Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-03-27
JULES VERNE DEAD.
Favorite Author of Young People All
Over the World.

| N. Jules Verne, the famous French
writer of scientific rOmances, died at
| Amicns. at 80 Friday afternoon. This
| favorite author was born at Nantes.
Feb. s, 1929. was educated in his ma
tive town. and afterwards studied law
| ir Paris. Turning his attention to
dramatic literature. he wrote n COM
| edy in verse, entitled LES Pailles
| Rompues," which was performed at
the Gymnase i'm 1850. This was fol-
lowed by "OnZe JOurs de Siege" n
three-act comedy, brought out at the
Vaudeville, and by several comic
| operas.
| Rut his fame rests chiefly on his
| scientific romances. the first of which
| appeared in 1863. under the title OF
"Cinl Semaines en- Ballon." Its sue
| cess led the author to produce num-
Der of similar works. of which the fol-
| lowing have been translated into Eng
Iish: Five Weeks in a Balloon: a
Voyage of Exploration and Discovery
| in Central Africa" 1870 second edition.
1874; "A Journey to the Centre of the
| Earth" 1872; Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea-" 1873; "Meri-
diana: the Adventures of Three Eng
|
Africa 1873: From the Earth to the
Moon Direct in Ninety-Seven Hours.
Twenty Minutes; and Trip Round
It," 1878; 1.-The Fur Country: Or
Seventy Degrees North Latitude"
1874; "Around the World in Eighty
| Days" 1874; "a Floating City, and the
| Blockade Runners" "rhe English at
the North Pole" "Dr. Ox's Expert
ment," 1874: Adventures of Captain
Hatteras," 1.-THE Mysterious Island"
"The Survivors of the Chancellor"
1875: "Michael Strogoff. the Courier of
the Gar" 1876; 1.-THE Child of the
Cavern" "Hector Servadac. or the
Career of a Comet" 1877: 'Dick Sands,
the Boy Captain" 1878; lie Rayon
Vert" 1882; "Keraban-le-tetu." 1889;
"L'etoile du sud-: lie Pays de Dia-
mants." 1884.
From about 1870 to about 1885 few
| works of fiction were more widely
popular than the scientific romances
of Jules Verne. Those whose business
1t was to gather and transmit the
past's learning laughed at them, but
eager minded boys by millions read
and dreamed over the possibilities
that they suggested. About 1885 i'll
vention began to realize the dreams of
science that Verne had but stated in
| popular form. During the last
decade this process has gone on with
increasing speed.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under
the Sea- for example, was one Of
Verne's most popular works. The
Nautilus was dubbed an impOssibility.
Yet the French, American and Eng
lish government are today making COIL
tracts for submarine vessels which
will perform many of the featS as
cribed to Captain NemO's.
"Five Weeks i'm a Balloon" was one
of Verne's earlier books. The liter
AIRY pundits lifted scornful eyebrows
over it. Yet balloon journeys nearly
as far have been made, and the air.
ship that will keep aflOat for weeks
seems almost at hand.
AS for Captain Hatteras. the hero of
Verne's polar romances, the voyages
of Nansen and the Belgica read like
chapters from his adventures.
Phileas Togg's feat of girdling the
globe in eighty days, which cost him
800 900, may be beaten easily now for
one-fiftieth of that sum. Rousseau.
kind. if not in extent. the precious
stone making of the old chemist in
Verne's Southern Star" And the
gas with which "Dr. Ox's Expert
ment" was performed may now be
purchased, in quantities to suit. at al
most any corner drug store.
| Recalling these and other fiulflments
of Verne's dreams, Emile Gautier, in
the Paris Figaro. is moved to assert:
Positively, Jules Verne, with his sug-
gestive fictions. has more than once
inspired science and industry. He
has engendered miracles by imagining
them in advance. 1t would be diff
cult to estimate the results his works
have achieved in the illumination of
minds and the stimulation of ener-
gies.''
When we remember that the revolu-
tionary inventors greatest difficulty
such as Morse had with his telegraph
has been to get people to believe the
possibility of his ideas, Cautier's esti-
mate of Vernes influence will seem by
no means exaggerated. By imagining
scientific miracles he has helped to
make them possible. He stimulated
that creative imagination whose activi-
ty is the fundamental condition of sue
cess in any line Of human endeavor.
Jules Verne was not a member Of the
French Academy. The Forty I'M
mortals had not admitted him to their
number. although he had often been
proposed for membership.
For forty years he had lived and
worked in soFt of gilded slavery-a
slavery SO peculiarly Partisan that it
is completely pafa''eied by that OF the