| Show 11 ELECTR OPOLIS k I facts fact of or lie me future in the he ik fancies f of or the present 11 r ing speaking writing fiand seeing ino ing cooking Cook tny grovling Grov a all 11 by electricity from front the french for the new I ll herald erald I was standing in the vast halls balls of the electric exhibition in paris a few days before tho the exposition was opened there was on all hands hand s an amazing array of f all kinds of api pa ratus I engines and machineries contrivances af tho the queerest cons con st ruction clion and oddest appearance still more was t the lie weird c effect heightened by the chaotic quie quiet which reigned among those levers and wheels pistons and and rods chaing and wires to be compare compared to nothing better than a medieval torture chamber of some feudal dungeon with the only difference that in the latter the brute predominance of muscular might was wait typified while whilo the former represents tho the power of mind over mat ter V hat docs does tho the public at largo sec see in these halls and apartments long files of incomprehensible ap p whose mysterious shamca seem to mock the uninitiated be holder hence thero there is nothing more amusing than to follow tho lay spectator from object to object and to witness their spasmodic efforts to I penetrate pene tho the meaning and purport ot of these exotic productions thus I was leaning against a showcase Al taking in with great amusement I some english ladies who had stopped in front of the steam engines furnishing the motive power for the electric apparatus with expressions of great astonishment and admiration and who were busy jotting down notes in their memorandum books when suddenly I was aroused from my chuckling espionage by a call from a well known voice the voice was that of a lady in whose hospitable bouse house I had spent many an agree able evening the lady stepped up to me with pointed finger I have watched you from a distance for quite a while and have seen very well that you arc are making fun over aboe poor ladies you might as well I have your fun over me you mocker for I am quite as ignorant and helpless re 11 I as they it you do me great injustice i dj ustice mad ara anae e all right t all right but between our ourselves you would be right if you did lid laigh at me for deserve no better Is it not complete folly for me to come into this exhibition I fain would call it a salley ralley I A folly how that there are I so many beautiful and interesting things to be seen hero here I you are jesting where are I these beautiful and interesting things where well here and there and everywhere before you by you above you behind you wherever you are casting ting your eyes n tho the lady shrugged her shoulders Z I impatiently and incredulously and said asid with comical anger F oh yes sure so they all say and its to be read in the papera I but it is nothing but deception and humbug I thought hero wo we are going to have an electric exhibition and its going to be something rare and never heard of marvels are reported of it of course ive to come and eee tee it too not to be taken for a hottenrott Hotten tott so I gathered all my ae I pluck today to day and came for two hours now I have been walking up lal W I and down to and fro pressing ay my face to the panes of all the showcase ik I what do I gee see neatly pol I i dished wheela of brass and copper spools wound about with some kind of thick green silk all corta sorts of cords of wire all n order to be scientific a ly thorough thoroughgoing I bought the catalogue this 11 ii i a publication I suppose calculated to give information it well I here hero she opened the pamphlet at random and pointed out the first passage sho she struck anemometer r dynamometer inte grometer mano meter com compensators compensatory I regulators distributors acors and meters meters and acors it is enough to drive one crazy that is indeed making merry of an honest confiding public if the good folks who manufacture all this hieroglyphic stuff take a pleasure in displaying their bric a brac to one might i g lit a least abstain from cramming cram th the journals with it and deceiving I the general enerst public for purposes of mystification indred Ind ted ed 11 I replied these apparatus at are hieroglyphics in order I to find them interesting one must I know how to read them but this is is easier easier I than you think the me chani sms which now appear eusiblo to you would become quite intelligible to you after you taw them in operation in their L practical application they explain I them themselves solves 11 I I I I I I Q I theio cheto can wo we see them in ac lion tion it you will confide yourself to tony my guidance I shall consider it a great pleasure to escort you ton to a place where tho the singular and curious apparatus which you see here aro in general use clero wh oro electricity is no longer only tho the subject of theoretical studies studier bit but tile omnipresent handmaiden of t man inari in every pursuit of life in one obe woid where here the tile wonderful force of nature alp ilp lifts s leit jett the laboratory of the savant and in has tal an pos possession assion of all public publio bervice of bousi household hold parlor parter kitche ii and cellar and such a placa exists exist yee yes 11 madama