King Electricity

1895

FARMER DUNN PREDICTS A REVOLUTION FOR EARTHLY FOLKS.

The Whole Atmosphere Soaked With Electricity — The Day Coming When It Will Supply Light, Heat and Motive Power. Coal a Curiosity.

Elias B. Dunn, the weather observer, has been studying atmospheric electricity. The sergeant, as they used to call him, the farmer, as they call him now, said that he will live to see the day when electricity, collected from the atmosphere and stored by some means which an Edison or a Tesla will have to devise will revolutionize the world.

The prophet expects that cities will be lighted and heated by atmospheric electricity; that railway trains and cars will be run, lighted and heated by it; that coal will become a curiosity; that steam heating will be granny talk to the children of the next generation; that the telegraph and telephone companies will lose their monopolies; that war will become a farce, because a touch of electricity will make the British grenadiers or the German Uhlans or the Scotch highlanders sit down on the cold ground powerless; that even the dreams of communication with the inhabitants of Mars will become realities, and that a man will be able to strike up electricity as he does a parlor match.

There will be no more trolley strikes, because there will be no more trolleys. Mankind will tap the atmosphere for almost every convenience or necessity, except food and clothing, and even the clothing will be woven and the food cooked by atmospheric electricity. Street cleaning will be as easy as the magician's "Presto, change!" and everybody will live comparatively happy ever after.

Mr. Dunn is sure that his ideas are practical and practicable. The atmosphere is his constant study, and having introduced general humidity to the public as the principal element in uncomfortable days he has determined that the most potent element for good in the air we breathe shall no longer be wasted.

"Why," he said, "The whole atmosphere is soaked with electricity. The earth, as is well known, is a storehouse of electricity. That it passes from the clouds to the earth we can see in every thunderstorm. Earth is a good conductor, especially damp earth, and water is the best conductor possible.

"Every person is possessed of body electricity. The vital force is all in the electrical power you contain in your body. When the day is damp, you become weakened through the loss of your bodily electricity, because the atmosphere is a greater conductor of the electrical fluid than your body, and consequently what is in your body will pass to this moist, damp air.

"That is the cause of that tired feeling. This passing of the electricity to the atmosphere enervates you to such a degree that a person in a naturally weak state will collapse or become much worse by the loss of this bodily electricity.

"The atmosphere being charged with electricity, and the earth being a storehouse for it, if there were some controllable method of storage devised by which you could draw off a moderate amount of electricity at will and keep that force on tap all the time, with an appliance by which power could be generated — and there is no reason why that can't be done — then atmospheric electricity would make all the wheels in the world go round.

"The coal barons would be done up," said Farmer Dunn savagely, thinking of the coal bill for his house in Brooklyn. "There would be no more need of coal. There ought to be enough electricity in the atmosphere to supply light and heat as well as to do all the work except the housework. I'm afraid it won't do away with the servant girl question, though it will modify it. I expect to live to see the day atmospheric electricity on tap. It will run everything on earth.

"It is well known that there is a greater number of deaths in the early morning, say from 1 a. m. to 4 a. m., than at any other time. Dickens was aware of that, but he didn't know the reason. You remember that poor old Peggotty, in 'David Copperfield,' went out with the tide. That's right. And it is in the early morning, that the daily ebb of the atmosphere occurs, when the daily atmospheric pressure is least. If at that time the atmosphere is in a state of saturation, very heavily charged with humidity, then the electric force leaves a person's body and flows to the atmosphere, greatly debilitating him when he is in a weakened condition. Now, should a person in that state be kept in extremely dry surroundings, so that he could be furnished with an adequate supply of artificial electricity and at the same time have the humidity reduced, there would be, in my opinion, a greater chance of prolonging life.

"If the doctors could provide means to supply in such circumstances artificial electricity instead of natural, it would probably be very beneficial. Just think of it! Here we are, spending millions of dollars to generate electricity, when it is all around us, and we are breathing it! Here's another thing: When a current of electricity is generated, where does it go? It can't die. It is somewhere. I should judge that it is simply adding to the amount of electricity in the atmosphere.

"It is natural to suppose that as long as the earth is given to us for useful purposes the atmosphere was not given for nothing. Of course it gives us health and breath, as the earth gives us what we eat, but since the atmosphere contains electricity, and we can use the earth as a power for carrying it, as is done by telegraph companies, why not use the electricity in the atmosphere?

