Chapter XLIV: Conclusion

We have now considered six groups of topics connected with the growth and development of our country. We have looked into the houses of the Indians and of the settlers in the colonial times, and into the larger and more elaborate homes of to-day. We have considered improved means of heating and better methods of lighting. We have noticed improvements in machinery for planting, cultivating, and harvesting the products of the soil. We have seen the great advance that has been made in the manufacture of our clothing, through improved cotton and woolen machinery and the sewing machine. We have traveled by land and by water, at home and abroad, on foot, on horseback, in stagecoaches, by canals, steamboats, and railroads. Finally we have read and thought and studied about language, the printing press, our postal system, the telegraph and the telephone.

We have seen our country when it was wholly east of the Mississippi River, whereas now it is extended even to the great western ocean. A century ago our territory embraced about eight hundred thousand square miles; now it is nearly five times as great, with large areas of recently acquired Spanish islands to be added to that. The population of the United States in 1790 was less than four millions; a hundred years later it was sixty-three millions. It is now probably between seventy and seventy-five millions. Our exports then were about fifty million dollars in value; this year they are more than one thousand millions. A century since, we imported into this country goods to the value of about seventy million dollars. This was largely in excess of our exports. To-day our exports are of far greater value than our imports.

At the beginning of our national government we were almost altogether engaged in the pursuits of agriculture. Now our people are largely massed in cities and large towns, while our mechanical and manufacturing interests are of immense proportions.

A hundred years ago the people speaking the seven principal languages of Europe numbered about one hundred and fifty millions. To-day they number about four hundred millions. The present number is therefore almost three times that of a century ago. At that time the English-speaking people ranked fifth among the seven, and numbered but twenty millions. To-day they lead the list, and number one hundred and twenty millions; there are six times as many people to-day using the English language as there were a century ago. The inhabitants of our country outnumber all other English-speaking people in the whole world.

Our country occupies, all things considered, the best portion of the world. This includes the Atlantic slope, the great Mississippi basin, and the Pacific slope, and our whole territory, except our new colonial possessions, lies within the north temperate zone. We therefore have a great variety of soil and climate; the soil is the most fertile and the climate the most salubrious of the whole earth. We have an almost infinite variety of productions and our people are engaged in the entire round of human industries.

The United States has made vast strides in industry, in wealth, in intelligence, and in the comforts of life. Civilization has rapidly advanced during the whole of this century. If the great contest of the future is to be between the Anglo-Saxon race and the rest of the world, surely this great republic must have the leading position in that contest.

The American people to-day form a nation of readers. In newspapers, magazines, and books of all sorts and upon every subject the American press is prolific. We have a system of public schools well established in every State and every Territory of our Union, and supported by taxation, and very generally the children are obliged by compulsory laws to attend school. We are living in an age of great activity and rapid advancement. The young people of our republic who are attending school to-day are to be congratulated upon their good fortune; and it becomes them to magnify their opportunities, to appreciate their advantages, and to be especially loyal to their country, its government, and its institutions.

INDEX.