idame it io its called I bear this namo for the first time it no wonder the th city iq little visited ill it probably is situated on the korth north pole not ot exactly but in another re gion which is ne neither nether ther of very easy MCC access es th this is is tha the F future utu re a land which commences a few paces in froit froot ofus of u and extends inter miri miti ably certain aclus clus classes if of human beings 93 v vin it very fr qu antly the tile poets tl thinker the in ventora there they seo see m marcoli arvol ous us things and institutions and when they return from their excursions among us again they would fain introduce what they jhc thc y have seen there bat but as a rule with little EUC sue cess for you know madame that travelers rt returning turning from foreign n lands meet little confidence with marvelous et stories ories 11 hm ihm I and is that city far remote in the land of I future I u V your question embarrasses me cai madame for herft here my geography knowledge deserts me Electro polis is perhaps one hundred per perhaps ups twenty or ten y years ars distant I fori got to tell you that in tholand offu turo distances are measured by years not by miles mile s besides I can give you achue to the situation of tro palis pulis when I tell you that it is is in the vicinity of I yes madame that city of health erected according to the plans of dr richardson where wo ave find applied all the scientific dis c co veries veries inventions and ivani ces calculated to protect human health against its visible and insisi ble enemies and where every in habitant is destined to grow grovv at least years A fine country what you ore telling me gives me a real desire to risk the nA adventure venture then lets lose no timeout ume time but proceed forthwith I just as we aro are for such a long journey just as we are the journey is made by means of electricity which as you know suppresses distances in as short a time as you may desire we aro are in Electro polis view the city and return on place do la con corde well be it then assented the lady somewhat anxiously and the next moment we were sitting in a car of SIEMENS ELECTRIC RAILROAD which brought us in a few minutes to the bank of the beina beine river hero we boarded ono one of troupes es electric vessels and soon left paris far behind us tho the t trip rip was exceedingly cee rapid and agreeable we were annoyed neither by scalding steam blackening smoke dolsy coisy rats tie or any other of tho the usual offensive concomitants of steam gaviga lion tion smooth and even was the movements of the screw propelled by electricity furnished ty ly a motor which hiah occupied only a small sp apace ce said in the hold bold of tile vessel blue and misty the lands landscape cai flew flow past us on either tide side and prid ere we wo were fairly cognizant of it wo we had arri arrived ved at Electro polis oar stopped in a sort of spacious dock bordered by broad quays on which railroad tracks were laid this was wm the station of departure and arrival for all the various means of communication while wo we dis disembarked ej we saw at ut the same time an electric train and one oue of TI sandier S ELECTRIC descend from tho the clouds some passengers eng ers gut got out others who had mur been n waiting on an elevated pl plat a t form took their seats A young lady of valetudinarian countenance came rushing on and asked if this was the local airship an employee informed her that the latter would ascend from the nearest platform I epla explained ined to my lady companion that ahe local airship airship p was not used for long trips but was devoted to pulmonary patients to afford them an opportunity to spend every day a few hours several thousand feet over the sea level and thus to enjoy all the hygienic advantages of the high alps atmosphere without any of the in inconveniences conveniences while I was thus dh discoursing coursing an employee appeared who took a small bos box out of the traveling airship and placed another one in in immediately after the quaint faint vehicle had taken an upward start and was disappearing high in tho the air air as on the wings of the storm my traveling companion looked at me with questioning eyes I hastened to enlighten her that little box said I contains the motive power of theair the airship several thousand horse borse power up electricity a sufficient quantity to keep the machine in motion until it reaches destination it ia is a so called dacres s BATTERY and is based on the transmutation of chemical into electric force when the battery is charged viz when it receives its quantity of olec tr icily I then at the two poles of its elements water is dissolved into oxygen and hydrogen whereby plates of lead on the positive pole polo arc tire ox and similar ones on the tie negative a polo when xa detached from the conduct from which tho the battery has received its charge it continues its chemical activity only in the reverse manner the plato plate of lead by the liberated by hydrogen drogen and on this occasion an electric elco irio current is created approximately aa as strong as the one which caused tho the first reddo tion this current is called a secondary dar curre current nt end it is this which is aig utilized iced to propel the airship but wo we cannot for ever