The Van Buren press., 1898-12-17
RAILWAY TO The sun.
n Is Estimated That All the cold
IN the Sea Would Mere Than
Halld one.

Ii IS little realized that the SEA is
treasure house Of gold, 50 incredibly
rich IS 10 far exceed the widest dreams
even = a mad millionaire.
Although II every ) tons i only
holds oae grain Of pure sold. its bulk is
50 vast that its 40, ,9oa.oeo cubic miles
Of water, hold in solution gold q the
value II Z .o@s. .aoo. .o0o. .eea.0ao.
II this gold could be rescued and dis
tributea equally among al the inhahi-
tants q the earth, each man. woman
and child living would have a fortune
Of e6ss. SIS. OF. roughly. 81. tons OF
sovereignS, and would enjoy the COM
Portable living income Of Sss week.
OF more than the annual income Of 6ve
cabinet ministers Of the first class.
Let Is coin n fancy the seas gold.
and pie our uvrsids Of sovereigns into
one stupendous column. Our tower Of
gold. standing on a base quarter OF
mile each WY. would soar into the
clouds 70 a height Of issseS feet. OF so4
feet lower than the summit a Mont
Blanc, To demolish and cart away our
tower ot sovereigns we should require
the services q s-s horses for every
man. woman and child in the world.
II We make a carpet Of our marine
scvereigns. we should have more than
sufficient 10 cover an AREA l.o0a miles
long and lss miles wide; In fact, to
plate with sovereigns. the whole of
Great britain and Ireland. Holland. Bel
gium and Portugal, with a remnant Of
over Go square miles Of gold TO spare.
With our golden treasure, we could
make 3 girdle Of sovereigns around the
equator nearly eight miles in width, or
as vide as from the Thames TO Edmon-
ton. or southwark, 10 the outskirts Of
Croyden.
Similarly we could construct s road
way 10 The moon, S64 yards wide, along
which 80 carriages might be driven
abreast in comfort.
We could make railway track OF
gold 10 bridge the 81. F2seao miles which
divide rs from the sun. Our golden
track would be ia. feet wide. and n in
i7a4. when George L had still three
years 10 reign. an engine had started on
its leng journey from earth TO sun, and
had raced night and day over its yellow
track al the rate Of 60 miles an hour,
i; would only reach It's destination as
these lines are being printed.
As final flight OF astronomical fancy
let rs construct two rails of severeigns,
each "a inches wide. and on this track
let Us take journey 10 Neptune. 2,75s.-
00o. GO miles away.
We should have quite sufficient SOW
ereigns for this purpose; but, journey
ing night and day at 60 miles an hour,
il would take US s.e4a years 10 reach
Neptune. by which time II would be
too late TO think Of the return journey.
To have completed our journey to-
DAY we ought 10 have started nearly
1000 years before the deluge, according
10 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. with its land,
houses. and all its accumulated wealth
Of every kind, $4,000 times over; and we
could furnish cur national revenue for
the next 100000 years. allowing for
reasonable growth; in fact, single
minutes income from our treasure, IL
carefully invested, would be sufficient
10 meet our entire national eSpendi-
ture for a year.
All the gold current to-day through
out the world. II collected together.
would only represent 1-s,ee2 OF a penny
of each of our myraid sen sovereigns,
and Il the same amount Of gold could be
produced by our mints every year 1T
would take them i,sss,e6o years TO mint
n pile as large as ours.-Tit- Bits.