Evening star., 1900-03-31
Jules Verne ForeSaw Many Of the
Latter Day Marvels.
A VISIT 10 TEE WRITER'S HOME
Tells Where He Got the Ideas for
His Wonderful Tales.
HIS VIEWS OF THE FUTURE
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

the ,lnIuue prophet of the dying century?
In the eyes of many Frenchmen the great
old man has a peculiar right to look upon
the exhibition as the triumph of his own
far-sightedness in the popularizing of SCI
ence. Who has not read his Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea?'' Sub
marine boats of the type of Capt. Nemos
Nautilus are TO go through their evolutions
in the River Seine beside the Palais des
Armees de Terre ct de NIer. The great tele-
scope, the horseless carriage, the navigable
balloon, the distance-seer, in a word, half
the wonders of the show, are more than
tangible realizations of the dreams of the
author of Around the World in Eighty
Days" 1t would be fitting for the Academy
to elect him an immortal. Unhappily, such
is the prejudice Of literature. this
honor is not likely to gild his declining days.
In Amiens, where Jules Verne lives, they
say that this impOssibility of becoming one
of the forty ernbitters his life. Like Georges
Ohnet the most popular French novelist,
Jules Verne, the most popular of all French
writer's does not make literature properly
speaking; and he knows that the Academy
will take to itself any quantity of pulling
poets sirupy word painters and itching
love analysts rather than the most meri-
torious writers of applied science who have
not the indefinable finishing touch of itera-
ture.
The Writers Home.
and leading citizen. His three-story ram
bling brick mansion, dominated by peculiar
round tower and fianked by model coach
house and stable in the French country
town style. is easy to find. Passing through
a gateway from the street and traversing
q stone paved courtyard, where two fine
collies sun themselves, the house is entered
by a kind Of conservatory which makes the
ground floor front / found the veteran
romancer rather ailing from a recent at
tack of influenza, but Nine. Verne, bright,
active old lady, was yivaCity itself. Look
ing at her it was hard to realize that the
Vernes had celebrated their golden wedding
more than six years ago. Jules Verne, with
his careful dress and dignified manner,
gives to one the impression of a conserva-
tive French country gentleman.
You must feel natural pride that
many Of your predictions have been real
lied 1 said by way of beginning Take
the submarine boats that are now the pride
of the French navy. When We first read
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
ii was the widest kind of romance"
Il should say soi' interjected Nine.
Verne.
Ideas for His Stories.
Tut tut replied the prophet, they are
condolences. due to the fact that even
when inventing scientific prodigies l always
have tried to make things appear as true
and simple as possible. All my life 1 have
been a great notetaker and subscriber to
newspapers, magazines, reviews ana SC1en-
titic reports, These notes 1 always have
classified and kept. Today ] still subscribe
to twenty newspapers and all the principal
scientific monthlies Of France, America,
England and Germany"
DO you find that you get hints for stories
in these technical publications.
Certainly. Ny story of Lille a Helice''
(''The Screw Island'J was suggested by
paragraph in an American Sunday paper,
though 1t ennbodies a set of fancies that l
had been turning over in my mind for
years The action takes place on kind of
floating island created by the ingenuity of
man, a kind Of immense Atlantic liner mag
nified 10000 times, carrying a whole pOpu-
1atiOn. Round the World in Eighty Days
was the result of reading a tourist adver-
tiSement in an English paper. 1t mentioned
that nowadays Gt was years ago. a man
might travel round the world in that short
space of time: and ii at once came to me
that a traveller. profiting by difference in
the meridian. could be made to lose or gain
day, You Will perhaps remember that
Phine3s FHgg. owing to this circumstance,
arrived in London in time to win his bet"
As to the realization of your dream in
ventipns, Monsieur Verne, many Americans
as We'll as Frenchmen think that the ex-
hibitinn ought to be looked on. in a way
as q personal triumph Of your own. Ger
tainly you must take special kind of pride
in the submarine boats, for example"
Yes replied the author of Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea- the
Nautilus was my own creation at the time
almost thirty years ago. / have visited the
Gus'ave Isde. which has become the per-
marrut type If the new French arm and It
is .mark.tble how the great lines of Cap
tain Nemos cigar-shaped. water-weighted
electrically propelled, compressed-air model
have persisted We are not saving much
about il; but within n short time the
French navy. thanks 10 its submarine fleet.
will he in a position to cope with any navy
in the world
Flying Machines.
"-ind do you stiIl believe in flying ma
chimes. as in Hector Servadac,' was 1t
nut?''
Have YOU not seen the Santos -Dumont
nayigatle balloon maneuvering over Paris ~
Inquired Jules Verne contcntedIy II see
that Herr Daimler. whose invention made
the petroleum motor possible is just dead
AT C&unstadt. That motor will not be the
final form, Of course. but with it the navi-
gable balloon became a fact All. 1t was
wears ago when first l was drawn to the
slhJect 1t was my first work. Five
Weeks in Balloon and then looked on
II only as device for geographical specu-
la,ipD. / chose Africa for the scene of ac-
tiOn simply because less was known about
tha; continent than any other; and it struck
me that the most ingenious way to explore
such portions of the worlds surface would
be from a naviga BILE balloon | now fore
see real maryels in aerial navigation There
Will be immense aerUplanes, capable of car
rylng hundreds OF pasSengers-because the
proportional force needed can be general ed
only on a great scale. They will dart
through the upper air on calm days almost
with the speed of cannon balls / think The
aeroPlane Will never be practicable for in
dividual navigators a small scale Such
adventures will have to content themselves
with cigar-shaped balloons filed with hv-
dr0gvn gas. as Santos-D -Dumont has done:
bur wEo can imagine where their improve
rnents will end?"
Foresaw the Automobile
And automobilism,' l suggested. II was
thinking Of your Steam House ia Maisor
NaDeurJ and The Screw Island Q.Ile a
Helice). There was automobilism on g
grand scale before automobilism had 6
name or an existence"
The fine old Frenchman flushed will
pleasure, because. l rather fancy. the colo
world does not give to him jelly every day
and the automobilists of Paris do not max,
landlords Of Lille a HClice," and Il.
M1ison a Napeur. "AutOmpbi,ism" h,
exclaimed. "it is the most precious of mod
eru inventions. because its destiny Will b,
to combat the great danger of the future
the tendency OF populations to desert tn,
country for the great towns. The crowdin.
Oi The great centers, the three-storied life
Underground. surface and overhead. de