CHAPTER XVII.
Electrical Navigation.
Strange and novel uses to which electricity was applied in 1999. Hydrophobia banished from the earth. The relations of Creditor and Debtor greatly improved. Electrical ocean, river and lake navigation. The ocean ablaze with electric lights. Ships navigated by wireless telegraphy.
It has always been the conceit of every age that its own era is the most progressive and the most enlightened of all. In 1799 any man who could have stood on the deck of Nelson’s flagship “Victory” and informed that gallant sailor that in 1899 warships would navigate without sails; that powder would be used that made no smoke; that heavy rifles would hurl a ton shell fourteen miles, would have been dropped overboard as a monumental liar.
The age in which we live is always a conceited one; always ready to scoff at innovations. The Bump of The Age. Every age had a bump of its own. How these precious bumps are smoothed down one by one, is really interesting. The stage coach was king in its day. As men gazed upon the lumbering, six miles per hour coach, the bump of the period made them believe it was the swiftest and most luxurious mode of travel the world would ever see. Steam came and reduced the stage coach bump. When men saw steam locomotives drawing fast trains and covering the country with villainous smoke, they really believed it was the swiftest mode of travel the world ever would employ. Electricity then appeared and reduced the steam bump.
In 1999 electricity became a mighty monarch and an obedient slave. It ruled and A Lively Customer. it obeyed. This lively king of the twentieth century was a hustler. Sixteen distinct trips around the globe it could make in just one second’s time. Electric railroads and flying machines could not reasonably hope to make sixteen separate trips around the globe in one second’s time. The age of 1999 was a very rapid one, but its joints were too rheumatic to attempt any such gait. A traveler hustling around the world at the rate of sixteen times per second would hardly have time to visit and shake hands with friends.
In the twentieth century electricity, the servant-king of the world, was harnessed All Done by Electricity. to everything conceivable. Everything was done by merely pressing a button. Houses built in that period had no stairs. Every private house had its elevator. Press a button and up it went. Houses built in that period had no chimneys. All heating and every bit of the cooking was done by electricity. If you wanted heat, press a button; more heat wanted, press two. Locks and keys also became relics of a past age. No one in 1999 ever locked his house. Every house was provided with an electrical outfit. Those who desired to leave the house for a few hours attached the electric gongs and alarm bells. When connection was made no one could leave or enter the house without raising a pandemonium and sending an alarm to the central police station.
The uses of electricity in 1999 were carried to even absurd lengths. Man’s most faithful, but, alas, uncertain friend, the dog, was in evidence throughout the twentieth century. He wagged his tail vigorously as ever in token of kindnesses received. He was as ready as ever to sacrifice his life for that of his master, as well as to plant his teeth into the calf of his leg. The Hindoo charmer is never really safe until he has extracted the fangs of the reptile.