Evening star., 1934-11-04


city. My eyes are weary with gazing
and my mouth speechless with admira-
ton, but in my brain rings perpetually
the thought: Wonderful! wonderful!
most wonderful! -
New York contains now 10000 900
inhabitants, 1t is the largest city that
Is, or ever has been, in the world. It
is dificult to say where it begins or
ends, for the villas extend, in almost
unbroken succession, clear to Phila-
delphia; while East, West and North
noble habitations spread out mile after
mile, far beyond the municipal limits.
But the wonderful cityI Let me tell
you of it.
"As we approached 1t in our airship,
coming from the East, we could see,
q hundred miles before we reached
the continent, the radiance of its
millions Of magnetic lights. reflected
on the sky, like the glare Of great
confagration.
These lights are not fed, as in the
old time, from electric dynamos, but
the magnetism of the planet itself is
IldL ICoSCo 4OI IIiC use Va AoO
marvellous earth force which the
Indians called the dance Of the
spirits and civilized man designated
the aurora borealis,' is now used to
illuminate this great metropolis with
a clear, soft, white light, like that of
the full moon, but many times
brighter. And the force is so cum
ningly conserved that it is returned
to the earth, without any loss of
magnetic power to the planet. Man
has simply made a temporary loan
from nature for which he pays no
interest.
Night and day are all one, for the
magnetic light increases automatically
as the daylight wanes, and the busi-
ness parts of the city swarm as much
at midnight as at high noon.
Vast Airport.
The whole territory between Broad
way and the Bowery and Broome
street and Houston street Is occupied
by the depot grounds Of the great
inter-continental airlines, and it is an
astonishing sight to see the ships
ascending and descending. like mon
strous birds, black with swarming
masses Of passengers to or from Eng
land, Europe, South America, the
Pacific Coast, Australia, China, India
and Japan.
These airlines are Of two kinds
the anchored and the independent.
The former are hung. by revolving
wheels. upon great wires suspended
in the air, the wires held in place by
metallic balloons, f1sh-shaped, made
Of aluminium and constructed to turn
with the wind so as to present always
the least surface to the air currents.
These balloons, where the lines
cross the oceans, are secured to huge
floating islands of timber, which are
in turn anchored to the bottom of
the sea by four immense metallic
cables, extending north, south, east
and west. and powerful enough to
resist any storm. These artificial
islands contain dwellings, in which
men reside. who keep up the supply
Of gas necessary for the balloons.
The independent air lines are huge
cigar shaped balloons, unattached to
the earth, moving by electric power.
with such tremendous speed and force
as to be as little affected by the
winds as cannon ball. In fact, un-
less the wind is directly ahead the
sails of the craft are so set as to
take advantage of it like the sails
of a ship; and the balloon rises or
falls, as the birds do, by the angle
at which it is placed to the wind,
the stream of ar forcing it up. or
pressing it down, as the case may be.
Life Boats on Parachutes.
"And just as the old-fashioned
steamships were provided with boats,
in which the passengers were ex-
pected to take refuge. if the ship was
about to sink, so the upper decks
of these air vessels are supplied with
parachutes, from which are suspended
boats; and in case Of accident two
sailors and 10 passengers are as
signed to each parachute: and long
practice has taught the bold crafts
men to descend gently and alight in
the sea, even in stormy weather. with
as much adroitneSs as sea gull.