The National tribune., 1882-04-29
One Hundred Years Hence,

| One Hundred Years Hence.
Edmund About, the well-known French
novelist, in his story entitled "The Man
With Broken Ear" has given us a very
entertaining analysis of the feelings of man
who, after being kept in state of suspended
animation for an entire generation, is sud
denly restored to life, and confronted with
the changes that have taken place in the
meantime, and our own Washington irving
in his quaint story of Rip Van Winkle, has
lndulged similar fancy. Has the imagina-
ton of our readers, slipping the cables that
bind it to the present age, ever led them to
conjecture what the world will be like a
hundred years hence? 1t is, perhaps, a
useless speculation, but it is nevertheless
not without certain fascination for the
curious
A year ago the Boston Globe published q
special edition dated January /, 1881, in
which such an attempt was made to realize
the changes of the century, and the concep-
ton, it must be owned, was very cleverly
carried out, but, as might naturally be ex-
pected, all the marvellous achievements of
science and art which it recorded were
merely the exaggerated development of dis
coveries and inventions already known
Thus, description was given of collision
ON an aerial railway line-merely an expan
sion of the theory of modern ballooning; of
the lighting Of theatre with stored sum
hght-which the immutable laws of science
tell US will always be thing incapable of
accomplishing; of the artificial freezing of
lakes and rivers to break up the ice monop-
oly-which is but ludicrous travesty on
well known chemical process; of the inven-
ton OF cOld-blast cannon which kill by re-
frigeration instead of with bullets-and
many other equally amusing conceits, al
though none of them transcend the limits
Of modern comprehension, however improb
able they may seem. Anyone with lively
fancy and fair knowledge of the forces of
nature, SO far as science has made them
known to us, can create for himself such
prodigies of achievement as we have quoted
But it is as likely as not that the course
of development in the next hundred years
will be radically at variance with that which
experience naturally leads us to expect
New forces, as surprising in their effects as
once were steam and electricity, may be dis
covered, and once more change the entire
direction of human effort. Will any scien-
tist affirm that investigation has yet pene-
trated all the sources of physical power,
when it has not yet solved all the mysteries
of known forces? 1t will be time enough
to consider that possibility when our sa-
wants have settled among themselves the
still undecided question as to why boilers
explode at times when, according to their
own declarations, boilers cannot explode
We flatter ourselves that we are not as in
credulous concerning the possibilities of dis
covery as our forefathers were We are highly
amused on reading of the popular skepticism
with which the projectors of the first rail
way, the first steamboat, and the first tele-
graph line had to contend, yet, after all, it is
doubtful whether we are really whit more
far sighted than were the contemporaries of
Fulton, or Watts, or Morse. Indeed, it
would be unreasonable to expect it to be
otherwise, since it is not the habit of the
human mind to venture beyond the limits
of the finite, and those who amuse them
selves with speculating upon what the world
will be a hundred years hence, can only be
certain that it will not be what they mag
inc. We cannot even be sure that the pend
ing pension claims will be settled by that
time.