"Once begin to use it, and there is no telling where it would end. War with atmospheric electricity as a factor would have to cease. The problem of signaling to Mars would be solved. With atmospheric electricity in control we could communicate with all the inhabited planets." — New York World.

Christmas In the Year 2000

1895

But the evening is wearing on toward midnight. The moment must be at hand when the first sunbeam shall flash on Bethlehem and give the signal for the world round trumpet chorus which is to usher in the two thousandth Christmas dawn. Two thousand years the herald angels have waited for the answer to their song. Now at last we can echo back their benison of "Peace on earth" with "Peace indeed," writes Edward Bellamy in his optimistic view of "Christmas In the Year 2000" in The Ladies' Home Journal.

There is something that appeals to the sense of fitness in this idea of making the celebration of the day simultaneous in every land; in the thought that with the first note of the trumpets, whether it be midnight, dawn or evening, it will be that moment Christmas morning everywhere. Other feast days we may wait for as they slowly dawn around the earth, ending here ere at the antipodes they begin, but this day, sacred to the tie of universal human brotherhood, should have no moment that all mankind does not share in common.

One Thousand Years Hence

1895

"Tell my daughter that she must not forget that dinner will be an hour earlier today. She is in Egypt."

"Yes, mum," (Telephones a phonographic signal to Pyramid station No. 99,999.)

"I see the airship from Market street, Japan, nearing the window. Bring my husband's slippers and dressing gown."

"Yes, mum."

"Now touch the buttons A, L, R, T, V, and X. I think that will be all we want for dinner. Here comes my daughter on her biwind flier just in time. Call up No. 8888."

"Yes, mum." — Boston Globe.

Personal Notices – Mediums and Spiritualists, Dallas, 1929

1929

MRS. LIVINGSTON, spiritualist adviser; advice on affairs of life; no one turned away, money or no money. 2702 Bryan 7-2773.

MADAME SIERRAS — Do you find with all your natural gifts and talents that you are baffled, discouraged and unsuccessful? If so, call 506 South Harwood. 7-6482.

AMBITIOUS Young Men — I need you to fill responsible and big pay positions. $100 per week and upward to those that will prepare themselves by my short personal instructions in applied psychology. Come in, let's talk it over today. Prof. Fahrbach. Birdwell hotel, 6 to 9 p. m.

MYSTIC Tea Room. 105 Stone, announces the return engagement of the "FAMOUS ZEMAR," with the "RADIO" mind. Short engagement.

MME. RITA ARABIC, Reader, 300 N. Peak. 8-3995. Life Readings daily.

SPIRITUAL MEDIUM — READING
Satisfaction guaranteed or no charges.
Hours 9 A. M. to 10 P. M.
Mrs. White, St. George Hotel. 2-2494

MRS. CARLOTTA, spiritualist, reads your life like a book without asking questions; advisor business, marriage, love. 2110 Live Oak. 7-5238.

MRS. C. SAUNDERS, Spiritualist. If troubled or worried, visit this gifted lady, she can help you. 1515 S. Ervay. 7-4704.

CONSULT Mme. Virginia, spiritualist medium. Readings daily. 702 N. Harwood.

MME. LEE, phenomenal medium, tells everything, asks no questions. 3011 Bookhout, one block west Maple Terrace. Fairmount ear. 2-4292. Appointments.

J. F. FELLERS, the gifted healer, has cured many when all else has failed. Trial will convince you. 4617 Garland. 3-5203.

DR. JAMES, spiritualist, recently located 88-year-old father (can give name), Dallasite, lost 38 years. Sunday readings two for $1. 2204 Ross. 7-3427.

—The Daily Times Herald, Dallas, TX, Jan. 1, 1929, p. 12.

Note: The name "Zemar" was missing the "E," so maybe some other letter went there, but in one of my copies of the ad (and these are all bad), it looked sort of like an "E." One other word "spiritualist" was misspelled in one ad, changed here.

Only Today

1910

The future is an illusion; it never arrives; it flies before you as you advance. Always it is today — and after death and a thousand years it is today. You have great deeds to perform and you must do them now. — Charles Ferguson.

Note: Maybe if the future did exist, Mr. Ferguson could come to it and get some royalties from Eckhart Tolle.

Teacher Refuses Tribute to Santa Claus

1910

By Samuel Parker of Chicago

During the recent holiday season a teacher in one of the Chicago public schools was subjected to not a little criticism for refusing to pay tribute to the Santa Claus myth, declaring it to be wrong morally to teach a child a falsehood or to tell the child anything as a truth which it would discover to be false later on.

