A recent bulletin on printing and publishing issued by the Census Bureau of the United States government showed that there were in the United States 21,394 newspapers and periodicals, printed in twenty-seven different languages. Of these, 2,452 were daily; 15,046 weekly; 2,500 monthly; 353 quarterly; 58 tri-weekly; 645 semi-weekly; and 340 of all other kinds. 20,184 of these papers were English; 619 German; 158 Scandinavian; 58 Italian; 41 French; 44 Bohemian; 31 Spanish; 18 Hebrew; 21 Dutch; 7 Chinese; 9 Japanese; 5 Greek; 46 Polish; 5 Hungarian; 3 Arabic; and two each in the Welsh, Syrian and Gaelic languages. The capital invested in printing and publishing in the United States was a little more than $385,000,000. It would take one person twelve hours a day every day for six thousand years, or from the beginnings of Egyptian and Babylonian civilization to the dawn of the twentieth century, to read at an average rate all the papers published in the United States during a single year. CHAPTER III THE STEAM ENGINE THE SONG OF STEAM BY GEORGE WASHINGTON CUTTER Harness me down with your iron bands; Be sure of your curb and rein; For I scorn the power of your puny hands, As the tempest scorns a chain. How I laughed as I lay concealed from sight For many a countless hour, At the childish boast of human might, And the pride of human power. When I saw an army upon the land, A navy upon the seas, Creeping along, a snail-like band, Or waiting the wayward breeze; When I marked the peasant faintly reel With the toil which he daily bore, As he feebly turned the tardy wheel, Or tugged at the weary oar; When I measured the panting courser's speed, The flight of the courier dove, As they bore the law a king decreed, Or the lines of impatient love,-- I could not but think how the world would feel, As these were outstripped afar, When I should be bound to the rushing keel, Or chained to the flying car; Ha, ha! they found me out at last; They invited me forth at length; And I rushed to my throne with a thunder-blast, And I laughed in my iron strength. Oh, then ye saw a wondrous change On the earth and the ocean wide, Where now my fiery armies range, Nor wait for wind and tide. Hurrah! hurrah! the waters o'er; The mountain's steep decline; Time--space--have yielded to my power; The world--the world is mine! The rivers the sun hath earliest blest, Or those where his beams decline; The giant streams of the queenly West, And the Orient floods divine. The ocean pales where'er I sweep, I in my strength rejoice; And the monsters of the briny deep Cower, trembling, at my voice. I carry the wealth and the lord of earth, The thoughts of his god-like mind; The wind lags after my going forth, The lightning is left behind.