Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-09-05
IN THE YEAR 1889.
Revelation Of Some Of the Won
ders Of This Enlightened Age.
Like Unto Fairyland - Travelling 1000
Miles an Hour-Fritz Napoleon Smith
and the Remarkable Features
of the Earth Chronicle"

Following are interesting extracts taken
from Jules Vernes highly entertaining
article in the Forum entitled: 'In the year
2SS9:"
Little though they seem to think Of it, the
people of this twenty-ninth century live
continually in fairy land. Surfeited as they
are with marvels, they are Indifferent In
presence of each new marvel. To them all
seems natural. Could they but duly appre-
ciate the reinements Of civilization in our
day; could they but compare the present
with the past, and so better comprehend
the advance we have made How much
! fairer they would find our modern towns,
with populations amounting sometimes to
10, 600, 600 souls; their streets 300 feet wide,
their houses 1000 feet in height; with a
Temperature the same in all seasons; with
their lines of aerial locomotion crossing the
sky in every directionl Think of
the railroads of the olden time, and you will
be able to appreciate the pneumatic tubes
through which to-day one travels at the
rate of 900 miles an hour. Would not our
contemporaries prize the telephone and the
telephote more highly if they had not for
gotten the telegraph.
Hence Is sprung a pleiad of in
ventors, it's brightest star being our great
Joseph jackson. To jackson we are in
debted for those wonderful instruments,
the new accumulators. Some of these alb
sorb and condense the living force con-
tained in the suns rays; others, the electric
ity stored in our globe; others, again, the
energy coming from whatever source, as a
waterfall, a stream, the winds, etc. He,
too, it was that invented the transformer q
more wonderful contrivance still. which
takes the living force from the accumu-
lator, and, on the simple pressure OF a but
ton, gives it back to space in whatever form
may be desired, whether as heat, light,
electricity, or mechanical force, after hav-
ing first obtained from it the work required
From the day when these two instruments
were contrived is to be dated the era Of
true progress. They have put into the
hands Of man power that Is almost in
finite AS for their applications, they are
numberless Mitigating the rigors of
winter, by giving back to the atmosphere
the surplus heat stored up during the sum
mer, they have revolutionized agriculture.
BY supplying motive power for aerial navi-
cation, they have given to commerce a
mighty impetus. To them we are indebted
for the continuous production OF electricity
without batteries or dynamos, of light with
out combustion or incandescence, and for
an unfailing supply of mechanical energy
for all the needs of industry.
When two hundred years ago
the political center of the United States
was transferred from Washington to
Centropolis, the Manhattan Chronicle,
founded many years previous by George
Washington Smith, followed the Govern
ment and assumed the name of Earth
Chronicle. Pressed on all sides by rival
journals of n more modern type, it was con-
uuually in danger Of collapse. Twenty years
ago its subscription list contained but a few
hundred thousand names, and then Mr..
FRITZ Napoleon Smith--romote descendant
of the original founder and owner bought
it for mere tritie ard originated telephone
journalism.
Instead OF being printed, the
Earth Chronicle is every morning spoken to
who, in interesting conversa-
lions with reporters, statesmen and scien-
lists, learn the news of the day. Further
more, each subscriber owns a phonograph,
and To this instrument he leaves the task
Of gathering the news whenever he happens
not 70 be In u mood TO listen directly him
self, As for purchases of single copies,
they can ut very triiilng cost learn all that
IS in the paper Of the day at any of the
numerous Photographs set up nearly every
where
In the course OF few years the number
II subscribers grew 20 DO eighty-iive mill
ons, and Smiths wealth went on growing,
i'll now II reaches the almost unimaginable
igure OF ten billion dollars. This lucky hit
las enabled him 10 erect his new building
n Two Hundred and Fifty third avenue, a
IA > A. d,
II length, over which proudly floats the hun
ired starred fag Of the Union.
Owing 90 1.-The progress OF hygiene which
lbates all the old sources OF unhcal,hful
less 10 tho compounding and preparing Of
ood according 70 scientific principles
which is received through food pipes from
he Grand Ahmentation Company cStab- ]
'shment-and 10 the fact that "the a,mos. /
here is freed from the micro organisms I
hat formerly used 10 swarm in it," Mr. Z
smith is enabled 10 withstand the tromeu l
Gus STRAIN under which he is constantly I
Laced IN the performance OF his mGhiiarl F.
us duties. "Nain the attempt 10 estimate /
he amount OF labor he undergoes ="
This morning Mr.. Fritz Napoleon Smith .
woke in a very bad humor, His wife hav.
* lett for France eight days ago. he was
eehng disconsolate. Tho first
aing that Mr.. Smith does Is 10 connect his
the wires Of which COM
'anicate with his Paris mansion. Thetele-
hotel Here Is another of tho great tr,-
lnphs OF science Ia our time. The trlns-
llssion Of speech is an old story; tho trans
'ission OF images by means Of sensitive
irrors Connected by wires Is a thing but
yesterday, She Is talking. pr,-
'aneins . nAne-Ais nsms-Friui Tue