Instead of being a target for thoughtless ridicule that teacher should command the respect of every teacher and parent who conscientiously regards the moral training of children. The holiest thing this side of heaven is the faith of a little child and he who carelessly or purposely abuses it perpetrates a wrong from which the abused child seldom fully recovers. If parents and friends would sidetrack the heathen myth and bestow their endearing gifts in their own names the dear children would be just as happy and escape the shock of falsehood and deception at the hands of those who ought to love them too well to expose them to such danger.


Romance of the Future

"Do you see that cloud? It was behind one just like that that I first kissed you." — Town and Country.

Wisecracks About the News

1911

That New York person who shot himself five times and failed to kill himself will probably die some day of the pip. You never can tell.

A Washington man has started suit for $300,000 for the loss of his wife. All of which leads us to remark that she must have been some wife.

"In the future," says Doctor Wiley, "the air will furnish heat, fuel and power." It might do so right now if some way to extract the coal from it could be found.

That Kansas City man, as we understand the case, did not want a divorce merely because his wife smoked, but on account of what she smoked.

Europe's wine shortage this year is said to be the greatest for a century. Still there will no doubt be enough for us who buy it only for medicinal purposes.

A writer in the New York Medical Journal says whisky is not a cure for snake bite, but kindly refrains from expressing an opinion as to its suitability for fish bait.

Horseless Vehicles May Be Used By the Army

1896

War Horses of Steel

Cavalrymen to Be Mounted on Motor Cycles, Artillery Hauled Without Mules

Horseless vehicles will probably be used in our army before very long. General Miles is now studying the question, and later the army may purchase or have built a horseless vehicle to be tested at one of the posts.

Before many generations, it is predicted, battles will be fought by navies, so to speak, patrolling the land as well as the sea, in ironclad vessels. True, the horseless vehicle, as we now know it, cannot be depended upon to climb fences, run over steep rocks or such obstacles, but it is contended that with these machines in use will come good roads.

The value of movable forts was greatly appreciated in ancient warfare, but modern rapid movements in battle made them useless; but with these forts propelled by steam their utility becomes at once apparent. An armored fortress moved by a power from within, and containing a picked body of sharpshooters, could work havoc on an enemy.

The army wagon has always played an important part in the protection of small bodies of men attacked from ambush on the march. Where there is animal power exposed, however, that propelling force is soon exterminated with a single bullet. The horse is much more easily hit than the man. War statistics, including all the world's battles fought between 1800 and 1865, show that for every 100 cavalry or artillery soldiers killed there were 120 horses. But a traveling fort could not be destroyed nearly so quickly as a warship, for the reason that there no water to rush into the former. A hundred holes can be shot clear through it, and yet it will go on unless the vital machinery be broken.

The adoption of the horseless vehicle, as is contemplated, for the simple army train, may lead to the adoption of these armored land vessels some day. At each of its forty-one military posts our army employs two or more wagons. There are two styles of army wagons prescribed by the Quartermaster-General. The larger, the six-mile wagon, is for transporting army supplies to and from railroad stations on the frontier posts. The other, known as the escort wagon, is pulled by two or four mules. It is used in the more thickly settled regions for the same purpose, as well as for official errands.

These wagons have been used in the army since the war, with but little alteration. Both would be important factors of the army train in the event of war with a foreign Power. They are slow, but sure, as are the Government mules which draw them. But the Government mule will not long be use in these advanced days, when all the armies of the world are striving to solve the problem of rapid transit.

The movement is fast on foot to mount our regular soldiers, as well as militiamen, on bicycles. When these are in use marches of a hundred miles or more will be made in the light of one day. Forced ones of double length will easily be made in twenty-four hours. The bicycle needs but a little oil and is always ready. It is, therefore, apparent to progressive military men that with the advent of the bicycle must come the advent of the horseless carriage in the army provision train.

Another important bearing of the compact road motor upon modern warfare will be the possibility of hauling field cannon without the aid of horses. The field piece is the clumsiest of all instruments of warfare to manage during a retreat. For this reason alone cannon are so often deserted in the field to fall into the hands of the enemy.

When good roads make the horseless conveyance popular we will have to propel our cannon at a rapid rate, on the march, to keep up with the rapid pace of the bicycle cavalry and infantry, and the provision wagons propelled by the storage battery, naphtha, gasoline, petroleum and other motors.

