XIV.
 

' O, for the time wl
The woful when;
Ha !  what a chang
 

rSgO the past we must look for true romance; the retro-
)spective ideal is the real to-day. The imagery of
I Arabian story has found its fullest realization in the
/^^®) commonplaces of the present, and the jewels that the
idle boy discovered in the subterranean caves have since been
brought to light, and made to contribute to the necessities of the
exploring mind that had the courage and the energy to demand
such tribute. For the most startling changes and unexampled
progress, we need go no further back than the memory of men now
living ; for who can contemplate the changes of the last half-century,
and not be overcome with special wonder ? Not so much that we
are in possession of such marvelous facilities for the enjoyment of
life, as that our grandfathers and fathers could at all manage to exist
upon the limited resources which the world then afforded. Within
the time we speak of, a journey from New York to Albany occupied
a week, gas was unknown as an illuminating agent, the people of
this metropolis bought drinking water at a penny a pail, and the only
protection afforded our citizens against the ravages of conflagration
was a voluntary fire department. And it is to the changes in this
particular that I invite attention, although my exordium may have
indicated a disposition to record Time's vicissitudes for a half-hun¬
dred years.