AMERICA—PAST AND PRESENT.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2339, 15 September 1880, Page 3

AMERICA—PAST AND PRESENT.

This is a time (says the Poston Post) when as Americans, we feel liko doing a little boasting. One hundred and four years ago, when we declared ourselves to be a free and independent people, our population was less than three millions. To-day according to General Walker's rough estimate, it is 48.000,000. Poston was then an insignificant village, so far as population was concerned, and New England had hat a few scattered schools and two colleges. The entire country bad but 3/ newspapers, and the best of them were not equal to the worst weeklies printed tochiy in the mushroom towns of the Rocky Mountain regions. In 1789 wo had but 75 post-offices, and the mails were carried on horseback over 1900 miles of road, at an expense of 32,000 dols. per year. To-day we hare 38,000 post-offices—and new ones are being established daily—and the mails are carried over 205,000 miles of post-roads at an annual expense of 29,000,000 dols. Wo have nearly a quarter of a million miles of telegraph wire. We have 141,029 schoolhouses, 63,082 churches 792 daily newspapers, 9000 periodicals of all kinds. Our farms arc valued at not less than 9,202,803,80 Idols, our farming implements at 330,879, !23d01, and our live stock at 1,525,270,157d01. Our farm products in a single year have brought us 2,447,538,658d01, and in the same lime we have paid, in farm wages, 310,280,2l)5dol. Our crops arc bountiful 3 T cs, enormous, and our exports have reached nearly 475,000,000d01. in a twelvemonth. Onr manufactories arc prosperous. In cotton goods wc challenge (he world. In one j’car our 900 mills turned out cloth enough to encircle the earth 20 times, if made into one piece, with still enough left to make every human being a suit of clothes, and furnish each with pieces for patching.