美国学生历史 第176期:1860年的美国(6)

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The electric telegraph was now in common use. 此时电报已经投入日常使用，

It enabled the newspapers to tell the people what was going on as they never had done before. 它使得报纸可以告诉人们外界正发生着他们之前从没有做过的事。

Perhaps the invention that did as much as any one thing to make life easier was the sewing machine. 也许使得生活更为轻松的发明是缝纫机。

Elias Howe was the first man to make a really practicable sewing machine. 伊莱亚斯·豪是第一个制作出真正可以使用的缝纫机的人，

Other inventors improved upon it, and also made machines to sew other things than cloth, as leather. 其他发明家对之做出改进，还使得缝纫机可以缝制布料以外的东西，如皮革。

Agricultural machinery¹ was now in common use. 此时农业机械也得到普遍使用，

The horse reaper² had been much improved, and countless³ machines had been invented to make agricultural labor⁴ more easy and economical. 马拉收割机已经得到大幅改进，人们发明数不清的机械使农业劳动变得更为容易和有效。

Hundreds of homely⁵ articles, as friction⁶ matches and rubber shoes, came into use in these years. 在这些年间，数以百计如火柴、胶鞋这样的发明也投入使用。

In short, the thirty years from Jackson’s inauguration⁷ to the secession of the Southern states were years of great progress. 总而言之，从杰克森宣誓就职到南方各州宣布退出联邦的这三十年是取得巨大进步的三十年。

But this progress was confined almost wholly to the North. 但是，这些进步几乎完全是在北方取得，

In the South, living in 1860 was about the same as it had been in 1830, or even in 1800. 而在南方，1830年的生活和1860年的生活没有什么两样，甚至与1800年的生活也没有什么两样。

As a Southern orator⁸ said of the South, “The rush and whirl of modern civilization passed her by.” 一名南方的演讲家这样说南方：“现代文明的激流和漩涡，与它擦肩而过。”

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