Year: 1876

CAN.


1t is with no lit.le pride that we present
our readers this morning with a"Centen
nial'' paper of double the size OF our
usual issue, containing an epitome not
only of the events of the year just closed,
but also of the more prominent occur
rences of the past century. Indeed,
THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN of this
morning may be said, in q certain sense, to
represent the progress of the closing cen
tury. One hundred years ago such an is
sue was not only not among the possibili-
ties of the appliances of that time, but if
any one had predicted such an advance in
newspaper publication he would have been
hooted at and decried for crazy dreamer.
Even old Ben. Franklin, with all his
faith in electricity and steam, would
hardly have believed it within the possibil-
tiles OF hundred years to gather the news
from every nation under heaven once in
twenty four hours and print it in thousands
of copies for distribution at the breakfast
tables Of the people for hundreds of miles
around. And yet in this journal will be
found Yesterdays news from nearly the
whole civilized world down to the hour of
9 O'Clock OF this New Years morning and
it hiss been printed by the thousand and
scattered by the fast mail trains hundreds of
miles, in season for the morning meal. This
result has been attained through the most
important inventions and improvements of
the century. the railway, the steamer, the
electric telegraph, the lightning printing
machines, the stereotyping process, the
folding machine, and many lesser auxilia-
ries too numerous to detail here. These
have superseded the sloop, the hand press,
the numbering stage coach and the tsrdy
mails. Time and space have been annihi-
lated, so TO speak, and even distance" has
ceased to lend enchantment. In view of
this startling progress who shall dare to say
what another century shall not bring forth?
We now turn to the review of the past year,
which will be found elsewhere. A glance
shows how entirely exciting events have
become with US simple mine days won
der" As the eye runs down the columns
of Neurology it grows dim with the recol-
lection of those who though but recently
dead were almost forgotten, and we wonder
if our absence will be as little felt when we,
too, shall have passed away. Again, in
the Chronological chapter, the history of
the year is vividly passed in review. Still
another recalls the great events and
thoughts and productions of the GEN.
tGry. And, then, turning to tho
local page will be discovered an alphabet
cal list of those who will receive their
friends at this beginning of the new Gen.
tury OF our life as a nation with "open
house" and hospitable tables. We are glad
to say that the list was never so numerous
before There is also a list of those who
by reason of illness, affiiction or absence
excuse themselves for closing their doors to
their friends.


In short, we hope this number will be
pronounced perfect sample of what the
newspaper of to day should be; that nothing
of local or national interest has been
omitted, but that it shall deserve to be filed
away as an evidence Of the progress that
has been made since the nation birth 1t
has reading matter Of interest upon every
page. We hope thai it will not only be
carefully perused but prudently filed away
by each family as an heirloom for reference
by descendants or successors at the next
Centennial New Year of the United States.
A copy should be placed in the corner
stone Of all new buildings as a record of
the past to date, that may be read centuries
hence, with amazement, too, no doubt that
we should have thought that we lived in
time of progress. With the compliments
of the season, to all, we pass into 1876