It is said that a New Jersey inventor has prepared plans for an acetyline automobile carriage, soon to be built and run in Washington this winter. This promises to be a very cheap motor, employing the new gas renowned for its low rate of cost.

Developments in the lightness, compactness and power of motors will also probably permit air-ships to be made and utilized in war.

A striking vista of a great military engagement a century hence now begins to appear to the mind's eye. Imagine that a great foreign host is falling in upon us. Myriads of floating fortresses are guarding our shores from far out to sea. Our seacoasts are scattered with impenetrable fortifications built at every point which might prove tempting and beneficial to an enemy.

Our armor covered cavalry fly about the country upon their two-wheeled war horses of steel, propelled by powerful light motors. Rapid monitors patrol the continent, now netted with glazed highways, and flocks of warrior birds, driven by compact engines, soar above the enemy's fleets or forces, dropping death upon them, as did the fabulous rocs, the giant birds told of in the "Arabian Nights." — New York Herald.

Letter to Be Opened Century From Now

1914

AKRON, Ohio. — Mayor Rockwell wrote a letter to the person who will be mayor of Akron 100 years hence. The epistle tells the future mayor of the present debt, the names of all city officials, the problems confronting the municipality and the political situation in Akron in 1914.

The letter will be sealed and addressed to "His Honor, Mayor of Akron, 2014," marked with instructions not to be opened or molested until that year and placed in a bank deposit vault to lie for a century.

The salutation in the letter will fit either a man or a woman mayor.

Comment: So, I wonder what are the chances that this letter is still in the bank deposit vault waiting. Someone in Akron, please check into this.

Growth of the Telephone in Thirty Years

1906

By John Vaughn

"Hello, Central," was first heard in 1878. Today the exchanges are numbered by the thousand, the telephones by the million. Various industries, unknown thirty years ago, but now sources of employment to many thousands of workers, depend entirely on the telephone for support. Numerous factories making lead sheathing, dynamos, motors, generators, batteries, office equipment, cables, and many other appliances, would have to close down and thus throw their operatives into idleness and misery if the telephone bell should cease to ring. The Bell Companies employ over 87,000 persons and, it may be added, pay them well. Many of these employes have families to maintain; others support their parents, or aid younger brothers and sisters. It is safe to say that 200,000 people look to the telephone for their daily bread. These figures may be supplemented by the number of telephones in use, (5,698,000), by the number of miles of wire (6,043,000), in the Bell lines, and by the number of conversations (4,479,500,000), electrically conveyed in 1905. The network of wire connects more than 33,000 cities, towns, villages and hamlets.

Such tremendous growth as these statistics show would imply not only steadily increasing appreciation of the telephone, but would also suggest improved instruments, more skillful operators, and better service. There would be no flattery in such suggestion. Electrical science has undergone radical reformation since 1876. Telephony has raised the utilization of electricity to the height of a profession. Of course such advances have not been won without cost. Fortunes were spent in experiment and investigation before a dollar came back. Communication by the first telephone was limited to a few thousand feet. Now, conversation can be carried on by persons 1,600 miles apart. Tomorrow long-distance lines will span the continent; and the day after oceanic telephony will be a commonplace of mercantile routine. But science and money had to collaborate for years before they could work the trade of enabling Boston and Omaha to talk together. — From the "Thirtieth Anniversary of a Great Invention," in Scribner.

Friday the 13th and 12-12-12

1912

TODAY WAS LAST OF THE HOODOO DATES

Friday the Thirteenth Will Not Come Again Until June 1913 a Genuine Jonah Day.

. .B-e-w-a-r-e! This is Friday the 13th! But, thank goodness, it is the last "hoodoo" day we will have this year. Next year only one Friday falls on the unlucky number. It is June 13, 1912.

Yesterday was Dec. 12, — or, written in business form, 12-12-12. No triple set of numerals will be seen again until Jan. 1, 2001, which may be written 1-1-1.

Christmas shoppers took warning and kept their clutches tightened on handbags and pocketbooks.

The superstitious dread of the number 13 seems to have spread over the earth. It is said Italians never use it in making up the numbers for their lotteries; that the thirteenth card in one of their games bears the figure of Death, and that no house in Paris is No. 13. The Quatorziemes are persons known in Parisian society who hold themselves in readiness to go to any dinner which otherwise would have the fatal 13 at the table.

—Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Dec. 13, 1912, p. 14.


