Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-04

acquaintance at the eHtefnal
beauties of the imperial city of Phily-
orgo, a huge rectilinear edifice of
enormous height rising sheer from the
sea, was soon made acquainted with
an additional quality of the invention,
and that was that what had been done
by it for the vision had also been done
for the sense of hearing.
Nothing but confused sounds reached
me at first-a heavy. dull roar, made
up, as it seemed. of million voices
all going at once, something like the
incessant soundings of the waves of
the ocean beating upon some distant
shore. And then, as by a manipula-
ton of the screws of the instrument
/ brought the whole spectacle into
closer range, the sounds began TO take
on specific character.
A huge air ship lowering above the
outskirts of the city was the first
individual thing to catch my attention,
and l account 1t great piece of good
luck that such was the case, since
had it not been for the guidance of its
pilot I should have lost many details of
interest in this superb city of 43OI The
air ship, as it turned out, was one of
the vehicles of the sightseeing in Phily-
orgo company, and was in charge of
a gentleman whose voice justified his
claims to have lived for ten years on
nothing but megaphones.
His craft was occupied by merry
party of sightseers, among whom were
a dozen or more extremely charming
young Women--a fact that | found most
cheering, since it suggested to my mind
that, however great other changes
might prove to be, the institution of
~, yirII I.1.1 En
ages undisturbed in its glorious per-
lection.
"At This Point"
AT this point" cried the megaphone
bred pilot 1--WE see the southern eX-
posure of the city of Philyorgo, the
commercial capital of the universe. 1t
is 23S miles in length, extending from
what was once the city of New York
on the north to the ancient city of
Washington on the south, and from
base to sky line runs sixteen thou
sand feet above the level of the sea.
"As you are aware. it is the great
est commercial aggregation in the uni
verse, having greater population
than Mars, Saturn, the Great Dipper
and Europe combined, and is the re-
suit of the annexation by the city of
Chicago of New York, Philadelphia,
Washington and other smaller cities
lying between. 1t consits of thirty diff
ferent strata, including basement and
roof, it's resemblance to the skyscraper
of other times being due to the super
imposition of city upon city, until the
final plateau-like sky line was reached, |
upon which dwell the workers who dur |
ing working hours go below into the
various underlying sections to which !
their business calls them.
isn't 1t Gutter"
Amt it cute little city," giggled |
one of the young ladies in the airship |
THE various floors are connected |
from basement to roof by fast flying |
elevators, which daily carry the public |
to and from business at lightning speed. |
In the basement are the furnaces and |
dynamos by which the whole city is |
heated and by which the motive power |
for the rapid transit facilities of Phily- |
orgo is supplied. The first floor above |
the basement contains all the longitud- |
inal rapid transit walks, moving with |
out cessation around the city day and |
night at rates of speed varying from |
four to five hundred miles an hour. |
These lines of movable walks are ar |
ranged in concentric parabolic circles, |
80 that a traveller wishing to proceed |
at the gratest rate of speed by step |
ping briskly from the fixed and i'm |
movable walk on the outside across the |
Intervening circle toward the rapidly !
moving innermost platform may with |
perfect safety board the section that is |
travelling with the greatest velocity. |
By this means wayfarer in Philyorgo |
may go from one end of the city to the |
other in trihe over two hours finding |
at intervals of the ordinary city block |
the express elevators that will take him |
upward to the stratum he desires to |
reach.
Great Device
"This simple device for the convey |
ance of the greatest number of per- |
sons at the greatest rate of speed was |
invented in 1868 by Thomas A. Tesla. |
18th, and has served materially to do |
away with the frightful congestion |
which prevailed prior to that time. No |
charge is made for the use of these |
movable walks the whole expense be- |
ing betrayed by the municipal govern
ment.
THE floor above is given over entire
ly to cars containing seats. OF these |
there are five superimposing sections |
and one hundred and twenty-seven lat |
eral parallel lines, running trains every |
two minutes at the rate of a hundred |
miles an hour and so scheduled that at |
every corner at least one train is con-
tlnually stopping to take on and set |
down passengers. The fare for any dis |
tanee is one cent. There are also Rocke-
feller-Morgan pipe lines fastened to the
roof OF this rapid transit section, by
which, on payment of five cents,
traveller may provide himself with a
private leather case and be shot
through pneumatic tube at the rate
of thousand miles a minute. This is
used largely by financiers who wish to
go hurriedly from the Atlantic end of
Philyorgo out to the Lake Michigan
section, where stood the former city of
Chicago. and vice versa. and is de-
signed wholly for long distance traffic"
II should think it would be dangerous
in case of collision" suggested one of
the fair travellers.