nowhere in the civilized world is
slavery a recognized institution
This is only one of the indications
uttered his Gettysburg speech, democ
racy on a large scale was a hazard
Gus experiment The war was
fought, in Lincoln's words, testing
whether that nation, or any nation
SO conceived and so dedicated cal
long endure 1t was fought 'Tha
government of the people, by thu
people and for the people shoulC
not perish from the earth Today
even those nations which hold fas
the form of monarchial government
have departed from its principal
and are the bottom democratic
Even Germany, whose emperor re
CARDS himself as the vice-geren
of God, and Russia, so long the typ
of an autocracy, have been com
PEELED to give room for the will o
the people in their government
And in the last few months, China
that age-long stronghold of supin
conservatism and worship of tn
past, has become a republic, and i
Gistancing the most progressiv
western nations in the pursuit c
liberty and progress.
Progress of Surgery.
"And it is not only in these genel
al forms of political and industria
organization that progress has bee
made. In almost uncounted way
f has modern civilization undertake
. to elevate the conditions unde
which men live and work. TIL
, progress of medicine and surger
, has heightened human life an
/. given the average man a highe
vitality with which to work Col
storage, rapid transportation and tn
development of all parts of the coul
try have given the modern man
greater variety and more nourishin
y quality of food than our father
4 knew Education has given me
" a hunger for knowledge, which I'll
, food of newspapers and magazine
pouring from, the press is unde
taking to feed. The average ma
of today works shorter hours, u
: der more healthful and pleasal
= conditions, for higher wages, liv'
!, in better house, eats more al
:. better food, reads more and bett
= books, has more time and opportu
g ity for recreation, and in almost {
% ways one can think of lives a full
! and richer life than the rich ma
u of fifty years ago.
i Wonderful Era of Progress.
- There are two or three obsery
RS tons which should be made howev
n with regard to this wonderful e
ed of progress The first is the very OBJ
as Gus one that our problems have II