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Show Mechanisms That Madly Hasten the Excessive Speed of Modern Life By OCTAVE UZANNE, in La Depeche (Toulouse). We are generally proud of the progress of science. It certainly makes for our well-being and comfort. But individually we are becoming very sensitive to the imperious dictation of certain mechanisms that madly hasten the excessive speed of modern life. We complain of repeated calls to the telephone, our sybaritism is exasperated by every regression toward the methods of former times the stoppage of motors, punctures of tires that force us to go back to the use of our legs, the necessity of going upstairs when the elevator will not work, and many other such daily miseries. It is a common feature of modern conversation to rebel against these interruptions in our velvety path; we should like insurance against the failure of all these devices of the easy life. Spoiled by superaction, we have forgotten how to be patient and resigned in the presence of the unexpected, which becomes more and more frequent as the multiplicity of organisms devised for our comfort becomes be-comes more complex in function. |