It is most natural for every thoughtful person to ask, how is this and why? The ready and superficial answer is that “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and that the American people, by the conditions of life surrounding them, have been compelled to invent. But surely such an answer can not be considered satisfactory. There are two events in modern times that no philosopher, physicist, ethnologist or theologian has up to this time fully measured, and much less has been able to estimate their relation to the future of humanity. The first of these events is the vast migration of the peoples of the Old World to the New, by which, within the last sixty years 12,000,000 of human beings, most of them young men and women, have left Europe to make their homes in the United States. God only knows the importance and significance of this movement. The second marvelous event of these days in which we live is the sweep and triumph of invention. It is worth considering that the steam power of the United States represents more than the entire muscular force of all the able-bodied men in the world. And the improvements in machinery represent immeasurable conquests of mind in the realm of matter. It does not take omniscience to apprehend, to some extent, the fact that these things must affect the destiny of the whole family of mankind. With such thoughts as these in mind one walks amid these minute or ponderous contrivances for the application of power, with something of the reverence and wonder felt by Moses when he stood in the presence of the bush that burned but was not consumed. It is evident that God, the Eternal Ruler of all things, is in the midst of these “flying wheels.”
One of the most interesting exhibits is that made of the live stock. The spirited, clean-limbed trotting stock of Kentucky is here. The little Shetland ponies are side by side with the vast Normans. Some of the full grown ponies are so small that a strong man could easily toss one of them to his shoulders, but a Norman that weighs more than 2,000 pounds is altogether a different creature. The Clydesdales may be good for draft horses, but their enormous fetlocks so disfigure their feet and legs as to make them appear homely and uncouth. The Normans and Percherons do not have this disfigurement. They are magnificent in size, some of them black and glossy as anthracite coal, others are deep bay, almost a rich mahogany color, others are dapple gray, from very dark to very light, and two of them are as white as milk. To any one who loves horses this show is worth the travel of a thousand miles. It would make the heart of Rosa Bonheur glad to walk through the stables; and if the finest of the horses could be grouped together under her artistic eye she would have all she could wish for one of her famous pictures. These, or such as these, Job had in mind when he wrote: “Thou hast given the horse strength, thou hast clothed his neck with thunder. He mocketh at fear and is not affrighted, he rejoiceth in his strength.”