The Cairo bulletin., 1910-08-17
After You,Sm :
Es I townsend SMITH
Copyriaa, iJle Us American Press
As-nc'ail0n

thoron-hfare, ~nr,kna, largely for the
purpose. 1t EilliHa line. was uccosltd
BY u geptl"ti1.I,, we'll dressed nan
who dotted "a" hat before speaking 10
me
Il be. pardon. sir" he said. but
could you spare Inc little of your
tine?'
For what purpose. sir!'
That is sut easy to explain on the
street II yon VIII step inside | viii
show you rather than tell you"
Inside where"
Right here"
He pointed to an open door. and !
could see a staircase. The building
seemed to he unused.
There are people who seem to have
power to make other people obey
them. not by force. not always by In
sstence. In this case the man was so
gentlemany In his request that ! did
not like to refuse him. At any rate,
before | realized what | was doing |
had gone to the upper floor Of an unoc-
cupled 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 1t, and
at the time | knew that | should do
/ no such thing. but | couldn't help 1t.
He took me into a room on the Sec
ond floor. In Its center was what
only II was neither round nor square,
but oblong He closed the door be-
hind us. and heard click. didn't
like 1t, for IT sounded ms though 1t
came from 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
Their us to this strange proceeding.
The gentleman led me to a 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 ovenY' he said.
"Well. that has cost me a great deal
of labor Perhaps you think 1t is a
crematory. but 1t is not. Ii 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 reliefs
we have $4,000 loaves a day. SIX work
Ing days give us 10000 loaves a week.
Flfty.two weeks produce $4,000
loayes a year.
so much for what my oven will do
Now for my object 1t Is to feed the
world. You see. my single oven Is not
large. Suppose there are ten of them
In this building alone. That gives
S7,3G0,000 loaves 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
bit uncertain about the gentleman's
upper story. So said to him. rising:
you'll have to excuse me, sir. 1t il
not possible for me TO remain any
longer"
but you have not examined my In
vention Besides, told you wanted
you for purpose"
What purposeg
Come; | will show you"
He led me to the oven. He seemed
so harmless that | followed him. He
threw open the door. displaying a mum
Der of iron shelves; / 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 coali
turn this cock and my substances run
| together. In short time shall have
my oven quite hot enough to do my
baking"
Il wouldn't turn 1t on II were
you" remarked. "since you have nc
bread ready for baking"
II have something else. My desire
IL to bake human being"
This was getting warm, as the chill
dren say when hunting for things IN
games. And. MS the strange gentleman
looked at the, indicating that was
the human being be proposed to bake.
| 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. | knew
| | had TO deal with a lunatic and kept
my head
II Shall be happy" said, ito have
you bake me- On which shelf am | to
take position"
step In and will show you"
After you" | said deferentially,
bowling and raising my hat.
He stepped into the furnace. closed
the door with bang. and the big iron
latch fell into position. Then the
room swan, and fell on the hoor But
did not remain there long. Fearful
that the Innate might smother, ran
TO the door of the room. found 1t locked
and could not open IT, tried a win
dow. and that served call through
In n few minutes II policeman came
up the stairs, broke down the door
aud let the gentleman baker out. He
was yearly suifurntcd and gave nc