16 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
millions of sheets, and thousands of miles on these, and still the 
number will lack its due amount. Let us pause to look at the 
neat ploughed edges of the book before us. See how closely lie 
those thin flakes of paper, how many there are in the mere width 
of a span, and then turn our eyes in imagination upwards to our 
mighty column of accumulated sheets. It now contains its 
appointed number, and our one billion of sheets of the Times 
superimposed upon each other and pressed into a compact mass ~ 
has reached an altitude of 47,348 miles. 
“Those who have taken the trouble to follow me thus far will, _ 
I think, agree with me that a billion is a fearful thing, and — 
that few can appreciate its real value. As for trillions and — 
quadrillions, they are simply words, mere words, wholly nee | 
of impressing themselves on the human intellect.” 
I think you will all agree with me that the moral conveyed in . 
this communication is not the least interesting nor yet the less} | 
instructive feature in it. 
: 