atay at the sta I U I K il A vp thousand and one tiou there aro are a lle curiosities awaiting ua its in the city the lady took icy ray arm filen aly and left the station w with ith roe rile at tho tile exit thero ibero was a numerous numero us throng abel there was some crowding and 1811 rush ing and some bad looking fells fell s ran so brutally against luy my companion ion t that hat they tore hermit herIl ess ress I was j going to chastise tho the offender but he esca escaped ell me his companions surrounded e us and lid made us the tile ob feces of their vulgar sport fortu a policeman arrived who rebuked the tile hoodlums for their breach of the peace they retorted in un seemly language and the servant of the tile law declared them under arrest to this however they were not willing willingto to yield and the most truculent among thorn them threatened I tho the officer with it knife witt un disturbed composure the latter pull pulli i cd ed a small staff from his pocket and rapidly touched every ono of the men As struck truck by acht I lightning they fell to the ground and it was an easy thing to shackle them and remove them afterwards tho the wonderful little staff was mas simply the polo of a PAYEES FAURES accumulator the most effective ne clive weapon in close contest that can bo be imagined the lady was wm delighted with the speedy cedy and effective justice but dea des N to over her torn dress tress la in this plight I cannot possibly go a step F further ho she declared determinedly As luck would have it help was at hand A few steps distant there was a dressmakers establishment where we entered while in he the i ear tear shop a dewing machine RUN BT BY electricity repaired the rent in tho tile dress I watched through the bargo Va parisian plate glass of the F POW ow windows some boys outside who were flying kites kies which were kept gyrating in the air at a certain height by means of a simple ele electric etrio device when the repair of the robe was wa finished and I wanted to pay the trifling expense of the work I discovered to my great discomfiture that my pocket had been picked and the purse abstracted when it I informed my ray comps companion nion of the diss dis agreeable discovery she reached in her ier pocket to pull out her own pocketbook when to her guided d dismay she discovered that ibis this too had gone no doubt the mob which had lad nearly run us over waa was a gang of thieves who had caused the crowding in order to ply their nefarious vocation tho the cul cut prita arils had been arrested for resisting ho the officer there waa was therefore a to recover our property we mounted an electric hack back and hurried to the police who received pur complaint and thence to tho the telegraph ollice to ask a friend in for a small loan THROUGH THE TELEPHONE I called my friend who fortunately was at boma homa and replied with a cordial greeting whose cadence clearly manifested surprise ed the situation lo 10 him and asked him for an tin order on his banker in elea tro polis five minutes later there app appeared oared on the writing telegraph a check with his own signature I put my hand band into a small apparatus which had some resemblance with a boxing glave and sent my friend a grateful shake and squeeze of the hand which was vigorously returned from the other end A few minutes later I was in in posses sion of athe the need ed amount this talking and writing at P distance but the handshaking BY TELEGRAPH had greatly I astonished shed my fair companion but her astonishment was heightened into amazement when wo we commenced to take in the views of the real curiosities of Electro polis with the visit cf be the municipal museum the spacious hall halls on the ground floor had nothing ext mordi harily startling still they contained tho the finest sculptures of the whole world from the apollo of the th e vatican and the venus of milo to hermes and Thorwald sena sens christ and that not riot in common plaster of paris casts but iu in cories which mirrored tho the oil original ginal w with th all their microscopic d details in the first story was the picture gallery this term however was hardly appropriate aate as we will see seo in a minute for when wo we entered the hall we saw nothing but a large number of frames of va various bous sizes enclosing a gremich grey ich bh vacant space with lustre this is a mystification exclaim ed the lady have patience only I couE consoled oled her the samo same moment the over seer of t ti e gallery approached us handing us a thick cat catalogue and asking politely poli iely which museum and vv what hat pictures we wished to enjoy how exclaimed my companion have we the choice certainly this cat catalogue cons con bains a list of all the prominent paintings extant anywhere on earth in public and private collections by each picture you notice two numbers ono one in arabic and one in R man figures when ever you wish to see a sr you have simply to toll tell mo me the number in arabic figures and yourself kee keep P an eye on the frame here in the hall ball which bears the corresponding figure in roman letters this frame is approximately of f the size of the picture desired and the picture will appear in the frame the lady glanced hurriedly through ah the e catalogue and pronounced two numbers they |
