Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-02-20
THE AGE OF ALUMINIUM
The World Shall Shine with
New Luster.
TWENTIETH CENTURY PROPHECY.

Professor Ridpath Foresees Great Things.
Secretary Noble on the Development of
the west-Secretary Foster and II. Wal
ter Webb on Railway speed-Shan We
Have a New White Houseq
Copyright, 1893, by American Press Associa-
tion.l
Among the greatest changes which the
fifth Columbian year will discover will be
the substitution of aluminium for iron and
of sound for sight In the work of learning
These things civilization demands and will
find in the Twentieth century. Both Of
these substitutions implya striking change
In the relations of man to the laws of his
environment.
The progress of the human race has been
marked and recorded at every stage by the
use of materials found In the earth. The
present civilization of the world is founded
on iron For nearly 5000 years iron has
been the most important material sub
stance in the arts of life We live in an age
Of iron. The whole present fabric is builded
almost exclusively on this coarse, strong
metal The age of iron marks the first
emergence Of mankind into the conscious
state Before the epoch of national con-
sciousness there had been two ages of stone.
Barbarism has always had stone forits sub
stance and symbol. In the intermediate
stages Of man life the race advanced to cop
per and then to bronze. There was brief
copper age and then a longer age of bronze,
Finally came the age of iron. 1t has been
the age Of battle and power and conquest
Civilization has caught her hue and quality
from that material substance to which she
has owed her preservation.
We are not to suppose that the age
of iron will last forever. Nothing lasts
forever All things obey the law Of evo-
luton and transformation. Just as stone
and bronze have given place to iron, so
shall iron give place to aluminium. The
people will not call it aluminium or alum
mum, but alum-for short. There will be
an age Of alum surprising all the pre-.
vious ages Of mans development The age
of power and conquest shall yield to an age
Of glory and enlightenment, and of that
age aluminium will be the shining symbol.
That beautiful, universal and everlasting
metal, constituting as it does SO large part
Of the earth's surface and body, will bear
up the whole stupendous fabric of knowl-
edge and progress which shall rise around
our descendants in the closing decade of the
Twentieth century.
The world shall shine with the new lus-
ter Of Its principal metal All things shall
became whittier than silver All the exteri-
or aspects Of life shall be FURNISHED to
brightness. The houses and cities of men,
built Of aluminium, shall fash in the rising
sun with surpassing brilliancy. All spires
and walls, all gateways and porches, all
bridges and temples, all moving enginery
and faroff battlements shall blaze with
splepdor beftting the new dawn of the
ages to come
The second great change from the fourth
to the fifth Columbian year will be the sub
stitution Of sound for sight 1t will be the
restoration of the human ear to its rightful
office as the organ of enlightenment and
learning. The sound wave is to be substi-
tuted for the light wave as the vehicle of
all our best information and intercourse
The ear Is to take the place of the eye for
the interest and instruction of mankind.
A most unnatural thing has happened i'm
human development. The life Of all ages
has been instructed by sound
AL mothers, from the mother bird to the
mother woman. teach their offspring by
sound, by utterance. But instead Of con-
tinuing this natural process of instruction
an abnormal method has been substituted.
The youth at certain age Is led into
world Of science and there dismissed to
acquire II he can the painful use Of mean
ingless hieroglyphics. There he must study
with the eye, learning the sense Of crooked
marks which can at most signify no more
than words. Alas, how much of energy
and life and thought have been wasted in
the instruction Of the mind by characters
and symbolsl How the eyes of mankind
nave been dimmed and eclipsed and the
faculties overheated by this unnatural proc
ess OF learningl
Man begins hts requirement of knowl-
edge with words, and he ends with words.
Hut an unnatural civilization has taught
MIN to walk the greater part Of his intel
iectual journey by means Of arbitrary sys-
TENS OF writing and printing. The fifth
Columbian year will see him untaught-a
hard thing withal-and retaught on ma
tures plan Of utterance Nature teaches
Dy sound only Artificiality writes scrawl.
Natures book is a book Of words Mans
book Is still a book Of signs and symbols.
Natures book utters itself to the ear, and
mans book blinds the eyes and overheats
the Imagination. Natures method is to
teach by the ear and to save the sight for
tue ulscONery Vi pldCe anu DeHuJy.
The fifth centennial of our discoverer will
bring US the sound book in some form, and
with that the intellectual equipoise of man
Kind will begin to be restored. The use of
the eye for the offices of learning In place
OF the stronger ear has destroyed the equi-
hbrtum OF the human mind. That equi-
hbrium must be restored. The mental dis
eases and unrest of our race are largely
attributable to the overexcitement of the
faculties through ages Of seeing
The age OF hearing is to come with the
Twentieth century. That age will restore
the balance. Memory, almost obliterated,
will come again. The perceptions will cool
The imagination will become calm, and the
eye itself will recover from the injuries of
overstrain and regain its power and luster.
Man will see once more as the eagle sees
and will know Shakespeare by heart He
will remember all knowledge and will see
again, AZ Of old, from Sicily to Carthagel
JOHN CLARK RIDPATH
Secretary Noble on the Development OF
the West.
From Our Washington Correspondent