The Washington times., 1914-07-26
Age of Beating Nature by Way
of Short Cuts Reflects In
fIuence by Giving New De-
vice to the Stage.
TesIa's Trick of Making Lamps
Glow in Spectators Hands
Gives Hint for Use by Vaude-
vile House.
Bv GARDNER MACK.

By GARDNER MACK.
While the relentless assurance OF
time and tide are well understood,
the spirit OF the present age seems
to be to sidestep the slow gredua-
ton of each by taking short cuts
from cause to effect
The chap who gets his name IN the
papers with the greatest frequency
and the largest type Is the person
who takes the job of producing re-
suits out of the hands of nature. and
beats both time and tide to the ac-
cnrnpIishment of the things which
these original stand-potters In evo-
luton have all along considered
their own peculiar job.
Not satisfied to wait until natural
events move in their courses with
sufficient exactness to evolve the
thing wanted in the usual way, this
restless soul smashes precedent and
record alike in producing in a min
ute what the combined forces Of
nature probably would require years
to do. The vital processes are being
produced artifciaIly all over the
world. Man has simulated almost
every effect of nature on a large or
small scale, as il suits him.
And while the process may be arti-
fctal. the result isn't, because the
eXperimenter simply takes the raw
materials and puts them together
himself. without waiting for the. slow
evolution Of time to introduce these
elements to themselves and their fu-
ture.
An Age of Beating Nature.
Hence il is not entirely wrong TO
define the present age as An age
Of short cuts, and the rrain ambition
Of the people who live In il not SO
much to get hack to as to get back
at nature by beating her to a wide
variety of things.
The stage has bt en- respunsible for
many Of these short cuts. Where IL
does not actually figure in the
scheme itself. 1t supplies iuspira-
ton for II. The drama is really a
short QUITO tears or laughter, as
the case may be. The press agent
is the most active of short cutters,
which is why many people have con-
ceived the notion that he has cut
down truth to such microscopic di-
mensions that its extreme shortness
ls sometimes mistaken for complete
aoence- This Is maligning the press
agent, however. He does not cut
down truth at al. In fact there are
lot Of press agents who wouldn't
know what you were talking about
IL you mentioned the word IT
therefore frequently happens, when
some great mind has conceived a
scheme that seems defiance to a nat
ural law and an upsettting of ALL
theories OF evolution. Of matter, etc,
that the average citizen declines to
credit the discovery and sets it down
TO a press agent yarn" without
particle Of solid fact behind 1t.
Credulity Strained.
That Is why / have circled about
the matter of superinduced pep for
actors and actresses in 80 careful a
manner before pouncinP upon IT and
shaking it in the face Of our readers.
There isn't more than one out Of
five persons who reads this story
who will believe IL and that one Der
son will believe it more out Of COM
pl'ment TO the writer than for any
other reason. CTo beat anyone TO the
question, ! might state that there
are actually five people in this town
who make a practice of reading this
stuff, too. consequently our porpor-
lons are correct. There used TO De
SIX but the other fellow sent me a
postal last Monday that he was tired
OF u and intended TO get his recre-
alton in the future from the Con-
gressional Record.)
The superinduced pep proposition
IS the very latest application of a
theory Of electric rejuvenation that
was discovered some years ago by
no less parsonage than Nikola
Tesla and applied in a variety OF
ways.
The idea is that many Of the
forces Of life ere Of an electrical
nature and that the greatest stluu-
liant TO action in the world is cleo
tricity. One has only to watch the
sntics or comparatively sedate
person striving to get rid Of the
metal handles OF a galvanic battery
10 prove this. II has been found
that the use Of electricity as
stimulant gives far better results
than any other kind because. In the
nature Of things. electricity CON
tains all the raw materials Of re-
Juvenation as uatGre herself would
apply them, ou!y they are in con-
centrated form when collected by
the dynamo or whatever other cleo
tric apparatus is used to produce
the result.
II a person has lost his sense
Of humor or the eternal fitness of
things mis- phySicisn usually pre-
scribes a trip to the country. where
the ozone is particularly ozonic and
the business of getting youth re-
Dewed can be carried on without
danger OF outside Interference. The
stck person gathers bodily strength
and mental exnIlaTation at the same
time by breathing the fresh air and
taking into his system pure food.
The air and the food contain all
sorts Of chemical elements, which,
when united with the chemical ele-
ments of the body. bring about the
changes that are necessary. But only
a small quantity of each is taken
into the system at once.
Snowman Blazes Way.
Now this is where the short cut
proposition comes in. Nikola Tesla
years ago devised a form OF electric
apparatus which produced what
was termed a high frequency cleo
tr!c current With this current
hundreds OF thousands oF volts of
electricity could be pc nIUted 10
course through the body Of a per-
son without harmful results.
People with the Snowman instinct
got hold Of the apparatus ami made
lots Of capital (sieng for EaleI by
filing themselves so chock full OF
electricity that incandeScant lamps
would glow when held in their
hands or between their teeth and all
sorts of 0ther weird uncanny things