At the present writing it has not been decided who will succeed Grant in the Executive chair. We cannot permit our name to be used in connection with the approaching canvass for reasons already explicitly stated; besides this is the Centennial year, and we expect to have our hands full. We have now placed the reader in possession of all the facts worth knowing in connection with the history of America from its very earliest discovery up to ten o’clock last night; but before finally releasing his button-hole we beg to “show him round” a little among our peculiar institutions, and call his attention to a few evidences of national greatness which may never have struck him before. Let us, then, turn over a new leaf and open a new chapter. _CHAPTER XXVI._ PROGRESS. OUR PATENT OFFICE REPORT—IS NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION?—A CASE IN CONTRADICTION—ELECTRICAL KITE—THE COTTON GIN—THE FIRST RAILWAY TRAIN—THE FIRST STEAMBOAT—THE PRINTING PRESS—THE ATLANTIC CABLE—MORMONISM—AN APPARATUS—ART MATTERS. Popular superstition has it that necessity is the mother of invention. We are sorry to deprive the world of an old saying, but we happen to know a person to whom the world is indebted for more useful inventions than any other person of our acquaintance, and her name is Accident. For instance, [Illustration: _FRANKLIN AND HIS KITE_ ] ELECTRICITY was accidentally discovered by that famous American statesman and philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, while indulging in his favorite pastime of flying a kite. He ascertained that it was unsafe to fly a kite in a thunder storm unless you have a lightning rod attached to your spinal column. This important discovery conferred upon society the priceless boon of the lightning-rod man. THE COTTON-GIN is an American invention, but whether it compares favorably with “Old Tom” or “London Dock” we are unable to say. We do not believe in stimulants as a rule, yet it cannot be denied that the introduction of the new-fangled gin greatly stimulated the cultivation of cotton in America. [Illustration: _Cotton Gin._ ] THE FIRST RAILWAY TRAIN. America took the lead in railroad construction, though the locomotive is claimed as an English contrivance. The first railway train was a somewhat crude affair, but it succeeded in making a sensation. The locomotive was built by Peter Cooper, and he it was who ran the machine on its experimental trip.