The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-11-12
RAILWAY TO THE SUN.
All the Gold in the Sea Would More
Than Build One.
From the Tit-Bits.

From the Tit-Bits
1t is little realized that the sea is
n treasure house of gold. so incredibly
rich as to far exceed the widest
dreams even of Il mad millionaire.
Although in every thirteen tons 1t
Only holds one grain of pure gold. it's
bulk is so vast that its 4OO0OO, 600 cubic
miles of water hold in solution gold
of the value Of Gt.O25, 900 600, ,C0O,O OOO
If this gold could he rescued and dis
tributcd equally among all the inhabi-
tants of the earth, each man, woman
and child living would have a fortune
of G6s3, $685. or roughly 5A tons of SOW
ereigns, and would enjoy the comfor-
table living income of G525 n week, or
more than the annual income of five
cabinet ministers of the first class.
Let us coin in fancy the seas gold,
and pile our mvrads of sovereigns
into one stupendous column. Our
| tower of gold, standing on a base a
| quarter of mile each way, would
| soar into the clouds to height of A.
! S2S feet, or 904 feet lower than the
| summit of Mont Blanc. To dcmolish
| and cart away our tower Of sovcreignS
we should require the services of 3 2-3
| horses for every man, woman and
child in the world.
| II we make carpet of our marine
| sovereigns we should have more than
| sufficient to cover an area 1.C00 miles
! long and 49, miles wide; in fact, to
| plate" with soVereiEns the whole of
Great Britain and Ireland. Holland
Belgium and Portugal, with a REM
nant of over 5000 square miles of gold
to spare.
With our golden treasure we could
make g girdle around the equator
nearly eight miles in width. or as
wide as from the Thames to Edmon-
ton, or southwark, to the outskirts of
j Croydon.
Similarly we could construct road
| way to the moon 364 yards wide, along
which $50 carriages might be driven
| abreast in comfort
We could make a railway track of
gold to bridge the 81, ,725 900 miles which
divide us from the sun. Our golden
track would be 1lh feet wide and if in
1924. when George |. had still three
re2rs to reign. an engine had started on
| its long journey from earth to sun
and had raced night and day over its
yellow track at the rate of sixty miles
an hour, it would only reach its destin
alton as these lines are being printed.
AS final flight of astronomical fancy
let us construct two rails of soveregns
each 1-2 inches wide, and on this
track let us take a journey to Neptune
2,755, 900 600 miles away.
We should have quite sufficient SOW
ereigns Tor .his purpose; but, journey
ing night and day at sixty miles an
hour, it would take us 5,242 years t.
reach Neptune, by which time it would
be too late to think of the return jour
ney.
To have completed our journey to-
day, we ought to have started nearly
| 900 years before the Deluge, accord
ing to recognized chronology. We
should in this way have ESCAPED the
flood. at any rate.
With our treasure of the sea we
could buy the United Kingdom, will
it's land, houses, and all it's accumu-
lated wealth of every kind, $4,000 times
over; and we could furnish our ma
tional revenue for the next 5000 coo
years, allowing for reasonable growth
in fact. a single minutes income from
our treasure, If carefully invested
would be sufficient to meet our en-
tire national expenditure for year.
All the gold current today through
) out the world, if collected together
would only represent is, ,662 of penny
| of each of our myriad of sea sover.
eigns, and it the same amount Of golC
: could be produced by our mints every
! year it would take them 1858. .96e years
to mint a pile as large as ours.