The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1959-11-06
@ [ ! M p S { S
TIL E p ST
By CAROLYN LLOYD

SCepnen Leacock, the nunlorlSC
isn't always funny. In his little
flight into fantasy, "The Man in
Asbestos" he becomes frightening
Curious about the world of the
future, Mr.. Leacock projected him.
self into the year 5000 by the
simple expedient of going to beG
and eating a pork pie and two dozer
doughnuts. He woke up as an eX
hibit in a New York musuem anC
was taken in hand by an ageless.
looking individual who was dressed
in a suit of something that looked
like charred paper but turned out
to be asbestos. The man explained
that the asbestos never wore out
and that the government had turn
ed out enough clothes to last every
one forever. They had to last for
ever because the germ that caused
death had been discovered.
In this fine, new world all means
of communication and Transports
ton had been done away with be-
cause one place was just like anoth-
err and there wasn't any point in
talking to anybody or going any
where. The man in asbestos had
seen farmer in a musuem, but
they had been eliminated by the
discovery of a chemical pill, which
taken every other year did away
with the necessity of food. There
were still women, but they looked
just Like men; and marriage was
a queer institution of an ancient
age. The man had also heard of
children, he said-"queer things
with big, crying mouths that grew
like a fungus-disgusting."
In short, Leacock's world of the
year 5000 is just what many of us
sometimes misguidedly wish for: a
world of the machine, with all
work, all struggle, all danger, all
emotion eliminated. The next time
we complain long and loud about
the weather, we might do well to
contemplate a world in which
scientists have conquered weather.
The sea is a gelatinous mass and
there are no seasons with all the
work that changing weather brings.
No work, no weather, no love, no
death-just an endless procession Of
endlessly dull days
Perhaps we needn't worry about
it this far ahead, but we do seem
to be making some steps in that
direction. Farm land that was once
worked by twenty-five men can
now be farmed by two men and
machinery, am told. Rural areas
are becoming less and less rural as
men turn to industrial regions and
roads and automobiles bring cities
close together. The craftsman who
makes a product by hand is no
today he is an artist who operates
longer considered working man;
a quaint, roadside place for tour
lists. 1t is a little scary to think
about, so the next time l catch my
self joining in that daily plant in
the grocery store-"Oh, if we just
didn't have to eat'-I'm going to
think about the chemical pill and
change my tune. 1t may be a little
trouble to cook a steak, but as long
as teeth and health hold out eating
is more fun than mere swallowing.
Clothes may be expensive and
changing styles annoying, but the
monotony of asbestos suit would
be dreadful.
If l should be so foolish as to
eat pork pie and a dozen dough-
nuts at bedtime. hope that l trav-
ell backward in time, rather than
forward. 1t would be much more
fun to be an Egyptian maiden padd-
ling along the Nile than to be a
thing in asbestos suit.