St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-08-31
"AfterYou,Sir"
By F. TOWNSEND SMITH
Copyright. 1910 by American Press
Association

who dofred his hat before speaking to
me.
II beg pardon. SIR" he said. ''but
could you spare me a little OF your
timer
For what purpose. sirT'
THAT is not easy to explain on the
street II you will step inside I will
show you rather than tell you"
Inside wherer
Right here"
He pointed to an open door. and
could see staircase. The building
seemed to be unused.
There are people who seem to have
a power to make other people obey
them, not by force. not always by in
sistence. In this case the man was so
gentlemanly In his request that did
not like to refuse him. AT any rate.
before / realized what l was doing |
had gone to the upper door Of an unOc
cupied building with person who had
accosted me on the street and asked
me to go with him. for what purpose
he had not explained. This seems to
me now absurd on the face Of II, and
at the time ! knew that l should do
no such thing. but 1 couldn't help it
He took me into room on the sec
ond floor. In it's center was what
looked to me to be hot air furnace,
only 1t was neither round nor square,
but oblong. He closed the door be-
hind us. and / heard a click. l didn't
like 1t, for 1t sounded as though it
came from a lock that closed auto
matically. was about to turn and
get out of the place. but my pride held
me. and waited to be Informed fur
theF as to this strange proceeding.
The gentleman LED me to corner Of
the room rallied or apparently for an
Office, where there were chairs, and In
vited me to be seated
do you see that ovenr' he said
We'll that has cost me a great deal
Of labor Perhaps you think 1t Is a
crematory. but IL is not 1t is an oven
for baking bread. A hundred loaves
can be baked at once and In three min
utes. That's 1000 loaves an hour, and
by working day and night three relief7
we have $4,000 loaves day. Six work
ing days give US 16S. 900 loaves a week.
Fifty-two weeks produce 8,T36.ON0
IOaves year.
so much for what my oven will do
Now for my object IT Is TO feed The
world. You see, my single oven is not
large. Suppose there are ten of ther
in this building alone. That gives
S7.36O.0OO IOa7es a year. only about
100000 miles less than the distance
of the earth from the sun"
Since ] could see no relationship be-
tween loaveS Of bread and the earth's
distance from the sun ! began to feel
a bit uncertain about the gentleman's
upper story, So said to him. rising:
You'll have to excuse me. sir It Is
not possible for me to remain any
longer"
But you have not examined my in
vention. Besides. i told you l wanted
you for a purpose
what purposeT'
Come; will show You"
He led me to the oven. He seemed
so harmless that ! followed him. He
threw open the door. displaying num-
Der Of iron shelves: l was somewhat
relieved that there was no heat in the
oven
My arrangement for heat is by
chemical process. There are many sub
stances that produce heat In combining
chemically. Why should we burn coal?
turn this cock and my substances run
together In a short time i shall have
my oven quite hot enough to do my
baking"
Il wouldn't turn 1t on If l were
you l remarked. "since you have no
broad roodv hzk1n~"
Il have something else. My desire
is to bake a human being"
This was getting warm. as the chill,
dren say when hunting for things in
games. And. "a the strange gentleman
looked at me. indicating that l was
the human being be proposed to bake.
l felt not only warm. but cold per
SEPARATION stood out on me, especially
when he drew a long sharp knife with
which to enforce his demands. l knew
l had to deal with lunatic and kept
my head.
Il shall be happy" 1 said. ito have
you bake me. On which shelf am to
take position?"
Step in and I will show you"
After you" I said deferentially.
bowling and raising my hat.
He stepped into the furnace I closed
the door with a bang and the big iron
latch fell into position. Then the
room swan. and fell on the floor But
did not remain there long. Fearful
that the lunatic might smother. l ran
TO the door Of the room. found 1t locked
and could not open It. tried a win