No
passenger traffic is ever carried on now in dangerous vessels upon
the treacherous ocean, but solely in the safe and comfortable
rocket-car through the air a thousand feet or more above the cruel
waters. Steamships, electric ships and sailing vessels are still
common round our coasts engaged in transporting heavy freight, but
they only cross the ocean to convey some bulky produce which cannot
be divided and go by car.
Private vehicles and travelling have also undergone wonderful
changes. The much-abused horse has vanished from cities entirely,
and is not permitted to enter them, greatly to the preservation
of health and cleanliness. All our vehicles have the automatic
electric attachment and move along briskly through the clean wide
streets. The handsome electric tricycles we are so familiar with,
were hardly thought of a hundred years ago; now there are few men
who do not possess a single or a double one.
How dismal must night have been in the times when only gas lamps
or a few electric lights were used in the streets, although our
great-grandfathers appear to have extracted a good deal of
merriment from the dimly lighted hours after sundown. Our domestic
lighting is now done almost entirely by electricity, or the
brilliant little phosphorescent lamps, gas having long been
banished from dwelling-houses; and our method of lighting the
streets is a grand advance, indeed, upon the flickering yellow
gas lamps of old.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33