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48 - Story Of The World- A Simple History For Boys And Girls by Elizabeth O'Neill · Story Of The World- A Simple History For Boys And Girls

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  Speaker 1: Chapter forty eight of the Story of the World A
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  Speaker 1: Simple History for Boys and Girls. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
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  Speaker 1: by Wayne Cook. The Story of the World A Simple
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  Speaker 1: History for Boys and Girls by Elizabeth O'Neill, chapter forty eight.
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  Speaker 1: Our World Today. Our world today is very different from
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  Speaker 1: the world of even a hundred years ago. Children who
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  Speaker 1: have not had time to see many changes can hardly
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  Speaker 1: understand how different it is. A hundred years ago, steam
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  Speaker 1: engines were only just being thought of. Before that, things
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  Speaker 1: had to be carried along rough roads in wagons from
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  Speaker 1: place to place. People who were rich enough traveled on
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  Speaker 1: horseback or in carriages, and for ordinary travelers in the
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  Speaker 1: eighteen century there were stagecoaches which traveled between the biggest
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  Speaker 1: towns very slowly and painfully for all over England and
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  Speaker 1: other countries too. The roads were very bad. Now, when
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  Speaker 1: we want to go to another town, we step into
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  Speaker 1: a railway train which carries us there at the rate
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  Speaker 1: of from thirty to sixty miles an hour. Even when
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  Speaker 1: the roads had begun to be made better, and the
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  Speaker 1: ruts four foot deep got rid of. Toward the end
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  Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century, it took three whole days for
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  Speaker 1: a letter to be carried from Bath to London. Now
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  Speaker 1: we can post a letter in any town in England
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  Speaker 1: or Scotland and know that it will reach London by
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  Speaker 1: the next morning. In those days, families did not break
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  Speaker 1: up and scatter all over the world. When they did,
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  Speaker 1: it was very difficult for them to get news of
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  Speaker 1: each other. Even after Queen Victoria began to reign in England,
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  Speaker 1: people had generally to pay at least least a shilling
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  Speaker 1: for a letter to be sent to another part of England.
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  Speaker 1: But then it was arranged that letters could be sent
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  Speaker 1: to any part of the British Isles for a penny,
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  Speaker 1: And now a penny stamp will carry a letter to
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  Speaker 1: our friends in any of the British colonies, so that
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  Speaker 1: though people are separated by such enormous distances, they feel
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  Speaker 1: in some ways nearer to each other than people in
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  Speaker 1: different parts of England did one hundred years ago. The
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  Speaker 1: first real passenger train began to run in England in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty. It went at the rate of twenty miles
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  Speaker 1: an hour, which seemed very terrible and dangerous to people then,
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  Speaker 1: and sad to say, one man was killed on the
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  Speaker 1: opening day of this railway between Liverpool and Manchester. Now
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  Speaker 1: our express trains go at the rate of sixty miles
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  Speaker 1: an hour. By this time it was found that steam
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  Speaker 1: could be used to drive ships instead of waiting for
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  Speaker 1: wind to fill the It was thought very wonderful when
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  Speaker 1: a steamer called the Great Western crossed the Atlantic from
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  Speaker 1: Bristol to New York in fifteen days. Now it is
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  Speaker 1: regularly done in a week. More wonderful than the discovery
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  Speaker 1: of steam was that of electricity. Through it, people can
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  Speaker 1: send messages by telegram, so that news can be had
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  Speaker 1: in a few minutes from places miles away, and through
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  Speaker 1: its use on the telephone, people can speak to each
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  Speaker 1: other from place to place, even from cities so far
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  Speaker 1: apart as Paris and London. Cables enclosing telegraph wires have
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  Speaker 1: been laid down on the ocean floor from England to America,
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  Speaker 1: and cablegrams can be sent so that in a few
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  Speaker 1: hours people in any part of America can have news
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  Speaker 1: from friends in Europe. Submarine cables are now laid between
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  Speaker 1: many places all over the world. But in the last
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  Speaker 1: few years an inventor called Marconi has discovered that messages
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  Speaker 1: can be sent by electricity between two instruments without any
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  Speaker 1: wires at all. This would have seemed like magic to
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  Speaker 1: people one hundred years ago. It is a very wonderful
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  Speaker 1: and important discovery. Already it has been very useful ships
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  Speaker 1: in distress which have wireless instruments can ask for help
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  Speaker 1: from other ships miles away. It was through the wireless
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  Speaker 1: messages by Phillips, the heroic telegraphist on the great steamer
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  Speaker 1: the Titanic, which was wrecked in nineteen twelve that help
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  Speaker 1: came from the Carpathia, and the people who had been
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  Speaker 1: got into the lifeboats before the steamer sank were saved.
