many men as were formerly required to handle the
straw and chaff. About the same time, also, the device for weighing and
measuring the grain was perfected. The "traction" engine has now
replaced the one which had to be drawn by teams, and this not only
propels itself but also draws the separator and other loads after it
from place to place. In all this progress the machinery has constantly
become more and more perfect and the cylinder and capacity of the
machine greater and greater. Not many years ago, six hundred bushels in
a day was considered a big record in the threshing of wheat. Now the
large machines separate, or thresh out, between three and four thousand
bushels in one day. Such has been the development in reaping machines
from the sickle to the self-binder, and in threshing machines from the
flail to the modern marvel just described.

=Improvement in Ocean Travel.=--A similar story may be told in regard to
ocean traffic and ocean travel. Our ancestors came from foreign lands on
sailing ships that required from three weeks to several months to cross
the Atlantic. I am acquainted with a German immigrant who, many years
ago, left a seaport town of Germany on January 1st and landed at Castle
Garden in New York City on the 4th of July. The inconvenience of travel
under such circumstances was equal to the slowness of the journey. In
those days leaving home in the old country meant never again seeing
one's relatives and friends. If such conditions are compared with those
of to-day we can readily realize the vast progress that has been made.
To-day the great ocean liners cross the Atlantic in a little more than
five days. These magnificent "ocean greyhounds" are fitted out with all
modern conveniences and improvements, so that one is as comfortable in
them and as safe as he is in one of the best hotels of the large cities.

=From Hand-spinning to Factory.=--Weaving in former times was done
entirely by hand. Fifty years ago private weavers were found in almost
every community. Wool was raised, carded, spun, and woven, and the
garments were all made, practically, within the household. All that is
now past. In the great manufacturing establishments one man at a lever
does the work of 250 or 500 people. This great industrial advancement
has taken place within the memory of people now living. And similar
progress has been made in almost every other line of human endeavor.

=The Cost.=--Very few people realize what it has