The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1924-02-07
THE MARCH OFPROGRESS
IN THREE SCORE YEARS
REVIEW ACHIEVEMENTS IN LIFE
OF MAN WHO is STILL
NOT OLD.

l the early days of the revolution
Voltaire said wistfully: How 1 envy
the young menl They are going to
see such wonderful things" What DO
we who date ourselves by the late sos
and early COS think? DO we envy our
grandchildren. asks the New York
Herald.
A man born in 1860 has as yet no
right to demand the privileges of old
age. Yet when that man was born
Lincoln had not yet become president
America had not yet been welded by
blood into an indivisible Union and
the Indian still roved the Great Amer
lean desert England was just enter
ing on the noontime of the Victorian
age. A third Napoleon was emperor
Of the French. Young Francis Joseph
on the Austrian imperial throne still
headed the Germanic confederation,
for Bismarck had hardly begun his
struggle with the Prussian parliament
that was to make his master German
emperor Italy as yet was not; Plus
*. ruled the papal states-but Carl
baldi and his men had gathered at
Genoa. Africa was dark continent
and the ashes of the Indian mutiny
were still smoking Legitimacy-the
magic formula with which Metternich
had won at Vienna in 1S15-still ruled
the old world. Democracy as we know
and call 1t. was fighting in caves and
cellars for its life and nationalism was
still struggling with its swaddling
clothes. The fires of AS had-seem-
ingly-been quenched.
Telegraph a Novelty.
There were railroads of a sort, but
the Union Pacific and Central Pacific
builders were not yet on the ground.
There were steamboats, of a sort, but
Flying Cloud and Great Republic still
sailed the seas. The telegraph was
an interesting novelty. The age Of
steel had not yet begun. Chemistry
was thought to be a completed sci
ence, with physics as its humble hand
maid. Electricity was the subject of
academic pursuit. Darwins "Origin
of Species" had just appeared and the
word evolution" had hardly been
heard. Herbert Spencer had Just is
sued his prospectus of synthetic
Philosophy" The Higher Criticism
was in its infancy Huxley and Tyn-
dali had not yet brought science to
handigrips with Christianity, and men
still employed Scripture texts in con-
troversy Newman's Apologize" was
vet to come; so was Carlyle's ''F'reder-
lex the Great: Thackeray was start
ing the CohnhiH Magazine; Dickens
was starting the Daily News; Swim
burne was just leaving Oxford; IDS
raeli had not become prime minister
and Gladstone was a recent recruit 70
the liberal party.
Serfdom stin existed in Russia,
MARKHAM socialism was yet unborn,
labor unionism had yet hardly more
than conquered its right to life. voting
/ by ballot was unknown in England;
Fenianism had not yet biased up in
Ireland; divorce was unknown in a
large part of Europe, including
France, and was rare everywhere. The
miuet and the gavotte were gone but
the polka and the waltz were account
ed rather daring and Richard Wagner
had not yet shaken the pillars OF tie
musical temple.
Royal Houses Wrecked.
The Hapsburgs are gone. the Ma
poleons are gone, the Romanoffs are
gone. the Hohenzollerns are gone, I4e-
gitimacy is gone; democracy is tri-
umphant and nationaiism rules the
world. We who still live have seen
steam and electricity in the act of
remaking the earth. We have seen
the triumphs of applied science one
by one emerge cable telephone, ra-
do automobil, airplane. submarine
and the rest-and we have seen them
all concentrated in one grand synthe-
sis of destruction and the earth that
we knew passed away in the smoke of
1t. We have seen the modern world
blossom and we have seen it wither.
1.-The days of our years are three