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  Speaker 1: Almost like magic, too, it seems that photographs can also
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  Speaker 1: be sent by electricity, so that photographs of a football
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  Speaker 1: match or any interesting event can be sent from the
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  Speaker 1: place it has happened in, such as Leads or Manchester,
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  Speaker 1: and the pictures will be published in the London evening
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  Speaker 1: papers an hour or two later. The daily newspaper, again
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  Speaker 1: is a thing that was quite new to our great grandfathers.
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  Speaker 1: There were daily papers in London at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, but they were few and expensive. After
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  Speaker 1: the middle of the nineteenth century they became common in
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  Speaker 1: other large towns, and now very few people feel quite
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  Speaker 1: happy without their morning and evening paper, in which they
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  Speaker 1: may read the things that have happened all over the
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  Speaker 1: world the day before, things the news of which would
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  Speaker 1: have taken weeks and months and even years to come
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  Speaker 1: to us before the days of telegrams. Electricity is used,
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  Speaker 1: of course for light and heat, and new houses nearly
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  Speaker 1: everywhere have electric light, while even gas light was not
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  Speaker 1: known a hundred years ago when people used candles or
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  Speaker 1: oil lamps. In the last few years, too, it has
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  Speaker 1: been discovered that man can tra travel through the air
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  Speaker 1: quicker and more smoothly than by the quickest express trains.
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  Speaker 1: The great invention of the airship has come to us
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  Speaker 1: within the last few years. Every few weeks some improvement
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  Speaker 1: is made, and airmen are learning to manage their ships
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  Speaker 1: more easily. But as yet things are only at the beginning,
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  Speaker 1: and already many brave airmen have lost their lives as
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  Speaker 1: brave pioneers must often do. People talk of the days
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  Speaker 1: when nations will no longer fight at sea with the
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  Speaker 1: great ironclad warships, which also were first built in the
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  Speaker 1: nineteenth century, but will fight their battles in the air
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  Speaker 1: with fleets of airships. Balloons were invented at the end
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  Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century. In them, also men can go
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  Speaker 1: through the air, but at first they could only go,
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  Speaker 1: like sailing ships, in the direction in which they were
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  Speaker 1: sent by the wind. Now, however, in the last few years,
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  Speaker 1: airmen have discovered how to make balloons go in any
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  Speaker 1: direction they wish, and the dirigible balloons are thought to
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  Speaker 1: be more useful by many people than even airships. Several
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  Speaker 1: airmen have now crossed the English Channel, and prizes are
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  Speaker 1: being offered for the first flight right round England and Scotland,
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  Speaker 1: and the first flight across the Atlantic. So we live
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  Speaker 1: in a world of change and adventure. Brave and clever
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  Speaker 1: people are doing wonderful things every day to try to
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  Speaker 1: make the world a more comfortable place. But even more
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  Speaker 1: wonderful than these changes in the things around us, changes,
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  Speaker 1: most of which have begun in England and have spread
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  Speaker 1: all over the world, are the changes which have come
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  Speaker 1: over the minds of men in most countries. Now men
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  Speaker 1: may believe as they like, and religion is a matter
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  Speaker 1: for each person to settle for himself. This spirit of
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  Speaker 1: toleration and freedom is the thing which we ought to
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  Speaker 1: value most of all the things which make our world
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  Speaker 1: to day different from the world of a hundred years ago.
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  Speaker 1: At the beginning of the night eighteenth century, the laws
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  Speaker 1: against Catholics which prevented them from taking part in the
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  Speaker 1: government of their countries were withdrawn in England in Ireland.