Ætna, 213

Air brakes, 236

ALLEN, NICHOLAS, 48

ALLSTON, WASHINGTON, 272

Ancient writing, 249

Arc light, 87

ARNOLD, EDWIN, 169

Atlantic Telegraph Co., 281

Automobile, 243

Axe, 25

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 226

BASKERVILLE, JOHN, 254

Bay-Path, 192

BELL, ALEXANDER GRAHAM, 286

Bicycle, 243

Binder, 120

Blackstone canal, 221

BOULTON and WATT, 179

Brooklyn bridge, 239

BRUSH, CHARLES FRANCIS, 85

BURLINGAME, ANSON, 288

Cable, Atlantic, 278

Cable cars, 242

Cables, submarine, 284

CABOT, JOHN, 18

Calashes, 201

Canals, 215

Candelabra, 71

Candles, 67

Canoe, 197

Carrying fire, 52

Central Pacific Railroad, 228

CHAPPE, CLAUDE, 266

Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 221

Chicago and Alton Railroad, 236

Chimneys, 31

CLAYTON, JOHN, 81

"Clermont," 212, 215

"Clinton's big ditch," 221

Coal, 44;
anthracite, 47;
bituminous, 47;
sea, 45

Coffee, 139

Colonial conditions, 143

Colonial cooking, 29, 30

Colonial homes, 24

CONANT, ROGER, 124

Cooking, colonial, 29, 30

CORLISS, GEORGE H., 175, 179

Corn, Indian, 105

Cotton, 150, 153

Cotton gin, 148-151

DARLING, GRACE, 92-94

Delaware and Hudson canal, 221

Dinner, a modern, 131

DODGE, JOHN ADAMS, 174

DRAKE, E. L., 78

Dugout, 197

DUNSTER, REV. HENRY, 254

Dutch ovens, 27

Dynamo, 85

EDISON, THOMAS A., 86

Electric cars, 242

Electric lighting, 85

Electrotyping, 257

Eliot's Indian Bible, 254

ELLSWORTH, MISS, 274

Erie canal, 221

EVANS, OLIVER, 209

FABIUS, 63

FAIRBANKS, RICHARD, 259

FARADAY, MICHAEL, 85

FARMER, MOSES G., 268

FAUST, JOHN, 253

FIELD, CYRUS W., 280

Fire, 14

Fire, carrying, 52

Fireplace, Pennsylvania, 34

Fireplaces, 26

Fishing, whale, 73

FITCH, JOHN, 209

Flail, 109, 120, 123

Flax, 147

Flint, 53

Foods, uncultivated, 99

Fork, 118

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, 34, 68

Franklin press, 255

Franklin stove, 34

Freight, cost of transportation, 218

Fuel, 37

FULTON, ROBERT, 210, 272

Furnaces, 36

Gang plow, 114

Gas, illuminating, 81

Gasometer, 83

GIDEON, 63

Gin, cotton, 148-151

GORE, OBADIAH, 48

GREENE, NATHANIEL, 148

GREENOUGH, J. J., 175

Grist mills, 145

GROVER, WILLIAM O., 175

GUTENBERG, JOHN, 254

HANNIBAL, 63

Harvesting, implements for, 117

Heat, 11

HENNEPIN, FATHER, 46

Hoe, 109

Hoe perfecting press, 253

Homes, colonial, 24

Homes, Indian, 17

HOOD, THOMAS, 173

Horseback, 191

HOWE, ELIAS, 175

HUNT, WALTER, 175

Illuminating gas, 81

Implements for harvesting, 117;
for planting, 111

Incandescent light, 87

Indian Bible, Eliot's, 254

Indian corn, 105

Indian homes, 17

Inns, 205

Iroquois, 19

Irrigation, 127, 128

JACKSON, ANDREW, 156

JEWEL, MARSHALL, 170

Kerosene, 77

Kitchen, a New England, 10

KNIGHT, SARAH, 200

Lamp, modern, 76

Lamps, ancient, 65

Language, 247

Leather, 164

LEIFER, THOMAS, 224

Letters, 247

LEWIS, IDA, 94

Light, arc, 87

Lighthouses, 90

Lighting, electric, 85

Linotype, 257

LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R., 212

Log cabin, 26

LONGSTREET, WILLIAM, 209

Loom, 147

Lord of Padua, 32

Mail car, 262

Matches, 51

MCCORMICK, CYRUS H., 122

Menlo Park, 87

Message, first, across the Atlantic, 282

Middlesex canal, 221

MILES, GENERAL, in New Mexico, 268

Modern land travel, 235;
water travel, 229

Money orders, 261

MOREY, SAMUEL, 209

MORSE, SAMUEL F. B., 270;
his titles and honors, 276

Mower, 117

MURDOCH, WILLIAM, 82

MYER, MAJOR, 266

Needles, 172

NOTT, ELIPHALET, 159

OGLE, HENRY, 122

Oil wells, 79

Ovens, Dutch, 27

Padua, Lord of, 32

PECK, GENERAL, at Suffolk, 267

Pepper, 132

Pine knots, 62

Planter, 115

Planting, implements for, 111

Plow, 109, 112

Plow, sulky, 114

Postage stamps, 261

Postal system, 258

Postmaster-general, 260

Power of speech, 247

Printing press, Franklin, 255;
modern, 246

PROMETHEUS, 15

Pruning hook, 109

Pullman sleeper, 237

Queen of Sheba, 249

Railroad train, old-style, 227

Railroads, 223

Rake, 118

RALEIGH, WALTER, 106

"RAND, OLD MA'AM," 271

Range, 36

Reaper, 120

RUMFORD, COUNT, 33-35

RUMSEY, JAMES, 209

SCHOLFIELD, ARTHUR, 160

SCHOLFIELD, JOHN, 160

_Scots Magazine_, 269

Scribe, ancient, 251

Scythe, 109, 117

Sea coal, 45

Sewing machines, 175

SHOEMAKER, COLONEL, 48

Signal station, Suffolk, 267

Signaling, 265

SINGER, ISAAC M., 175

SLATER, JOHN F., 156

SLATER, SAMUEL, 153

Soil, 124

SOLOMON, 249

Sower, 114

SOWER, CHRISTOPHER, 255

Special delivery, 261

SPOTSWOOD, COLONEL, 260

SQUANTO, 108

Stagecoaches, 200

Steamboats, 207

Steam engine, 178

STEPHENSON, GEORGE, 225

Stereotyping, 257

STEVENS, JOHN, 209

Stockton and Darlington Railway, 226

Stoves, 36

Subway, Boston, 242

Sulky plow, 114

"Sully," packet ship, 272

Suspension bridge, Niagara, 240

Taverns, 206

Telegraph, 270

Telephone, 286

Telephone incident, 290

THIMMONIER, BARTHÉLEMY, 176

THOMPSON, BENJAMIN, 33

THOMPSON, ELIHU, 86

Thresher, 121

Threshing, 123

Tinder box, 53

Torches, 61

Travel by horseback, 191;
by land, 187;
by water, 194

Uncultivated foods, 99

Union Pacific Railroad, 228

United States post offices, 264

University press, 255

Vestal Virgin, 14

Victoria Jubilee, 284

Vinegar, 135

Walter press, 252

WATT, JAMES, 179

Wells, oil, 79

WEST, BENJAMIN, 272

WESTINGHOUSE, GEORGE, JR., 236

Whale fishing, 73

Whale oil, 72

WHITMAN, MARCUS, 168

WHITNEY, ELI, 149

WILSON, ALLEN B., 175

Wool, 158

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| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. |
| |
| Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant |
| form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. |
| |
| Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. |
| |
| Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved between paragraphs |
| and some illustrations have been moved closer to the text that |
| references them. |
| |
| Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, |
| _like this_. Words in bold characters are surrounded by equal |
| signs, =like this=. |
| |
| Duplicated section headings have been omitted. |
| |
| Pp. 176 and 298: Marthélemy Thimonier changed to Barthélemy |
| Timmonier. |
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