The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-12-25
n4r or THE PROPHETS or
EVIL

human race things rarely turn Out
as these prophets f0retell.
We remember what direful pre-
dictions were made in case the "Lost
Cause" were lost and the negroes
were set free.
Well, that is what happened, but
with some individual and some very
notable exceptions. the south did not
eat the dust of poverty.
The waste places were built up
abandoned farms were rehabilitated
and soon there were harvests OF
plenty.
The graphic picture Henry Grady
drew of it's wonderful trans
formation is familiar to most of our
readers.
In 1880 Lord Thomas Darlington
Macaulay in an article printed in the
Edinburg Review criticising "South-
ey's Colloquies," controverted and re-
futed that distinguished writer's dis
NAL foreboding so successfully and
eloquently, and what he said then fits
our condition so appositely, that we
feel that we can not do better SER
vice than to reprint 1t.
1t is an eloquent production so we
beg that its length will not prevent
its being read.
That marvellous and accomplished
historian said:
"The present moment is one of
great distress. But how small will
that distress appear when we think
over the history of the last forty
years; a war, compared with which
all other wars sink into insignifi-
canoe; taxation. such as the most
heavily taxed people of former times
could not have conceived; a debt
larger than all the public debts that
ever existed in the world added to-
gether; the food Of the peop.e stud
iously rendered dearer, the currency
imprudently debased and imprudent-
1y restored. Yet is the country poor
er than in 1870? We firmly believe
that, in spite of all the misgovern-
ment of her rulers, she has been al
most constantly becoming richer and
richer"
Is not that true of Florida? Is
not that true of the whole south
Compare Florida today with the
Florida of fifty years ago. See how
Jacksonville has grown, and Tampa
has grown, see the wonderful develop
ment along the east coast. See the
development of our beautiful interior
cities. There was no Orlando, no
Lakeland, no Clearwater, no st.
Petersburg, no Miami, fifty years ago.
All this wonderful development has
been the work of less than half a
century.
Mr.. Macaulay goes on to say:
"Now and then there has been a
stoppage, now and then short re-
PROGRESSION; but as to the general
tendency there can be no doubt. A
single breaker may recede; but the
tide is evidently coming in"
This statement fits our case ex-
actly.
IF we were to prophesy," he said,
s'that in the year 1880 Gust hundred
years from the time he was writing)
a population of fifty millions, better
fed, clad, lodged than the English of
our time, will cover these islands,
that Sussex and HuntingdOnshire
will be weather. than the wealthiest
parts of the West Riding of York
shire now are, and cultivation, rich
as that of a flower garden, will be
carried up to the very tops of Ben
Nevis and Helvellyn, that machines
constructed on principles yet undis-
covered will be in every house, that
there will be no highways but rail-
roads, no travelling but by steam, that
our debt, vast as it seems to us, will
appear to our great grandchildren a
trifing circumference, which might
easily be paid off in a year or two,
many people would think us insane"
Suppose that Mr.. Macaulay could
rise from his grave today and see
how the beautiful picture that he
drew has been more than surpassed.
Have him see what wonderful re-
Spouse is made to the mere touch of
button. In the homes he would
see gas superseded by electricity. He
would see the whole surface of the
earth gridironed with railroads; he
would see automobiles flying hithel
and thither in our cities and along
our hardened country roads; below
the surface he would see underground
railways and if he looked up into
Aha 81, he would hah0ld oroonlopo &c