Owen Chapter 108

SKETCH CVIII

THEN AND NOW

How few of us truly appreciate the marvellous age in which we live. Wonderful inventions and startling discoveries have come so thick and fast upon us that we have lost the sense of appreciation and come to look upon all things as possible. We are no longer surprised at what happens, for everything seems possible, and there is certainly nothing startling about the mere realization of a possibility. But these wonderful means of communication and transportation which we enjoy were considered—if considered at all—as absolute impossibilities by our forefathers one short century ago. This modern machinery, which seems almost endowed with life and intelligence, was not even dreamed of by our grandfathers. Their wildest imaginations failed to grasp the realizations of our day.

We live in the age of the dynamo; and does it not seem strange that the only fact known to the wisest men of all antiquity, pertaining to electricity, was the fact that a piece of amber, when rubbed, attracts light and dry bodies? And not until sixteen centuries of modern history had been completed and added to the countless ages preceding them, was the discovery made that other substances possess the same property as amber. The man who made this discovery was Gilbert, of Colchester, and he it was who invented the word electricity, from electron, the Greek word for Amber. Previous to the birth of father Ephraim Tisdale the only electric machine in use in experimenting with electricity was a glass tube rubbed with a piece of cloth; and Donald McCall, of Charlotteville, was twelve years old before the world discovered that lightning was electricity! Is it any wonder that we have not yet succeeded in casting out the last vestage of a dense superstition inherited from a line of ancestors extending all the way back through the ages to father Adam himself? Is it any wonder that the lightning’s flash and the thunder’s loud roar were looked upon as outbursts of pent up wrath on the part of the gods who were supposed to inhabit the ethereal regions, or that the early Christians looked upon these natural—but to them, mysterious—phenomena as the manifestations of Jehovah?

Ever since Adam and Eve departed from Eden to occupy and till the earth, the human family have worn clothes made of woven materials of various kinds, yet, previous to the appearance of “Uncle Billy” Smith among the Indians of Charlotteville, the old world had never seen such a thing as a power loom; and from the time when Abraham went into the tent and said unto Sarah, “make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth,” right down to the present generation, the principle of grinding grain into meal and flour was not materially changed. It was simply two mill-stones—the upper acting upon the lower; and although enlarged in various ways and made more effective by the application of wind, water and steam power, it was the same old principle, and not until within our own lives was it supplanted by a new and vastly superior principle, known as the “roller process.”

Of course, we have not yet quite forgotten that a few such wonderful inventions as the telephone, the phonograph, flouroscope and the wonderful X ray, were never enjoyed by mortal man previous to our own day and generation; but the conditions of life, which have been revolutionized in our day by the invention of labor-saving machinery and the application of superior, newly-discovered methods of performing the ordinary duties of life, are already looked upon by us in an indifferent manner, as though they had always existed. Why, when the venerable Simpson McCall, Esq., of Vittoria, was a child there was not an engineer in the wide, wide world who believed that it was possible to construct a locomotive that could gain much speed, ascend a moderate incline, or draw a heavy load, unless the wheels were provided with a cogged rim to work on a corresponding rack along the rails. What a revolution has been effected by railroads, and what a mighty interest is represented by the railroad corporations of the world; and yet there is not a man or woman in Norfolk, who has reached the eightieth mile-stone in the journey of life, who does not remember things that happened before the first railroad passenger was drawn by a locomotive. The speed made at first was but little faster than the walk of a horse, and it is only sixty-seven years since the fact was clearly demonstrated that the railroad system was a feasible means of rapid and economical transportation.

