IS THIS A DEGENERATE AGE? 487 



might require five days instead of two for the voyage from Albany to 

 Xew York, just as a vessel, under similar conditions, thirty years later, 

 might be six or seven weeks on the way from London to New York; 

 but the delay caused little more of irritation among the passengers 

 than would be caused to-day if the Empire Express were two hours late. 

 Even sixty years ago, a journey to St. Louis was an undertaking equal 

 to that of crossing the ocean ; in each case, the expectant traveler made 

 his will and his friends assembled to bid a sorrowful farewell. Now 

 one makes less preparation for a tour around the globe. Sixty years 

 ago, mails were irregular and postage was from ten to twenty times 

 what it is now. The arrival of a stranger in a village was an event; he 

 brought information from the outer world. The man who had been 

 one thousand miles from home, received more consideration in a large 

 town than is granted in a petty hamlet to a full-developed globe-trotter. 

 Even sixty years ago, forges or petty furnaces, scattered about the 

 country supplied the necessities of the community. 



But steamboats, railways and telegraphs brought all parts of the 

 land into actual contact; the discovery of petroleum and the cheapening 

 of kerosene by improved methods of refining carried light into the most 

 secluded corners, and added several hours of life to each day among 

 farming communities; the vast expansion of manufactures during the 

 Civil War led to modifications in educational methods, which in their 

 turn made possible the utilization of our mineral resources. Each 

 advance made others imperative. The repertoire of discoveries in phys- 

 ical science was ransacked in search of those which could be utilized 

 by inventors ; every discovery, every invention was welcomed and tested. 



Improvements followed in such rapid succession that one, in review- 

 ing the last thirty years, becomes confused and the movements appear 

 as irregular and unrelated as those in a quickly-revolving kaleidoscope. 

 The age of Holley-Mushet-Bessemer steel burst upon us and revolution- 

 ized not merely our railroad systems but also our ship-building and 

 architecture. Henry's telegraph, introduced by Morse's energy and 

 Vail's receiver, was spread as a network over the whole country; the 

 researches of Helmholtz and Lissajou led up to Bell's telephone; Fara- 

 day's discovery grew into the dynamo, which introduced the age of 

 electricity. 



But these changes made more of life, thrust more into life so that 

 more was required of life. The transition or rather the series of 

 transitions was severe. It is the commonplace of history that no great 

 advance is made, except, for the time, at the expense of human life or 

 comfort. Steamships have driven from the sea fleets of vessels and 

 have made the sailor almost a thing of the past; railroads destroyed 

 the prosperity of communities bordering the great turnpikes crossing 

 Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, and compelled abandon- 



