The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-06-01

pie thing as a friction match. but
had to content himself with the tin.
der-box. He had no knowledge Of gas
and not the slightest conception Of ar.
tificial 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 % the
cotton gin, and everything co relating
thereto; the electric telegraph, that
connects the ends of the earh togeth.
er, and the steam printing press, that
collects and codifes the news from
every quarter OF the globe and has il
ready for distribution at the earliest
morning hour, and the colossal en-
gines that carry these papers across
the continent at speed of nearly six
ty miles an hour, have had their birth
since Washington's 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 IS cents was required to
carry letter any distance over $50
miles, and in the appendix to Postmas-
ter General Wanamaker's last report,
we are told that not daily mail eX-
listed anywhere in this country at the
beginning of this century; the num-
Der of postoffices did not exceed one
hundred; the total length of all mail
route sdid not exceed 1000 miles; the
entire annual revenue of the service
was considerably less than $4,000;
the expenditures now reach sixty-one
millions; the mails are transported ac-
cording to fixed schedules of arrival
and departure, and over such innum-
cradle routes as to make their aggre-
gate journeys every working day in
the year, equivalent to forty-one times
the circuit of the earth
'At the beginning of the century
there were not more than a thousand
letters a day handled in all the post
offices of the country and there was
no such thing as postcard, a postal
note or a 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
more than 10000 agents are required
for their proper handling and distri-
button.
AT the beginning of the century
such thing as millionaire was un-
known and was regarded as an impos-
sible development on our soil. The
United States is now the richest coun-
try in the world, and has more mil
lionaires than all the nations of Eu-
rope put together. Wealth, indeed,
has grown so strong as to threaten to
destroy our democratic simplicity,
and stands as a menace to our free in
situations!
THE New York World says uhat
there are more than a thousand per-
sons in the United States worth over
one million of dollars, and some of
these count their millions by hun
dreds, and it is Mr.. Gould's ambition
to become the first Millionaire.
And what distance is there be-
tween the fiintlocll guns of the sol
diers of the revolutionary war and the
repeating rifles of our day! And as
late as our civil war, when the Swamp
Angel threw shells into Charleston,
a distance of five miles, it was consid-
cred marvellous achievement, and it
was supposed that the limit of long
range firing had been reached. But
in the light OF recent experiments with
new gun at Sandy Hook, within the
holidays, the achievements of the
Swamp Angel are regarded as quite
insignificant. This new gun is a new
departure in gun-making, is made of
cast steel. it receives a charge of $50
pounds of powder and the experiment
proved that it threw shell a distance
of nearly fifteen miles Heretofore it
has been necessary to build up these
large pieces by slow, laborious and
costly processes of forging That they
can be cast strong enough to stand
the shock of heavy charges means
that they can be manufactured both
cheaply and quickly.
IN the face Of this what must be
the armament of the future?
This wonderful progress has been
made possible by reason of our free
insittutions-an enlightened and free
DreSS-free schools and free OnDOrtll.