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  Speaker 1: For hundreds of years, the Catholics in England and Ireland
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  Speaker 1: had been looked upon almost as criminals, and very hard
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  Speaker 1: laws had been passed against them. This was especially terrible
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  Speaker 1: in Ireland, where nearly all the people were Catholic. Up
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  Speaker 1: to this time, the Irish had had their own parliament,
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  Speaker 1: but only Protestants could sit in it or even vote
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  Speaker 1: for the people who became members of parliament. But now
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  Speaker 1: this is changed, and at last the Catholic Irish were
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  Speaker 1: given the ordinary rights of citizens. The Irish Parliament was however,
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  Speaker 1: given up, and Ireland for the future sent members to
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  Speaker 1: the English Parliament, as Scotland had already done for one
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  Speaker 1: hundred years. Many of the Irish have never been pleased
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  Speaker 1: with this arrangement, and Ireland may soon have home rule again,
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  Speaker 1: but Catholic emancipation it was only one sign of a
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  Speaker 1: new spirit which was passing over the world. The new
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  Speaker 1: democratic spirit is seen too in the education of children.
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  Speaker 1: In nearly all countries. Now children are sent to schools
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  Speaker 1: which the governments keep up so that even the poorest
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  Speaker 1: people can give their children a good education. Hundred years ago,
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  Speaker 1: very many of the people could not read or write
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  Speaker 1: at all, and especially miserable were the children of poor
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  Speaker 1: people in England at the end of the eighteenth century.
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  Speaker 1: In the beginning of the nineteenth in the second half
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  Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century, manufactures had grown very quickly in England.
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  Speaker 1: Things which had before been made by people in their
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  Speaker 1: homes in the country were now made much more quickly
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  Speaker 1: in great factories built in the towns. This was through
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  Speaker 1: the invention of new machines. It was now found that
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  Speaker 1: even children could help to work these machines, and little
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  Speaker 1: children of six and seven years old were crowded into
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  Speaker 1: the factories, working from early morning till dark. But soon
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  Speaker 1: this was changed. Laws were passed which said that children
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  Speaker 1: should no longer work in the factories until they were older,
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  Speaker 1: and then only for a few hours. Now, no boy
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  Speaker 1: or girl is allowed to leave school until fourteen years
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  Speaker 1: of age, and so every child has a chance of
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  Speaker 1: learning things that will help it to live a wise
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  Speaker 1: and happy life. The children of the British Empire, whether
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  Speaker 1: in Great Britain or the colonies, have also the joy
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  Speaker 1: of feeling that they belong to a great race, that
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  Speaker 1: all over the world, people speaking their language and loving
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  Speaker 1: their country, are living their lives in their own way.
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  Speaker 1: They can like and admire the people of other nations,
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  Speaker 1: but they cannot help loving the people of their own empire.
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  Speaker 1: It is this feeling of loyalty to the nation and
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  Speaker 1: the Empire that led to the setting up of Boy
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  Speaker 1: Scouts in England, a great movement which has now spread
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  Speaker 1: to other countries. For while we wish that peace may
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  Speaker 1: be kept between the nations, we naturally feel determined to
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  Speaker 1: be ready to defend our empire if that peace is broken.
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  Speaker 1: In reading history, children nearly always feel glad that they
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  Speaker 1: were born in their own time, and not in the
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  Speaker 1: past when there was so much cruelty in bloodshed. For unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: in many parts of the story of the world, it
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  Speaker 1: is tales of cruelty and intolerance which have to be told.
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  Speaker 1: But then too, there are the tales of the heroes
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  Speaker 1: and saints and martyrs, the pioneers and discoverers, and all
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  Speaker 1: who have done their part to make our world to
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  Speaker 1: day a better place. This is one of the great
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  Speaker 1: lessons of history, that we too should do our part
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  Speaker 1: honorably and well. And in reading the Story of the World,
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  Speaker 1: think not only of the romance of the past and present,
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  Speaker 1: but of the romance of the future too, and of
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  Speaker 1: section forty eight, and of the story of the World.
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  Speaker 1: A Simple History for Boys and Girls by Elizabeth O'Neill