The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-09-02
WHAT WE OWE TO JULES VERNE
He Has Lived to See the Realization
Of Some Of His Widest Dreams.

There Is no exaggeration in saying that
some of the most extraordinary prophe-
cies Of Jules Verne regarding travel and
scientific achievements have already been
realized or are on the eve of realization.
Indeed, at times, the reality seems to
have surpassed his most fantastic flights.
It is enough almost to make one sus-
pect that he has found the depths of the
mysterious grottos where Capt. Memo
used to hide his treasures, the magic am
ulet which gives the key to the secrets
of the future.
Has not Capt. Hatteras had hundreds
of emulators? None Of them, of course,
has ,as yet, reached the supreme object
of his desires-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 a page torn out of the
"Sphinx des Glaces?" Did not Frithjof
Nansen, in the course Of his northern
odyssey, have to make a voyage, just
like that Of the hero of the "Pays des
Fourrures" on board a floating iceberg?
And has not the most unpretentious
thanks to Paul Bert, the means at its
disposal to invest with reality the para
doxical chimera of Doctor Ok, not to
mention the oxygen that is sold in sip
hons and tubes, while we are waiting for
the nquefaction of the permanent gases
to give US the sea air or the mountain
air at home within the reach Of every
body.
Shall we speak Of the "Vingt Mile
Lieues sous les Mers?" Why, everybody
knows that, If the idea is not yet public
property, the Ministry of the Navy. at
least. has realized it. The 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 war
ships that come within their reach. It Is
some time ago, by the way. since the
writer of these lines earned the right to
affirm from personal experience Qhe old
est readers of the Figaro may, perhaps.
remember it) that one can, with impun-
ity, breathe, live. write dispatches, and
even drink champagne. thirty metres I'M
der the sea!
And even before the late Gustave Rous-
seau, NJ. Moissin, M. Majorana, and per-
haps others, had learned to make a re-
atty. like the chemist Of the "Etoile du
Sud-" of the synthesis of the diamond.
were. under the hand Of my friend,
Maiche, common objects in the market.
The modern cannon. with range OF
from fifteen to twenty Kilometres; the
melenite shells; the aerial torpedoes, ETC.
are, 1 imagine. the equivalents of the
fanciful cannonades of the cling Gents
Millions de la Begun" The city OF
Steel" be it said in passing. resembles,
SO strikingly as to be almost COMPOUNDED
with it, the industrial establishment gov
| erned by Andrew Carnegie and Pierpont
Morgan & Co. Even the legendary
asphyxiating bomb, capable OF dealing
death without pain. and at long range,
" soaroelv direrent from rne nitrate OF
army proiectiles proposed. with neither
laughter nor tears. by the electrician
| Edward Weston.
We have also "Cinq semaines en- Bal
lon.' Everybody knows that marvellous
] tale. the best. perhaps. OF the ninety-n'ne