Wichita eagle., 1889-02-15
IN TIE YEAR 1889.
revelation Of Some OF the Won.
ders OF This Enlightened Age.

'Efso Unto FairyIand - Travelling 100
Miles an Hour-Fr:tz Napoleon Smith
and the Remarkable Features
Of the " Earth Chronicle"
Following are interesting extracts talzel
from jules Verne's highly entertaInin;
article in the Forum entitled: 'sIn the yea
ESQ.,
Little though they seem to think of If, tn,
people of this twenty-ninth century ivt
continually in fairyland. Surfeited as they
are with marvels, they are Indifferent il
presence of each new marvel. TO them al
seems natural. Could they but duly appre
ciate the refrements of civilization in oul
day; could they but compare the present
with the past, and so better comprehend
the advance we have madei How much
fairer they would find our modern towns
with populations amounting sometimes tC
10,000, 900 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 locomotio crossing the
sky in every directioni q Think Of
the railroads Of the olden time, and you Will
be able to appreciate the pneumatic tubes
through which today 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 plead Of in
ventors, its brightest star being our great
Joseph Jackson. To Jackson we are in
debted for those wonderful instruments,
the new accunulators. SOme of these ab-
sorb and condense the living force con-
tanned IL 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, 1t was that invented the transformer, a
more wonderful contrivance still, which
takes the living force from the accumu-
lator, and, on the simple pressure of a but
ton, gives il back to space in whatever form
may be desired, whether as heat, light,
electricity, or mechanical force, after hav-
In 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
numberlessA 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 tbs continuous production Of electricity
without batteries or dynamos, of light with
out combustion or incandescence, and for
sn unfailng supply of mechanical energy
for all the needs Of industry.
y
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 AMI assumed the name of Earth
Chronicle. Pressed on all sides by rival
journals OF a more modern type, it was con-
tinually in danger of collapse. Twenty years
ago its subscription hist contained but few
hundred thousand names, and then Mr.
FRITZ Napoleon Smith-remote descendant
of the original founder and owner-bought
il for mere trifle and originated telephone
journalism.
Instead of being printed, the
Earth Chronicle is every morning spoken TO
who, in interesting conversa-
tons 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 TO be In a mood TO listen directly him
self. As for purchases Of single copies,
they can at very trifing cost learn all that
Is in tie paper of the day at any of the
Photographs set up nearly every
where.
In the course of few years the number
of subscribers grew to be eighty-fve mill
ions, and Smiths wealth went ON growing
till now It reaches the almost uninaginable
figure of ten billion dollars. This lucky hit
has enabled him to erect his new building
In Two Hundred and FIfty-third avenue. g.
vast edli1ce With four facsdes, each $3.50 feet
n length, over which proudly floats the hun
ared- starred flag of the Union.
Owing to 'the progress Of hygiene which
sbates all the old sources of unhealthful-
ness TO the compoundirg ard preparing of
God according 10 scientific p-inciples''-
which is received through food-pipes from
he Grand Authorization Company 5 estsb-
to the fact that 1.-The atmos-
here is freed from the micro organisms
hat formerly used TO swarm in IL" Mr..
Smith is enabled TO withstand the tremen-
lous STRAIN under which he is constantly
'iaced In tie performance of his multifari-
us duties. "Vain the attempt to estimate
of labor he undergoes.
This morning Mr.. Fritz Napoleon Smith
woke in a very oa6 humor. His wife hay
ng left for France eight days ago, he was
ceiling disconsolate The nrst
hing that Mr.. Smith does is 20 connect his
the wires OF which COM
npnicaoe with his Paris mansion. The tele-
'hotel Here is another of the great tri-
imphs Of science in our time. Tie trans
MISSION of speech is an Old story: the trans
MISSION of images by means of sensitive
mirrors connected by wires Is a thing but
4 yesterday. y She is talking, pro-
ouncng name-his name-Fritzl The
delightful vision gave happier turn TO Mr..
smith thoughts. And now, at the cali OF
duty, ight-hearted he springs
rom his bed and enters his mechanical
.resser.
Two minutes later the machine deposited
I'm al dressed at the threshold OF his Of
Ice. The round of journalistic work was
low begun. First re enters the hall of tha
ovel writer's, a vast apartment crowned
Fath an enormous transn arent curolaA In