Fifty-four short years ago the first telegraphic message, transmitted by wire, was sent over a line connecting the cities of Washington and Baltimore; and six years later the first submarine cable was laid between Dover and Calais. To show the vast importance of this invention in the transmission of intelligence over the civilized world, it is only necessary to state that during the twenty-one years following this first successful experiment, 213 cables were laid in various parts of the world, having a total length of 45,783 miles. By means of the telegraph the barriers of time and space have been broken down and all parts of the world have been brought into neighborly touch. The great modern printing press gathers up the news as it flashes over the wires from the four quarters of the globe, and thus we are enabled to read to-day what happened yesterday in every part of the civilized world. Do we realize the great importance of these wonderful advantages? Our great-grandfathers knew nothing of these things. When Dr. Troyer settled in Walsingham the world had never seen a cylinder printing press, and our century was fourteen years old before a newspaper was printed by machinery, steam-propelled—the issue being a copy of the London Times, dated November 28th, 1814.

The manufacture of glass can be traced back to a great antiquity, and yet only three years before the American grand-ancestor of the Wyckoff family built the old home that is still standing on Long Island, the only rooms furnished with glass plate were the principal chambers of the king’s palace in England; and the modern plate-glass window made its first appearance in Boston, only forty-four years ago. The little twelve 7 x 9 pane windows of our grandfather’s days, with their wrinkles and blisters and cumbersome sashes, did not let in much light, but they let in all the light that illuminated the times in which they were used.

Previous to the year 1814 the scientific world had never produced a permanent picture by the influence of solar radiations, and it is only fifty-eight years since the old-fashioned daguerreotype was invented. Is it any wonder our old pioneers left no portraits of themselves, or that the walls of their rude dwellings were destitute of the pictures of the homes of their childhood left behind in other lands?

Among the ten thousand and one conveniences which we enjoy, and which were unknown and unheard of in the first homes of Norfolk, is the friction match. This little convenience, of itself, is enough to stir up feelings of gratitude within us for the glorious privilege of living in the latter part of this grand old century. The only means known in our grandfather’s days for obtaining fire was by igniting tinder with a spark made by striking flint and steel together. The old brimstone match was considered a wonderful invention by them, as the sulphurated point ignited much more readily than the tinder.

Our grandmothers had no sewing machines. They sewed by hand, and what artificial light the old fire-place did not furnish, was obtained by means of a tallow “dip,” which drizzled melted grease on everything with which it came in contact. Of course, the tin candlemoulds was considered another great invention in the “good old times,” and the fanciful old brass candlesticks and artificial snuffers and trays found here and there, show that those of the old people who could afford it, were just as desirous of “out-shining” their neighbors as some of their grandchildren are to-day. But we do not live in a candle-snuffing age. Ours is the brighter light furnished by mineral oil, gas and electricity; and yet, previous to 1850 the world had never heard of a kerosene lamp or an illuminating mineral oil as a commercial commodity.

Only seventeen years before the birth of Jabez Culver, the old Windham pioneer, the old world had never heard of such a thing as a pianoforte; but for many years after this none but nabobs could afford to avail themselves of the benefit of Schroter’s invention. In fact, it is only within the last quarter of a century that the moderately well-to-do have been able to indulge in this, at first, much coveted luxury. Like all the multitudinous blessings reserved for our day and generation, now that the piano has come within the reach of all, we somehow fail to appreciate it as we should.

It would require whole volumes to give a full description of the conveniences and possessions enjoyed by us, which the concentrated wisdom of all the ages from the beginning of history down to our own grandfather’s day, had not yet deemed possible. What a long dark night it was! We who have witnessed this glorious awakening of thought and tasted of the fruits thereof, would not care to live another hour were the lights put out and the wheels of time turned back one short century. The present year is worth more in a life on earth than two like the one immediately preceding it, a hundred of our grandfather’s years, or five hundred in any preceding era of the world’s history. Life does not consist of years, but of blessings enjoyed and knowledge gained. Indeed, if Adam had lived until Upper Canada became a British province he would not have acquired as much knowledge of himself, the old world in which he lived, or the hidden and mysterious forces of nature, as might be acquired in this present year of grace. God help us all to fully appreciate our glorious advantages and make the most of them.