The Press., 1895-08-29
A LOOK AHEAD.

Bicycles selling faster than they are made and maids riding lem faster than they can talk are signs, indeed, of chang Ing times, and they are not the only signs. There Is something suggestive in the talk of Vice. President Day of the Pope Con- pany about those French self-propelling wagons. If concern of the standing of Pope's should set first-class vehicle Of that sort on the market, it would go in all senses. People have been looking for the, storage battery to effect this change, but they'd take it from an oil can.
 Just suppose the new machine to be at hand and think of some of the changes that would follow. Remember that al- ready we are started on the way to smooth asphalt roads. Public opinion is forcing these, but back of public opinion is the bicycle and will be the new propeller. The horse will be very largely out of fav- or unless the Big Four of Chicago, who corner the beef market, force us to eat horse flesh. As means of communica- tiOn he will not be wanted, because his substitute will be cheaper; petroleum costs less than hay. Horses eat too much and wear out too soon.
 So here we come to the new situation with smooth, cleanable roads and no horses. It will be real, though alto gether minor, blessing to have the streets occupied by impressive vehicles and not by creatures that shy and run and go crazy and kill people. But far greater gain will come from not having in the streets the germ-bearing filth distributed now all over town by the innumerable horses. The doctors say that this is the greatest source of microbe-distri- button. Keep the horses out and the trouble is kept out, too. Hence public health will make a natural advance as soon as the horse goes, and so will public convenience. Who denies that the Eng fish sparrow is one of the pests of civili- zation2 These creatures would have to leave if they were deprived of the nour- ishment afforded them by the filth of our streets. Keep the horses out and out go the sparrows.
 It is something surely to be rid of germs and sparrows, but there's another aft1ic- tiOn of civilization, and that's the so-ealled domestic cat, whose first quality, by the way, is that you can't domesticate it. If it were not for the sparrows, the cats couldn't live. The great increase in cats has come along with the increase of the sparrows. If the sparrOws should disap- pear, the cats would have to follow them or take to killing rats and mice-and most of 'em would strike rather than work. With the cat removed, we can sleep with our window open and without cotton in our ears. The howls that make is&hts hideoust will gall be stilled. The sptresent generation of old maids will, per haps, mourn their loss, but their success ors with bicycles and boomers will have no use for pets of that sort.
 Just think of 1t The horse once gone, away, too, will go germs and their awful consequences; sparrows and their perpet- ual nuisance; cats and their intOlerable discOrds. We can be clean and quiet and live longer, ride faster, sleep sounder, breathe deeper, and all by getting rid of the noble animal, upon which for so many generations men have relied with so much certainty, and on which they have bet with so much risk. Count it out now.- HGrtt0rd COatrGaat.