Today Friday, Thirteenth and Yesterday, 12-12-12

Today is Friday the thirteenth, the last unlucky day of its kind until the second week of June, which the superstitious believe will be especially unlucky on account of the year being 1913. Yesterday the date could be Written "12-12-12," and it will be 88 years before the similarity is duplicated. January 1, 2001, can be written "1-1-1."

—Colorado Springs Gazette, Colorado Springs, CO, Dec. 13, 1912.


THURSDAY WILL BE 12-12-12

Making the Last of Such Combinations for 88 Years.

Thursday, when the "tired business man" and the busy stenographer dash off a letter headed by 12-12-12 on the date line, few will recognize the fact that it is a calendar peculiarity, the last of a series of twelve such which will not recur again for 88 years, or until the dawning of a new century.

The superstitious may draw satisfaction from the fact that the following Friday is the last that will occur in his lifetime falling upon the thirteenth and having the sum of the numerals of the year likewise make the fateful thirteen.

—The Mansfield News, Mansfield, Ohio, Dec. 10, 1912, p. 8.

The Talking Phonograph

1878

Mr. Thomas A. Edison recently came into this office, says the Scientific American, placed a little machine on our desk, turned a crank, and the machine inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a cordial good night. These remarks were not only perfectly audible to ourselves, but to a dozen or more persons gathered around, and they were produced by the aid of no other mechanism than the simple little contrivance mentioned.

No matter how familiar a person may be with modern machinery and its wonderful performance, or how clear in his mind the principle underlying this strange device may be, it is impossible to listen to the mechanical speech without his experiencing the idea that his senses are deceiving him. We have heard other talking machines. The Faber apparatus for example is a large affair as big as a parlor organ. It has a key board, rubber larynx and lips, and an immense amount of ingenious mechanism which combines to produce something like articulation in a single monotonous organ note. But here is a little affair of a few pieces of metal, set up roughly on an iron stand about a foot square, that talks in such a way, that, even in its present imperfect form many words are not clearly distinguishable, there can be no doubt but that the inflections are those of nothing else than the human voice.

We have already pointed out the startling possibility of the voices of the dead being reheard through this device, and there is no doubt but that its capabilities are fully equal to other results just as astonishing. When it becomes possible as it doubtless will, to magnify the sound, the voices of such singers as Parepa and Titiens will not die with them, but will remain as long as the metal in which they may be embodied will last. The witness in court will find his own testimony repeated by machine so that it will be reproduced in a way that will leave no question as to his devising capacity or sanity. It is really possible by ingenious optical contrivances to throw stereoscopic photographs of people on screens in full view of an audience. Add the talking phonograph to counterfeit their voices, and it would be difficult to carry the illusion of real presence much further.

Uses of the Phonograph — Backmasking, Mashups Foretold In 1878

1878

Uses of the Phonograph.

For public uses we shall have galleries where phonograph sheets will be preserved as photographs and books now are. The utterances of great speakers and singers will there be kept for a thousand years. In these galleries spoken languages will be preserved from century to century, with all the peculiarities of pronunciation, dialect, or brogue. As we go now to see the stereopticon, we shall go to public halls to hear these treasures of speech and song brought out and reproduced as loud, or louder, than when first spoken or sung by the truly great ones of earth. Certainly, within a dozen years, some of the great singers will be induced to sing into the ear of the phonograph, and the electrotyped cylinders thence obtained will be put into the hand-organs of the streets, and we shall hear the actual voice of Christine Nilsson or Miss Cary ground out at every corner.

In public exhibitions, also, we shall have reproductions of the sounds of nature, and of noises familiar and unfamiliar. Nothing will be easier than to catch the sounds of the waves on the beach, the roar of Niagara, the discords of the streets, the noises of animals, the puffing and rush of the railroad train, the rolling of thunder, or even the tumult of a battle.

When popular airs are sung into the phonograph, and the notes are then reproduced in reverse order, very curious and beautiful musical effects are sometimes produced, having no apparent resemblance to those contained in their originals. The instrument may thus be used as a sort of musical kaleidoscope, by means of which an infinite variety of new combinations may be produced from the musical compositions now in existence.

