TO WILBUR WRIGHT AND WILLIAM MARCONI
"Great Spirit—Thou who in my being's burning mesh
Hath wrought the shining of the mist through and through the flesh,
Who, through the double-wondered glory of the dust
Hast thrust
Habits of skies upon me, souls of days and nights,
Where are the deeds that needs must be,
The dreams, the high delights,
That I once more may hear my voice
From cloudy door to door rejoice—
May stretch the boundaries of love
Beyond the mumbling, mock horizons of my fears
To the faint-remembered glory of those years—
May lift my soul
And reach this Heaven of thine
With mine?"
"Come up here, dear little Child
To fly in the clouds and winds with me,
and play with the measureless light!"
PART ONE
WISTFUL MILLIONAIRES
CHAPTER I
MR. CARNEGIE SPEAKS UP
As I was wandering through space the other day—just aeroplaning past on my way over from Mars—I came suddenly upon a neat, snug little property, with a huge sign stuck in the middle of it: