DO WE APPRECIATE THE AGE WE LIVE IN?

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 337, 23 May 1885, Page 22

DO WE APPRECIATE THE AGE WE LIVE IN?

Much as we boast of our mo.lern improvements \ve are, most of us, behind the ago we live in — I hat is, behind the best things in it ; we not only fail to keep well informed ot ; the minor special inventions and improvements that tend to make life easy and fruitful, but we consistently neglect even the old and familiar ones. Take telegraphing, fer instance : excepting those whose business require them to use it constantly, there is not one man in ten, nor one woman in fifty, "who will not at least hesitate before sending an ordinary message in less than no time by wire, instead of the more tedious and troublesome mail bag, even when it is perfectly evident that the advantage of the swifter and surer method, small as it may be, will greatly outweigh the slight niMitional cost. As for travelling", why shouldn't Aye, when, as often happens, it is easier, pleasanter, safer, and cheaper than staying at home ? When I can take my entire family and my most cherished household goods in a small portable palace,, and cirry them away from the burning, blasting heats of summer to a land of cool comfort and health ; when, for business purposes, spue is annihilated, and I a'u us nz;\v the centre of the nnivercjfc when I stand like a butterfly on the rim of a wheel as when I am clinging to the hub, like a tree-toad — why must I plant myself, like a telegraph pole or a tombstone, and never stir from the spot where I was born ? No, sir! We have scarcely begun to unclerstaud our opportunities, or to realize what facilities for moving about arc within our reach, much less to take advantage of them.'