The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1897-04-09

| they very soon were free from all fog
gy nonsense, and, as two can play at
the game Of mind-rcading, women, too,
dropped love like worn-out glove.
The discovery which put an end to all
that humbug was the greatest benefac-
tor to the human race, and our electric
process Ito which the discovery is due)
has been able to save hours of precious
time which in the old days a man fool
ed away.
"However, love is not extinct 1t
still exists among people who formerly
lived in a country called La Belle
France but who now live in Salt Lake
City. The improved ideas of the glor-
ious era in which, young man, you
have awakened made them so ridicu-
lous that, to preserve them from utter
social obloquy. it was necessary to give
them territory where they could love-
unmolested. A great philanthropist
has founded on the borders of Salt
Lake a richly-endowed asylum, where.
sheltered from public malignity, they
can give themselves up in all liberty
to the pursuit of their pititul chimera'
$50 love is out of date, then? How
about justice?"
ave have no court or criminals.
One is no longer bothered with prop
erty. Remember that in years of
dearth we are all protected. All we
have to do is to send poor people into
an electric sleep and wake them up
when the crops are good again. As
for criminals, the absolute certainty of
being discovered made them give up
committing crimes. Our morality is
guaranteed by the fact that a material
expression is given to thought and
rendered palpable to the senses of
everyone"
"Is it possible?"
await"
The doctor pulleda small instrument
out of his pocket.
"Look at this
| glanced at the instrument, and
saw in it my own thought plainly tran
scribed
''But in this case you have no need
of reporters and journalists"
"Certainly not"
"But, Great Scott! What am I to
do for a living?"
The doctor raised his hand grandly,
ignoring this purely personal detail of
mine, and went on: No more false
news; no more bogus cable dispatches;
no more polemics; no more arguments
in the papers about facts
II will not sit and hear my profess
sion slandered,' l cried, angrily.
ISLANDER no more exists. One Mr..
Edison of your day, a man very back
ward in progress, and otherwise weak
and behind the time, invented a ma
chine by which women at five-o'clock
tea could know what women were
saying at five-o'clock tea across the
street. Sauce for the goose is sauce
for the gander, and, when women got
to know what each was saying behind
the others back, slander came to an
end. 1t broke fashionable society all
up," the doctor added. with brisk
sigh. DO you not remember? You
lived in 1891 when poor Edison did.
Don't you remember his feeble pro-
cesses of fixing words with wax? Well,
surely by this time you will admit that
we can photograph thoughts"
IF this is true you can certainly
prevent crime"
"Assuredly. Children at school have
their brains photographed every even
ing. We can thus follow the progress
of their ideas. The bad thoughts arc
destroyed, and are displaced by an in
fusion Of good ones. Wehave no more
judges, or barristers, or hardened Grim
inals, or prisons; those who have been
wicked are treated as children in in
tellect. If they resist and are obsti-
nate about getting cured, we electrify
them and put them on Il shelf for a few
centuries. | trust you perceive what
an economy all this is to the State?"
Somehow | fancied the man was
looking hard and searchingly at me.
l turned pale.
He laughed.
"Dont be uneasy" he said, reassur-
ingly. "If they had more of their own
way, journalists would not be bad
lot; but, when you were in your old
state, journalism was publc-poison-
ing process, and the really blameworthy
ones were the publishers, not the edi-
tors and reporters. Besides, your pro
fession allows you too little leisure to
give you time to do ill deeds, and gen.
orally you are well-disciplined"
"But | say, doctor, why not put me
in direct communication with your
brain? 1t would save you the trouble
Of talking, and could read all your
marvellous thoughts"
alas! Young man. said the doc
tor, shaking his head, ''if | were to
grant what you wish, it would be the
death Of you. Your spirit would be
engulfed in the awful mass of ques-
tions that struggle under my skull"
"One more question, doctor; with