The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-04


body knows that. If the idea is not vet
pubic property, the ministry of the
navy, at least, has realized 1t. That
ministry now runs about under water
IN the forms and appearances of
know not how many submarine tor
pedo 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, perhaps,
remember it, that one can, with inn
punity, breathe, live, write dispatches,
and even drink champagne, thirty me-
tiers under the sea!
And even before the late Gustave
Rousseau, NJ. Moissin, NJ Maiorana.
and perhaps others, had learned to
make reality, like the chemist of the
Etoile du Sud-" of the synthesis OF
the diamond, rubies and sapphires.
made artificially, were, under the hand
OF my friend, Maiche, common objects
in the market.
The modern cannon, with a range of
from fifteen to twenty Kilometres: the
melenite shells. the aerial torpedoes.
etc-are, l imagine, the equivalents
or the fanciful cannonades OF the
"Cinq Cents Million de la Begun.
The City of Steel" be 1t said in pass
ing, resembles, so strikingly as to be
almost contounded with it, the indus
trial establishment governed by An
drew Carnegie, Pierpont Morgan & Co.
Even the legendary asphyxiatfng
bomb, capable of dealing death with
out pain, and at long range is scarcely
different from the nitrite of amyl pro-
tectiles proposed, with neither laugh
ter nor tears, by the electrician, Ed
ward Weston
We have also sCfpo Car,ofoo. -.
Ballon." Everybody knows that mar
Vicious 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, a servant of the same
stamp, attempted to go across Africa
in balloon. To be sure they had not
found out the secret of steering bal
looms, 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 superposed and contradict
tory aerial currents which would lead
them in the right direction, they con-
structed an aerostat, and off they
went. Starting from Zanzibar, they
scared after many dramatic twists and
turns above the solid mass of Kilmand-
jaro, over the country of the Nyam-
Nyams, above Lake Tchad and the
honB mountains, ana at last reached
some point in French Senegambia
The whole story bears a singular re-
semblance to a piece of literary insan-
ity, and the few pontiffs who deigned
to cast their eyes over the book, has
tened to conclude, with a. disdainfuI
grimace. that such things happen only
in romances. Well, / beg a thousand
pardons of the pontiffs, but besides NJ
Henry de la Vauix, who is getting
W n frrF r0rsf he lodi fors.s a.af4
know three good Frenchmen, three
distinguished officers, NM. Hourst, Leo
Dex and Dibos, who are ready to at
tempt the aerial trip across the Dark
Continent on an absolutely similar
plan, with the exception of a few minor
details. 1t even seems to me that the
Municipal Council of Paris has sub
sidized the enterprise. At any rate,
If 1t has refused to do so. 1t has done
wrong.
There is not one of julie 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
In the form of a well a kilometre and
a half deep, at the late exposition, I'M
der the auspices of an emulator OF
Jules Verne. M. Andre Laurie, alias Pas
chal Grousset. The latter, moreover.
had only appropriated and reduced the
grand conception of an Argentine doc
tor. M. ]. ]. Martinez, who dreamed OF
nothing less than piercing the world
through and through.
Positively Jules Verne, with his
amusing and suggestive fictions has
more than once inspired science and
industry More than once has he en-
gendered miracles by imagining them
in advance But that is not the great
est of the services which he has rem
dered. The immortal merit of his work
consists in his having created new
state of mind by charging the horizon
of a too much stay-at- home race, and
impregnating vocations ignorant of
their own capabilities with energies
which, had 1t not been for him, would
have remained latent or sterile. Is it
not to him that the new generations
owe, in a large measure, the movement
of expansion which draws them on to
fruitful crusades for the pacific con-
quest of the world. and all for the
great benefit of Civilizations
1t would be difficult to estimate the
results which the works of Jules Verne
have achieved in the illumination OF
minds and the stimulation of energies.
Emile Gautier.