Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1897 — A WONDERFUL CHANGE. [ARTICLE]

A WONDERFUL CHANGE.

Hew a Few Hundred Tear* Altered the Fece of Europe. At the beginning of the eleventh century the towns of Europe were email duetera of miserable hots, adorned with but low, clumsy churches, the builders of which hardly knew how to make an arch; the ana, mostly consisting of some weaving and forging, were In their Infancy; learning was fonnd In bnt few monasteries. Three hundred and fifty years later the face of Europe had been changed. The land was dotted with rich cities, surrounded by Immense thick wells, which were Imbellished by towers and gates, each of them a work of art In Itself. The eathedrals, conceived in grand style and profusely decorated, lifted their bell towers to the skies, displaying a purity of form and a boldness of Imagination which we now vainly strive to obtain. The crafts and aits had risen to a degree of perfection which we can hardly boast of having superseded in many directions, If the Inventive skill of the worker and the superior finish of bis work be appreciated higher than rapidity of fabrication. The navies of the free eltles furrowed In all directions the Northern and Southern Mediterranean; one effort more and they would cross the oceans. Over large tracts of land well-being bad taken the place of misery; learning had grown and spread. The methods of science had been elaborated; the basis of natural philosophy nad been laid down; and the way had been paved for all the mechanical inrentkms of which our own times are et proud. Such were the magic changtfj accomplished In Europe In less than 480 years. And the losses which Europe the loss of its free cities caff only be understood when we compare the seventeenth century with the fourteenth or thirteenth. The prosperity which formerly characterized Scotland, Germany, the plains of Italy, was gone. The roads had fallen Into an abject state, the cities were depopulated, labor was brought Into slavery, art had vanished, commerce Itself was decaying.