Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-10-04
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
WHAT WE OWE TO JULES VERNE.

There is no eNaRSerallon III sdylns
that some of the most extraordinary
prophecies of Jules Verne regarding
travel and scientific achievements have
already been realized or are on the eye
of realization. Indeed, at times, the
reality seems to have surpassed his most
fantastic flights.
1t is enough almost to make one sus-
pect that he has found in the depths OF
the mysterious grottos, where Capt
Memo used to hide his treasures, the
magic amulet which gives the key to the
secrets of the future.
Has not Capt. Hatters had hundreds
of emulators: None of them, of course,
has, as yet, reached the supreme object
of his desres-the intangible Pole; but,
following his footsteps in the line of the
direction of the magnetic needle, have
they not all more or less approached it:
Does not the story of the voyage of the
Belgica through the ice of the Antarctic
Circle resemble page torn out of the
"Sphinx DIES Glaces?' Did not Frithjof
Nansen, in the course of his northern
odyssey, have to make voyage, just
like that of the hero of the "Pays DIES
Fourrurers" on board floating iceberg?
And has not the most unpretentous
hospital or the humblest laboratory,
thanks to Paul Bert, the means at its
disposal to invest with reality the par
adoxical chimera of Doctor Ok, not to
mention the oxygen that is sold in
siphons and tubes, while we are waiting
for the liquefaction Of the permanent
gases to give us the sea air or the
mountain air at home within the reach
of everybody?
Shall we speak of the "Vingt Mile
Lieues sous les Mers?" Why, every
body knows that, If the idea is not yet
public property. the Ministry of the
Navy, at least, has realized it. That
ministry now runs about under water In
the forms and appearances of | know
not how many submarine torpedo boats,
always ready to burst the paunch of the
warships that come within their reach.
1t is some time ago, by the way, since
the writer of these lines earned the right
to affirm from personal experience (the
oldest readers of the Figaro may, per-
haps, remember it, that one can, with
immunity, breathe, live, write dispatches,
and even drink champagne, thirty metres
under sea
And even before the late Gustave
Rousseau, NJ. Moissin, NJ. Majorana, and
perhaps others, had learned to make a
reality, like the chemist of the "Etoie
du Sud-" of the synthesis of the diamond,
rubies and sapphires, made artificially,
were, under the hand of my friend,
Maiehe, common objects in the market.
The modern cannon, with range of
from fifteen to twenty kilometres; the
melenite shells; the aerial torpedoes,
etc.-are, | imagine, the equivalents of
the fancifu cannonades of the "Cinq
. Cents Millions de la Begun" The "City
of Steel" be it said in passing, resem-
| bles, so strikingly as to be almost con-
| founded with it, the industrial establish
ment governed by Andrew Carnegie,
. Pierpont Morgan & Co. Even the
legendary asphyxiating bomb, capable
of dealing death without pain, and
at long range. is scarcely different
from the ntrite of amyl projectiles pro-
posed, with neither laughter nor tears,
by the electrician, Edward Weston.
We have also "Cinq Semaines en-
Ballon." Everybody knows that mar
velous tale, the best, perhaps, of the
ninety-nine which, up to date, have
come from the fruitful pen of Jules
Verne. Two epic Englishmen, accom-
panied by Joe, servant of the same
stamp, attempted to go across Africa in
balloon. To be sure they had not
found out the secret of steering balloons,
but they put their faith in their star and
in the atmospheric currents. Convinced
that they had only to seek In the vertical
plane the one among the many super
posed and contradictory aerial currents
which would lead them in the right drec-
ton, they constructed an arostat, and
off they went. Starting from Zanzibar,
they scared after many dramatic twists
and turns above the solid mass of
Kilmandiaro, over the country of the
Nyam- Nyains, above Lake Tchad and
the Kong Mountains, and at last reached
some point in French Senegambia.
The whole story bears a singular re-
semblance to piece of literary insanity,
and the few pontiffs who deigned to cast
their eyes over the book, fastened to
conclude, with disdainfu grimace,
that such things happen only in roman
ces. Well, beg thousand pardons of
the pontlffs, but besides NJ. Henry de la
Vaulx, who Is getting ready to Jump
over the Mediterranean, | know three
good Frenchmen, three distinguished
officers, NM. Hourst, Leo DeX and Dibos,
who are ready to attempt the aerial
trip across the Dark Continent on an
absolutely similar plan, with the ex-
ception of a few minor details. 1t even
seems to me that the Municipal Council
of Paris has subsidized the enterprise.
At any rate, if it has refused to do so, it
has done wrong.
There is not one of Jules Verne's
works, even the Voyage au Centre de
la Terre"-the most extraordinary Of
them all-which has not been taken up
and seriously discussed, We were even
on the point of seeing that one realized
If ~ q ,lI Lii