The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-07-26
NEWS or THE BOOK WORLD
Plan OF Promoters to Upset the World
sRsdlstrIbution of Earth's Land and
Water Areas for GaIn-A WomanIess
eNovel-Admiral schiey Writing HIS Me-
moirs-Story Of the Red Cross.

This is an age of cutting out" We
nave cut out the horse and have the
horseless carriage; we have cut out the
wires and have wireless telegraphy; and
now we are cutting girls out of novels and
possibly ltho not: probably we may have
a run Of girless novels.
e One such novel, or a novel which lays
claim to distinction on the ground that
there is no woman ir; it, is The Promoters,
by William HaWley Smith. Mr.. Smith
might be called on the strength Of this
tale, something of Jules Verne Of
finance. He makes his hero" devise a
scheme for. topping the world over lit
tile so as$,to4 throw. the equator up across
Mexico somewhere, shift the north pole
down into the czar's realms, and thereby
bring the tropics UP into the United
States. OF course. this would simply mean
the making over of the face of old Mother
Earth, redistribution of the land and
water areas, because Of the shifting of the
zone of the greatest centrifugal force ex-
erted by the rotation of the earth on it's
axis.
The ''hero's,' idea is to get options on
all the worthless land on the globe that
will be made valuable by a redistribution
or the earth water, on the lands that
will be uncovered by the shifted waters
| in short, by foreseeing the effects of the
changes and by bringing these about
when all is ready, TO- become master Ol
the world and everything on it.
This hero's name is Starlight, and he
calls in a star promoter to look after the
financing Of the plan. They are discuss
ing financial matters connected with the
plan, when starleigh asks:
Chow many millions can issue the
whole outfit, old nan?'
'.AIillons!,' replied Goldsby, the sweat stand
ing out on his forehead. Millions be damned!
We can issue billions, trillions on it; and If
there are any figures that 60 farther round to
the LETT of the Enumeration table, we'll issue
them full, too. Oh say, but this is heaven!
That night, just as Starlight dropping off
to sleep, Goldsby called to him:
IF you sink Boston and New York and Phila-
delphta and New Orleans and Chicago and San
francisco, that will bankrupt every trunk line
of railroad in the country, won't it?''
"Snre'' exclaimed Starlight, rousing himself
reluctantly.
''Then what's to hinder our getting into the
market few days before the smash comes and
going short on the stock of the Outft-every road
in the country yes, and the Western Union
and all the trusts in the country thrown in, and
beggaring the street from Trinity church to East
river?' .
..surer' growled Starlight. .'But go to sleep
| now. Go to sleep. Well fix all those little
things as we come to them" -
There is no cause for alarm, for the
Nebraska legislature refuses to grant the
charter on which all hinges. In that the
story seems to end a bit lamely. Per
haps, If there had been a woman in the
novel the outcome would have been differ
ent. But, of course, the author could not
go ON and tell us that the scheme had
been carried out and worked beautifully
for we all know better. He might, how
ever, have had some sleeper wake a hun
bred years hence to tell how things looked
under the changed conditions, the plar
having been handed down about two gen
erations before being put in operation
But he didn't, and readers will have tt
take the story without our suggested i'm
provements or impairments, as he chooses
| to view them.