WHAT POSTERITY OWES US.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 201, 10 May 1902, Page 4

WHAT POSTERITY OWES US.

If any century ever had cause to boast of its accomplishments, surely the one now ended lias more cause than all of them together, and the twentieth cen. tury has started with enormous ad vanfage, for the foundations of knowledge ’are now laid so securely that no addi* lions can overthrow them. If one turns to the various inventions of the century that have so completely transformed industries, added many new ones, changed the modes of life of nations and added enormously to material prosperity and convenience, as 'well as increased the means of enjoyment almost beyond expression, the list is long and Incomparable. We received the horse ; we bequeath .the locomotive, the automobile aud the bicycle.

Wo received the goose quill ; we bequeath the reservoir pen and the typewriter.

Wo received the scythe and sickle; we bequeath the mowing machine and harvester.

We received the sewing and knitting needle ; we bequeath sowing and knitting machines. We received the liand-pcinting press j we bequeath the cylinder press. Wo received the compositor ; we bequeath the linotype. We received the sledge-hammer ; we bequeath its steam-driven successor. Wo received the flintlock musket ; we brquoalh pom-poms. Wo received the sailing ship, six weeks across the Atlantic ; wo bt queath tho steamship, six days for the same journey. We received gunpowder ; wo bequeath nitroglycerine. We received the hand loom ; we bequeath the cotton gin and powerweaving. Wo received the leather fire bucket ; we bequeath the steam lire engine.

We received wood and atone structures ; we bequeath the Edl'cl Tower and Forth Bridge. Wo received tho staircase ; we bequeath the electric lift. We received Johnson's Dictionary with 20,000 words; wo Hqnenth the modern dictionary wiih 210,000 words. We received 22,000,000 speaking the English language; we bequeath 116,000,000.

We received the painter’s brush and easel ; wo bequeath lithography and photography. We received the lodestone ; we bequeath the electro-magnet.

We received the glass electric machine; we bequeath the dynamo. We received the rushlight ; we bequeath the arc and incandescent lights. We received two dizen numbers of the solar systtm ;we bequeath f;00.

Wo reevivtd a million stars; we bequeath 100,000,000.

We received the tinder box ; we bequeath the safety match. We received ordinary light; we bequeath Ivontgmi rays. We received beacon signal fires; we btqueath the telegraph, the telephone, and wireless telegraphy.. We received less than twenty known elements ; we bequeath eighty. We received history as events remembered and written of ; we bequeath the kinematograph. We received the past as silent ; wo bequeath the .phonograph, and the voices of the deed may again bo heard. Wo received pain as an allotment to man : wo bequeath ether, chloroform, and cocaine. We received gangrene .} we bequeath antiseptic surgery. We received the old oaken bucket; we bequeath the artesian well. We received decomposition helplessly ; we bequeath cold storage. We received foods for immediate consumption ; we bequeath tinned meat from Australia, We ioixived butter solely from milk ; we biqueath margarine. We received the hedgerow and the wooden rail ; we bequeath the barbedwire fence. Wo tecoived unlimited dependence upon muscles ; we bequeath automatic mechanism. The account is palpably not exhaustive, but clearly posterity will owe much to the nineteenth century.