Fifty years hence: or, What may be in 1943 / A prophecy supposed to be based on scientific deductions by an improved graphical method

WHAT MAY BE IN 1943:
A Prophecy supposed to be based on Scientific Deductions by an Improved Graphical Method.
BY ROBERT GRIMSHAW.
NEW YORK PRACTICAL PUBLISHING CO. 21 Park Row 1892
Copyright, 1892, BY ROBERT GRIMSHAW.
To MY CHILDREN, Who may perchance, fifty years hence, compare these prophecies with what has then come about .
FIFTY YEARS HENCE.
“Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.”
— Locksley Hall.
That portion of the public which honors me by perusing what I have been fortunate enough to learn concerning the future of the inhabitants of this planet, half a century from this Christmas of 1892, will naturally, as my name is unknown to either fame or science, wonder on what grounds I presume on so bold an undertaking; perhaps what manner of man I might be.
But when I positively disclaim any merit or virtue as a prophet, and state that I am merely by chance the medium by which a portion of the veil is torn from the future, it is enough that I describe myself, as referred to in sundry recitals, as Francis Ainsworth, of the City and County of New York. Perhaps I might add that I am by choice an electrician, by birth a Pennsylvanian, in age twenty-one, and by no fault of my own still unmarried. For some years I have been endeavoring to save enough to enable me to marry my lifelong friend Estelle Morton, of Philadelphia; but as I have a family of small sisters to support out of my salary and what I can earn by extra work, the period of our engagement has been prolonged beyond the time of even our least sanguine calculations. Nearly all my evenings are spent at home, within the sound of the Jefferson Market clock; for I have chosen the Ninth Ward because it is even yet an American stronghold, because it is convenient to my place of business, and because it is better than it looks, which is preferable to looking better than facts warrant.