The speaking phonograph, will, doubtless, be applied to bell-punches, clocks, complaint boxes in public conveyances and to toys of all kinds. It will supersede the short-hand writer in taking letters by dictation and in taking testimony before referees. Phonographic letters will be sent by mail, the foil being wound on paper cylinders of the size of a finger. It will recite poems in the voice of the author, and reproduce the speeches of celebrated orators. Dramas will be produced in which all the parts will be "well spoken — with good accent, and good discretion;" the original matrice being prepared on one machine provided with a rubber tube having several mouthpieces; and Madame Tussaud's figures will hereafter talk, as well as look like their great prototypes! — Scribner.

—Daily Star, Marion, OH, April 22, 1878, p. 2.

Flying Machines To Change Travel After War

1917

THE FLYING MACHINE

To Revolutionize Travel After the War

At a recent meeting of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain a paper on "Commercial Aeronautics" was read by G. Holt Thomas, one of the pioneers of aviation in that country. Mr. Thomas said that in his opinion aeronautics would revolutionize the world, not only from a commercial point, but also from a humanitarian point, much more than it had revolutionized the war.

He said he was not one of those who thought that commercial aeronautics were going to bear out of existence the railroads and other forms of transport, but rather that flying would act as an adjunct to present modes of transport.

From a business point of view speed was everything. The aeroplane would enable a business man to leave London in the morning, go to business in Paris, and be home again to dinner. It would take him to Bagdad in a day and a half or to New York in two days.

Ceylon would become two and three-quarter days from London. Tokio four and one-half, Sydney five, Cape Town three and one-half, and Vancouver three. As for the question of cost, it would be possible to run a profitable air service between London and Paris $25 a passenger, a cent an ounce for mails and 50 cents each for parcels of three pounds.

A Constantinople to Moscow journey of twenty-four hours might involve a cost of $125 a ticket.

—La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, La Crosse, WI, Oct. 2, 1917, page 4.

Use of Typewriter Still In Its Infancy, Will Definitely Grow

1901

WRITING BY MACHINE

EMPLOYMENT OF TYPEWRITER YET IN ITS INFANCY.

Use Will Increase Until Every Hotel Will Provide Them for Guests, and All Business Men Will Use Them Themselves, Not Depending Upon Others.

Bicycling was a fad, but typewriting is a fact. The typewriter it, he, or she — is in the same class as the telephone, telegraph, and linotype. As to usefulness and universality, typewriting is in its infancy. Thus far it is used only by those who cannot get along without it. The business man puts in a writing machine as a luxury, and regards it as expense. A young woman who learns to use a typewriter feels called upon to explain that she may have to earn her living, and she can equip herself more quickly in this way than in any other. A superintendent or principal who advocates the introduction of typewriting into the schools feels obliged to prove that it is due those who may have to earn a living.

The attitude of business men and school people toward typewriting must change entirely, and the time for such change is already here. Where one writing machine is used now there will be ten in use in the near future. The only trouble up to this time has been that business men, superintendents, and principals rarely use the machine personally and advantageously. The typewriter is a servant, a helper, doing what the proprietor would have it understood that he is above doing, whereas the difficulty is that he cannot do it.

As a Yankee, I venture the guess that in the not-distant future the ablest men and women in home and office, in hotel and train will use the machine. To-day, away from home, if one wishes typewriting, he pays a dollar an hour or more for the service, but soon every first-class hotel will have all the writing machines which their patronage requires in the writing room and free to all guests. Already every first-class new hotel has a long-distance telephone in each room and a man has its use at any hour of day or night at the same rate that he would pay if he went out and sought a "pay station." In the same way one will be able to say when he registers at any first-class hotel, "I would like a room with a writing machine." At first he might have to pay fifty cents a day extra, as he does for a room with bath and lavatory appointments, but that will soon pass away, as the extra charge for the bath is going. Already it is appreciated that a bath is as important as a washbowl, and so the necessity of the writing machine will be early acknowledged.

In a word, the future of typewriting is with the schools. Teach it as universally as you teach penmanship, not for the sake of the girls who are to be typewriters, but for the greater advantage of the boys and girls who are to be the leaders in social, business, and professional life; not for the purpose of helping a poor girl to be independent, but for making rich and poor alike independent. The time has come for a universal and emphatic demand for the writing machine in every upper grade of the grammar school, and in every high school, academy, seminary, college, and university. — A. E. Winship, in Normal Instructor.

Professor Disputes That Volcanoes Forecast "End of the World"

1922

French Scout Fears of Volcanic Perils

Paris Newspaper Ridicules Idea That Eruptions Forecast "End of the World"

PARIS, Aug. 26 — If all the volcanoes in the world were to become active at the same hour the earth, or any large part of it, would be no nearer being "destroyed" than it is at this moment.

