The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-05-31
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
PROGRESS OF OUR NATION
WELSH DEWEY

WELSH LIE w Z
Look not eastward over the roar
ing Atlantic nor westward over the
mighty Pacific in your search for the
nation which has made the most rap
id progress in the history of the
world. Gaze not northward into
Canada nor southwark past the Rio
Grande in quest of an empire which
you may call the Infant Hercules of
the Nations, but cast your eager
chances on the land which now sur
rounds you and behold the baby ma
ton of the earth which is the teach
er of its mothers, the nation whose
past is symbollized by almost impos-
sible and unbelievable advancement,
and which has for its future goal un-
bounded prosperity Just as Minerva
sprang full-grown from the brow of
Jupiter, just so this young giant
among the nations springs forth on
the untitled soil of a new land and
leaps and bounds, in a little over a
century, climbs the ladder of prog
ress to the loftiest rung which has
been reached by its parents only af-
ter century upon century of toll and
labor. The infant grew and develop
ed under the care of England until
the thorn of oppression piercing too
deeply into the tender side forced it
to break its allegiance to its mother
and unlike the prodigal son to depart
from the threshold of its parent new
er to return. Little did old England
imagine that this truant child would
within one century compel her to bow
her proud head and acknowledge that
she was being forced to share the po-
sition of prominence which she then
enjoyed. Scarcely did she think that
quaint little. New Amsterdam across
the Atlantic would be the nearest
rival to ancient, magnificent London.
Little did she realize what was fore
told when the "embattled farmers
fired that shot heard round the
world" Little did she foresee such an
event as took place when, on January
the eighth, eighteen hundred and fif-
teen, the Americans under the lead of
Andrew Jackson, destroyed the flower
of the British army at New Orleans
and at least two thousand of the vet
Grams who had followed the Duke of
! Wellington in the Spanish Penninsu-
la, lay dead or wounded on the battle
field, while behind their breastworks
the Americans suffered loss Of less
than twenty in killed, wounded and
missing. 1t was one of the most re-
markable battles in the history of the
world, and the one by which we gain
ed the recognition of the other nations
as a power equal to themselves, and
not a union of petty states linked
loosely together, which were expect
ed to soon disorganize, declare war on
each other and like the mighty Roman
Empire to crumble and decay. 1t was
our navy which forced England tc
share with us the supremacy of the
oceans; it was our navy which com
PEELED piracy to vanish forever from
) the Mediterranean Sea. What fitting
events are these to lead our advance
ment to the high standard which il
, has now attained!
/ Scarcely are we able to realize tina
l the tales we hear of frontier life ant
: the struggles of our forefathers TO
liberty, which to us seem so remote
have all transpired within the las
' hundred and fifty years; that tn
) heroic deeds of Washington by which
I he led the American people to free
dom, were accomplished when thi
: country was practically a wilderness
e yet they were accomplished less thai
). century and half ago. To shoy
; what remarkable advancement ha
/ been made since the "Father of hi
$ Country" was laid to rest in the tom
t at Mount Vernon, let US imagine tina
/ we can bring him back to earth an
t watch him marvel at all the change
q which have taken place in the Ian
t which he himself helped to establis
s on the firm basis of personal freedom
Let us take him down the broa
e streets of New York and picture tn
/ establishment of the old hero at til
l. revelation of that which has take
e place since he led that glorious oil
3 Continental army through those nal
o row pathways in 1776. The towerin
v buildings which now stretch for stor
e upon story toward the blue sky, stan
O on the soil where in the time of thi
man some unpretentious farmhous
n may have rested. Behold the magnif
a cent bridge which spans the East riv
n er connecting Brooklyn and Ne
a. York. What a contrast does this pr,
Il sent to the picture he recalls of I'll
midnight trip he made across ii