AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 21 



Our swords are polished too, but they are not needed for war ; 

 we do as much as possible to beat our swords into plowshares, 

 but we keep their brightness too, while other peoples (as Kossuth 

 calls 'em) let hoik svwrds and souls rust ingloriously. We found 

 out some time ago that the brilliant implements of labor which did 

 double work, were honorable to the worker. No people ever yet 

 polished all its implements of hard work as we do. 



See a revolution in plowing, unexampled on earth. SeeFawkes, 

 of Pennsylvania, with his Farm Mammoth, his steam plow, turn- 

 ing up eight Jurrmos^ at the rate of four miles an hour \ thus pre- 

 paring our ground for th« seed when we want it. Now, not 

 lounging lazily with a hull plow and a boor at its tail, an acre a 

 day of shallow work. And when Fawkes has no plowing to do, 

 he is a steam mill of fifty-six horse power, sawing, grinding, 

 pumping, churning, washing, irrigating, for he throws a shower of 

 water a hundred feet if necessary. And if all this is not enough, 

 some American will soon beat it by a land-forker and pulverizer ! 

 Truly, honest labor is looking up ; a few days ago Eugenie, Em- 

 press of forty millions, gave the Cress of the Legion of Honor to a 

 gardener. 



Some two years ago our Mechanics' Club had the world telegram, 

 under consideration, and while the Ocean line was contemplated, 

 deemed it better to carry wires as much as possible by land, be- 

 cause the lines are very liable to damage, and cannot long bear 

 the action of the electricity — the road.^ like all others, will wear 

 out. We therefore recommended to the Czar of Russia, to con- 

 duct wires across Behring's Straits, where Asia and America can 

 see one another from the Diomedes island — Ratmanoff and Kru- 

 zenstern in the middle, and where the water is only two hundred 

 feet deep, and where the current from the Pacific sets constantly 

 through to the north, so that no iceberg can come down from the 

 Arctic ocean through it; where thousands of wires may be laid 

 and taken up for repairs, so that all men may ask all around the 

 world for a cheap price, how trade goes, and friends are! We 

 drew an enlarged chart of that Strait, which has been hanging on 

 our walls more than two years past, showing exactly the telegram 

 position. 



The little I have said forms but an index to that you will see 

 and say. In behalf of our Institute, I now bid you all a hearty 

 welcome. 