Professor Lacroix, of the French museum, whose field is mineralogy and whose pet subject is volcanoes, made this astonishing statement in reply to the recent prophecy made by Dr. Milton Nobles, of Philadelphia, that volcanic action would wipe out the continent of Europe within a month.

Budapest to Be Center

The center of destruction, according to the prophecy, was to be Budapest. So when, the very next day, reports came from Hungary that tremblings of the earth's surface had been felt, while simultaneously there were small earthquakes in France and in Spain, many good souls of Paris flocked to the churches to await the Last Judgment, and the witty paragraphers of the Paris dailies prepared their best barbs.

L'Intransigeant interviewed M. le Professor Lacroix.

"Pessimists who have already permitted themselves to rejoice at the idea of the approaching end of the world, announced by an American geologist, will find in the words of this volcano authority new cause for lamentation," says that journal and quotes the professor:

"It is true that the region around Budapest is highly volcanic. Of course the volcanoes are old, dating from the tertiary period.

"But supposing they start all at once to spit forth lava, even supposing — you see I am generous with suppositions — that all the volcanoes of the world began to erupt at once. All that would not affect the solidarity of our planet."

M. Lacroix showed his interviewer a map of Europe.

"These red spots indicate the regions where are volcanoes, extinct or active. You see what a small area they cover in comparison with the stable regions of the continent.

Italy Has Active Craters

"The only really active volcanoes in Europe are those of Italy — Vesuvius, Stromboli, Vulcano and Etna, in particular.

"The axiom is: The effects of all volcanic phenomena are essentially local.

"Add to this that the units in most volcanic groups, for example, Etna, Stomboli and Vesuvius, are separated by scores of miles as the crow flies, and the fact that when one of these neighboring craters is in eruption the others are inactive, thus proving that their reservoirs are independent, and the idea of a universal eruption becomes ridiculous.

"Tell your readers they may sleep soundly with both eyes shut."

Newspaper Scouts Idea

Le Temps didn't bother to consult a scientist. It scouted the prophecy and with it all prophecies — except political ones.

"One of those American journalists who know how to 'create events' like Napoleon himself wirelesses over the world that a certain savant announces the approaching eruption in the neighborhood of Budapest of no fewer than 70 craters," ran the account.

"In the year 2000, so close that our children will live to see it, we can measure the progress of humanity by observing the survival of the same panic fears of which the year 1000 leaves us a legend.

"In 10 centuries science has mastered nature, but not the imagination of men."

—The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 27, 1922, page 24.

Alleged Arch Swindler Makes Friends With Victims

MAYBRAY MAKES FRIENDS -- MANY BELIEVE IN HIM

Alleged Arch Swindler, Though in Jail, Makes Good Headway Toward Freedom

A lot of people have decided that J. C. Mabray, alleged king of the wrestlers swindling gang, is not the archangel of the devil he was painted when first arrested.

Mabray is still confined in the hospital ward of the county jail, and two of his best friends of late days have been Ham DeFord, chairman of the county board of supervisors, and a nameless man who was swindled by the Mabray gang, it is alleged, at Keokuk.

DeFord is not exactly an easy man to win over by the gift of speech, being of the Abraham Lincoln hardy, rough and ready order, but since a memorable day a couple of months ago, when he spent a forenoon in talk with the alleged swindler, he makes the most of every opportunity to talk with Mabray in jail, or rather, to allow Mabray to talk to him.

A Keokuk man who was the victim of race horse swindlers, believed to belong to the Mabray gang, spent a day in the federal prisoner's cell, and when he came out told the jailers he was convinced Mabray had nothing to do with the swindling game.

"He's too nice a man," he asserverated. "I believe he's on the square."

And he went away with that belief firmly imbedded in his mind.

Another one of Mabray's victims, whose name is not public, is a wealthy banker in a small town near Omaha. He refuses to join in the prosecution of the alleged swindler. He lost $13,000 but he's ashamed of the transaction, and refuses to allow his name to be mixed with it. Federal authorities figure that there are dozens of such victims of the game who are taking the same attitude, too much ashamed of the game by which they were caught to attempt to recover their money.

Ready to Talk

Maybray's most noticeable characteristic is his readiness to talk on any subject, his ready gift of speech, and his seeming innocence of wrong motives. He is so eloquent on many subjects that federal sleuths may he could have made a fortune at any business as readily as he got away with the money of his "Mikes."

