Sept. 28.
'THe steam railway yesterday became acentenarian, For many thousands of years man had never moved faster than a horse could carry him. Then, just one hundred years ago, George. Stephenson, a humble engine-wright, in an English colliery, demonstrated to an incredulous audience that steam power could be used to replace horse power. If there were any demonstration of a new invention, or the statement of a new discovery made to-day, the news of it would echo and re-echo to the uttermost parts of the! earth within a few hours.
Millions of people quickly heard of the researches concerning cancer made public recently. Only a few thousands in England knew! that Stephenson had succeeded on that great day in his life when he drove his picineer locomotive. There are many more people who are aware that yesterday was the centenary of the event than were those who had heard of steam traction a hundred years ago. The man whom the experts laughed at launched a great idea which has speeded up the world. Since then the progress of mechanical science has been astounding. Stephenson—_pro-"—-mised that he would carry passengers at a speed of twelve miles an hour. This "untaught, inarticulate genius," as he has since been styled, was confident of his own invention. During a cross-examination in the witness-box of a Parliamentary Committee the following dialogue took place. Said one of the members of the Committee, "Suppose, now one of these engines to be going along railroad at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour, and that a cow were to stray upon the line and get in the way of the engine' would not that, think you, be very awkward circumstance: To which Stephenson replied, with a twinkle in his eye, "Yes, very awkward—for the coo!"
The civil engineers of his day regarded Stephenson's idea as but the dream of a chimerical pro-lector. No wonder the reviewers were puzzled. Even the "Quarter-' Jy," which admitted the absolute necessity of a railroad between! 'Manchester and Liverpool, scouted the idea of travelling at a greater' a speed than nine miles an hour. The reviewer observed, "What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice' as fast as stage coaches. We' would as soon expect the people' of Woolwich to suffer themselves' to be fired off upon one of Con-grove's ricochet rockets, as trust themselves to the mercy of such' a machine going at such a rate." Finally the reviewer, while supporting the idea of steam traction, put in the following words of caution: "We trust that Parliament will, in all railways it may sanction, limit the speed to eight or nine miles an hour which Sylvester great as can be entirely agree with Mr.
ventured with safety.
"We have, as our American friends say, "moved some" since those, Says. Steam locomotives commonly achieve a speed of. sixty miles am hour and experimental electric locomotives} have run at almost double that speed. Aeroplanes have made it possible for man to move himself at the rate of two hundred miles an hour and he can send his thoughts at a speed as quick as the fastest thing in the universe. Our familiarity with speed to-day makes us think of George Stephenson's engine as a creeping thing. The railway is now a veteran, but it is the greatest triumph of our time. So rapid is change in these days that the steam train, made more and more perfect after a hundred years, within the probability of sharing! the fate of the stage coach. In Europe and America it has already been replaced, in many railways, by the more efficient electric train. The struggle for survival goes on in the world of machines even more remorselessly than in the animal world. Who shall say what triumphs lie before this generation when the aeroplane and electricity have accomplished all their possibilities?
In spite of the opposition and hatred with which the work of George Stephenson was hailed, the railway crashed through amazing legal difficulties, criminal financial speculation and greedy opposition to success. It was entirely an English invention. Lord Bacon said truly that "there are three things which make a nation great and prosperous—a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy conveyance for men and commodities from one place to another." It is not an accident that England grew greatly in prosper-during the years that followed the invention and construction in England of the steam engine, the steamship, the locomotive, the electric dynamo and the strew propeller for steamers. The magnificent cathedrals, abbeys and ancient bridges that still in England prove that, long, before the era of mechanical there were great architects and reliable workmen in England. Until the middle of the eighteenth century it was, however, impossible to travel anywhere in Great Britain with speed or comfort. Everything was carried on pack-horses, or sometimes on bullock-back. Guides were employed to keep travellers! out of the mud. Highwaymen frequented the tracks. Arthur Young, in 1786, said of some the roads that it would cost no more money to make them naviga able in winter than to make them hard. I took longer in those days for a carriage to reach twenty, miles out of London than it does to travel by aeroplane from London to Vienna to-day.
The construction, first of all, of] roads, and then of railways had most important moral influence upon the people of Great Britain, Insurrections ceased and bandits were easily dispersed. Personal comfort and public wealth were greatly increased. There was a general diffusion of a spirit of improvement, a thirst for instruction, an emulation to apply it to the purposes of practical utility, even in the humblest classes of the community. Mr. Seward, at the commencement of the Civil War in America said that "physical bonds—such as highways! railroads, rivers, and canals—are vastly more powerful for holding civil communities together than any mere covenants, though written on parchment or engraved on iron." As we ponder over these words we realize what a complete system of railways might do for China. We must, however, resist the temptation to point a moral. We are celebrating a great cen-ten ary. We want to think of the rugged tenacity, the great in-'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.