The times., 1897-06-06
What Will Happen in the Year
Of Our Lord 5000.
ROMANCE OF A REFORMER
He Dips Into the Future to an Ex-
Twcntiefh-Century Dreamers ana
Foresees as Weird Things as the
Weirdcst Of Them All.

btrpasScs IN Iantdsllc prophecy TIE IioSt
Imaginative flights of the Bcllanyites
Year of Our Lord 3o0O' is the title of
OF Rome, and the heroine a certain Maria,
of the same city, which, being truly eter-
nal. endures IN pristine spendor a thou
sand years hence, Their experiences are
as far in advance Of the wonders OF Look
ing Back kward'' as. the thirty-first century
might be expected TO be in advance Of the
twenty-first.
These two young persons are betrothed
ami in the free and easy way of the
emancipated society OF the future go on
a trip around the world together, without
chaperone, just before tiieir marriage They
20 in an airship three times the length of
the ordinary pleasure yacht OF today This
ship is operated by electricity SO stored as
TO he applied for heat and power without
the help of "a crew Three buttons are
the means of steering, lighting, warming
and Iropelling the craft On the walls of
the cabins the necessary foods are stored,
in condensed form in little metal recep-
taclcs from which may be drawn nourish-
ment 10 last through a trip of weeks.
Naturally, at Just this time the first of
the dreams realized in this year of our
Lord 1000 is the dream Of universal peac-.
The airship Is guided from Rome To SprZia,
where Fortunate shows TO his fiancee the
scene OF the worlds last naval battle,
fought in the middle OF the fwent y first
century. 1t was the great general war
which mankind had dreaded and prepared
for through many previous generations.
"
land battle around Paris, the navies of
the nations met off Spezia. The two bat
tics cost millions OF lives, and SO shocked
the refined senses Of twenty y-first century
civilization that civilization at once took
effective steps to abolish war The
United States of Europe rose from The
rlIins OF the warring peoples. Unta,r Leo
XXX. tie last Of the Popes, the King of
Italy dbdicated To make way for the
soCialiStic state predicted ever since he
middle OF tie nineteenth century. and
other rHonarchs followed his example, until
Europe was united as oneland in brothedy
love. The sociaIistic state endured IN
Europe four genera tions, at the end Of
which it was succeeded hy .lIe United
States of the Whole World. All dividing
lines, such as territorial and customs de-
marcation, We're obliterated- There were
no more tariffs, there was no more mine
and thine" in national affairs. even the
babel of languages was wiped out. There
was thenceforth one language, one lit
crature, one art, one science.
From Spezia the emancipated couple go 70
the pyramids on the shore of tie great sea
OF Sahara, once a desert. When the chief
engineer of the worlds government pro
poset! to make his desert over into q sea the
peoples of Europe Objected that the change
would render their climate colder, bat he
CHIEF engineer, removed this objection by
using the south wind 10 melt the irebeTgs
round the north pole, and thus Inole than
counteracted the effect OF the improvement
in North Africa A the pyramids the
couple meet the passengers just leaving
the mail airship from Ceylon 10 London,
exchange thiTty-first century gossip, nd
thcn proceed on their way to Ceylon- On
this island is the asylum Of all persons who
have governmental hobbies which jhey are
intent on realizing. Here Fortunate can ex-
plain 20 his fiancee the foolshnesS of he
equality crapks, who would have all men
clothed fed and housed alike. Here, too,
lie can point out the horrible conditions of
the people whose monarch rules absolutely
''by the grace. of God. the sorrows uf those
living under the system Of militarisIn so
popular for two centuries before the abol
ton OF war, and tile wasted lives of all
who talk themselves to death in the effort
to govern 10y means of parliaments or
congresses. This part of the hook is after
the model OF Looking Backward" and is
supposed to be a killing criticism Of all
Ia #
from Teheran to Washington and fIom St
Petersburg to Cape Town.
From Ceylon the airship is steered to
the Andaman Islands, now known as the
Dynamo Islands, where, as at Malta and
Fernando de Noronta there is central
station from which power IS distributed
to the rest of the earth The power is
derived from q material known as pan
dinamo. which is turn is obtained from
protoplasm. The wires radiate from this
station to all quarters of the globe and
carry, besides power, all the news that the
earth s inhabitants in the thirty-first cen
tury care to learn of one another's tioings
The Most interesting station on The be-
trothal journey is the capital of the world,
A metropolis, founded in 2501, and inhabited
by 10 100000 persons. The site is ut the
foot of the Himalayas. In this city every
family, every spinster, every Isolate ha CHI
elor, every widow has a separ ate house.
Such apparent extravaganza is possible be-
cause in the year 1000 houses do not cost
much: they are no longer built, but are
merely cast out of a newfangled metal
pretty much as a plaster of Paris bust is
cast now adays. The city is built in squares;
every street is seventy feet wide; an,l--eyi-
IDENTIFY MantegaZZa has in mind here some
vexatious nineteenth century restrictions on
wheeling in Italy-no place in the city is
forbidden ground for the bicyciist. In the
whole capital there is neither policeman
Judge nor soldier. The few public Of
ficials always at the capital have charge
Of the distribution of light, neat, water,
and power from the central stations
Prisons are unknown to the people of
the capital In their stead there are a few
moral reformatories, whose inmates are
marked, upon release, with cloth strips on
the arm, indicating by their color the nature
of each mans S offense. These strips must
be worn until the friends of the Offenders
agree that the reformation is complete.
MantegaZza dwells at length also on the
laws which make compulsory the culture
of the Beautiful in trees, flowers, sculpture
and painting. The consequence of these
lawsin the year 3000fs paradise OF flow
ers and statues throughout Andropolis.
The government fthe future, as exempli-
fiedin Andropolis, is too easy TO need much
explanation. The 'tPancrates," chosen,
as are the representatives of the world,
for one year, lives in the one palace left
on the face of this earth. The Worlds Par