The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1892-06-17

. I
Chsrles Dudley Warmer, ID the Editors Drawer
n Harper Magazina for June.
We are quite in the electric way.
We boast that we have made electric
| ity orr slave, bnt the slave whom We
10 not understand ID Cur master. And
before nc know him We shall be trans.
formed. Mr. Edison proposes to send
rs over the country a The rate Of one
hundred miles and hour. This pIeases
MS, because we fancy we shall save
time, and because we arc taught thai
the chief object In life is to tgel
there" quickly. We really have al
idea thar ae matter of personal ex
psrience We are already too near mos,
people. But this speed ~ rail vii
enable us to live in Philadelphia and
do business 10 New York. 1t will
maksthe city Of Ohicago 200 mlles
square. And the bigger Chicago IL
the more important the world becomes.
This pleasing snticlpaiion-that OF
travelling by lightning and all being
hndled togetheF---is nothing TO tht
promised universal illumination by 3
dlflused light that shall make midnight
rs bright as MONDAY. We shalt then
save all the time there Is, and at the
ago of thirty five have lived the allotted
seventy years, and long, If not for
Gotterdammernng, at least for some
world where, BY touching q button
we can discharge our limbs of cleo.
trieitY and take little repose. The
most restless and ambitious of Ms can
hardly conceive Of Chicago as a tlesir
able iutnre state Of existence.
This, however, is only the external
or superficial view of the subject; at
the best IL is only symbolical. Mr.
Edison is wasting his time IN objective
experiments, while we are 10 the
deepest ignorance as to our electric
personalily or our personal electricity.
Wsbeginto apprebeRd thatweare cleo
trio beings, that these outward man
ifsatati0Bs Of . snbtls form are only
hints Of our internal state. Mr. Edison
should turn bis attention from physics
to humanity electrically considered ~
its social condition. We have heard
a great deal about afliuitIes. We are
told that one person Is positive aud
another negative, and that represent.
inc socially opposite poles they should
come together and make 40 electric
harmony, that two positives or two
negatives Tepel each other, and if
conVentiOnally united end an divorce.
and 90 on. We read that such man
Is magnetic, meaning that he Can poll
great many votes; or that such
woman thrilled her audience, meaning
probably that they we're 10 an electric
condition to be shocked by her. Now
TINS IS what we want to fud QUITO
know II persons are really magnetic
or sympathetic, and how to tell
whether apersOn is positive or mega
tive. 10 politics we are quite at sea.
What is the good of sending man
to Washington at the rate Of bnn.
dred miles an bOnr If we are uncerraln
'f bis electric state? The ideal bouse
OF representative sought TO be pretty |
nearly baIsDeed-half positive, half
negative. Some congresses seem to
be made up pretty much of negatives.
The time for the electrician TO test
The candidate is before be is put 10
nomination, not dump him into con.
gress as we do now, utterly ignorant
OF whether has currents run from his
heels to his head or from his head to
his heels, uncertain, indeed, as to
whether he has magDetismtto rnn 10 al
all. Nothing could be more unscien-
tlhc than the process and the result.