--The Des Moines News, Des Moines, Iowa, July 22, 1909, page 3.


From lengthier family news column, looking a hundred years ahead to Good Friday in 2016:

The birthday of Douglas, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Nelson, was celebrated today, Good Friday. Douglas was born April 21 on Good Friday. This year is the first time April 21 has fallen on Good Friday since his birth. Looking up the dates of the years to come, Mrs. Nelson finds that her son's birthday will not occur again on Good Friday until 2016.

"Bryan to Be in Storm Lake" read a headline in last week's Buena Vista Vidette. Well, guess it's all right. The darn lake ain't much good, anyway, and if the people want to turn it into a pickle factory it's none of our business. -- Estherville Democrat.

--The Evening Tribune, Albert Lea, Minnesota, April 19, 1916, page 15.

Comment: There seems to be a lot of confusion as to when Easter is. I googled it and you basically need a degree in advanced math to figure it out. But finally I found one site that appeared to know when the actual date is. They were right for this year, let's put it that way, and didn't have future Easters in May. Anyway, if they are correct, then Mrs. Nelson had it wrong about 2016. Although, if the sources were as confusing in 1916 as they are now, she no doubt thought she was right. And maybe she was, because it looks like some of the rules about this calculation have changed over time. I'm just glad I don't work for a calendar company as the guy in charge for getting this right on millions of dollars worth of calendars. They look at March, April, and even May and I've got five or six different Easters every year. I'm out of there and the entire Christian world is mad at me.

Visionary in 1853 Couldn't See Future of Railroads

Cleveland, Ohio, 1919--

Could Not See the Future

Oldtime Clevelander's Rebuke of "Visionary" Makes Interesting Reading at This Time

A Cleveland man who has inherited a mass of ancient correspondence ran across the following letter some time ago and found in it a little sermon on time's mutations. It was written in 1853 to an ancestor of his, a citizen of many activities, the writer being Hon. John W. Allen, lawyer, editor, congressman, the first president of the Society for Savings.

It appears that the recipient of the letter had written to his congressman suggesting a railway across the continent, an amazing vision in 1853.

Did Congressman Allen take kindly to the suggestion? He did not. On the contrary he gave the author of the wild scheme a neat dressing down.

"Why do you want at your age," he wrote, "and with property enough for your comfort and the well being of your children, to embark in such a crazy undertaking? . . . When you are well, don't take physic. Truly your friend, J. W. Allen."

It will be noted that the world and the railways have advanced a good deal since that solemn warning was delivered.

--The Hamilton Daily News, Hamilton, Ohio, October 6, 1919, page 9.

Found The Missing Link

Boston Traveler Claims to Have Discovered Darwin's Ape Man.

Charles J. Frewen of Boston, an extensive traveler, is an ardent believe in the theory of Darwin. Recent investigations on his part in Africa have convinced him that men originally sprang from what is now known as the ape. He is registered at the Windsor and is on his way to the Phillippines to study the natives of that archipelago and the conditions under which they live. He says:

"I have just come from Africa, where I studied all types of human beings. Some of the negroes there are very akin to the ape. They dwell in the Congo forests of central Africa in the western section. These ape-like people do not seem to dwell in organized communities, but hang about the edges of the forest. They speak a sort of dialect that is of the most crude form. Some of them are not really black, but have a skin of dirty yellowish-brown hue. Their bodies are covered over with a yellow down. Their intellect is not developed and their morals are on a parallel with those of the lower animals.

"Human instinct are prominent, of course, as they are human, but their stage of development is so low that they border on the edge of the brute world. It seems, however, that as time advanced that these primitive people have intermingled with superior tribes and, where intellectual advancement has been attained, the characteristics of these apelike people will crop out a following generations.

"Where or not this section of Africa is the cradle of the human race I am not prepared to say. Certain it is, however that these primitive people are the nearest to the ape of any on earth." – Denver News.

--The Sioux County Bee, Rock Valley, Iowa, June 26, 1903, page 1 (doesn't actually look like a page 1.)

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Lecturing at the Royal institution on the retardation of the earth's motion, Prof. George H. Darwin said the time would come when the length of a day would be prolonged to fifty-five of the present days -- "a very leisurely age to live in," he interpolated -- and when the moon's journey around the earth would occupy fifty-five days.

--The Racine Journal, Racine, Wisconsin, July 14, 1903, page 7.