Cæsar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century Read online

me, the electric knobs moving aside; and up through theopening rose my dinner carefully arranged, as upon a table, whichexactly filled the gap caused by the recession of that part of theoriginal table which contained the electric buttons. I need not say Iwas astonished. I commenced to eat, and immediately the same bell,which had announced the disappearance of the bill of fare, rangagain. I looked up, and the mirror now contained the name of everystate in the Republic, from Hudson's Bay to the Isthmus of Darien;and the names of all the nations of the world; each name beingnumbered. My attendant, perceiving my perplexity, called my attentionto the fact that the sides of the table which had brought up mydinner contained another set of electric buttons, corresponding withthe numbers on the mirror; and he explained to me that if I wouldselect any state or country and touch the corresponding button thenews of the day, from that state or country, would appear in themirror. He called my attention to, the fact that every guest in theroom had in front of him a similar mirror, and many of them werereading the news of the day as they ate. I touched the knobcorresponding with the name of the new state of Uganda, in Africa,and immediately there appeared in the mirror all the doings of thepeople of that state--its crimes, its accidents, its business, theoutput of its mines, the markets, the sayings and doings of itsprominent men; in fact, the whole life of the community was unrolledbefore me like a panorama. I then touched the button for anotherAfrican state, Nyanza; and at once I began to read of new lines ofrailroad; new steam-ship fleets upon the great lake; of largecolonies of white men, settling new States, upon the higher lands ofthe interior; of their colleges, books, newspapers; and particularlyof a dissertation upon the genius of Chaucer, written by a Zuluprofessor, which had created considerable interest among the learnedsocieties of the Transvaal. I touched the button for China and readthe important news that the Republican Congress of that great andhighly civilized nation had decreed that English, the universallanguage of the rest of the globe, should be hereafter used in thecourts of justice and taught in all the schools. Then came the newsthat a Manchurian professor, an iconoclast, had written a learnedwork, in English, to prove that George Washington's genius and moralgreatness had been much over-rated by the partiality of hiscountrymen. He was answered by a learned doctor of Japan who arguedthat the greatness of all great men consisted simply in opportunity,and that for every illustrious name that shone in the pages ofhistory, associated with important events, a hundred abler men hadlived and died unknown. The battle was raging hotly, and all Chinaand Japan were dividing into contending factions upon this greatissue.

  Our poor ignorant ancestors of a hundred years ago drank alcohol invarious forms, in quantities which the system could not consume orassimilate, and it destroyed their organs and shortened their lives.Great agitations arose until the manufacture and sale of alcoholicbeverages was prohibited over nearly all the world. At length thescientists observed that the craving was based on a natural want ofthe system; that alcohol was found in small quantities in nearlyevery article of food; and that the true course was to so increasethe amount of alcohol in the food, without gratifying the palate, asto meet the real necessities of the system, and prevent a decrease ofthe vital powers.

  It is laughable to read of those days when men were drugged withpills, boluses and powders. Now our physic is in our food; and thedoctor prescribes a series of articles to be eaten or avoided, as thecase may be. One can see at once by consulting his "vital-watch,"which shows every change in the magnetic and electric forces of thebody, just how his physical strength wanes or increases; and he canmodify his diet accordingly; he can select, for instance, a dishhighly charged with quinine or iron, and yet perfectly palatable;hence, among the wealthier classes, a man of one hundred is as commonnow-a-days as a man of seventy was a century ago; and many go farbeyond that point, in full possession of all their faculties.

  I glanced around the great dining-room and inspected my neighbors.They all carried the appearance of wealth; they were quiet, decorousand courteous. But I could not help noticing that the women, youngand old, were much alike in some particulars, as if some generalcauses had molded them into the same form. Their brows were allfine--broad, square, and deep from the ear forward; and their jawsalso were firmly developed, square like a soldier's; while theprofiles were classic in their regularity, and marked by greatfirmness. The most peculiar feature was their eyes. They had none ofthat soft, gentle, benevolent look which so adorns the expression ofmy dear mother and other good women whom we know. On the contrary,their looks were bold, penetrating, immodest, if I may so express it,almost to fierceness: they challenged you; they invited you; theyheld intercourse with your soul.

  The chief features in the expression of the men were incredulity,unbelief, cunning, observation, heartlessness. I did not see a goodface in the whole room: powerful faces there were, I grant you; highnoses, resolute mouths, fine brows; all the marks of shrewdness andenergy; a forcible and capable race; but that was all. I did not seeone, my dear brother of whom I could say, "That man would sacrificehimself for another; that man loves his fellow man."

  I could not but think how universal and irresistible must have beenthe influences of the age that could mold all these Men and womeninto the same soulless likeness. I pitied them. I pitied mankind,caught in the grip of such wide-spreading tendencies. I said tomyself: "Where is it all to end? What are we to expect of a racewithout heart or honor? What may we look for when the powers of thehighest civilization supplement the instincts of tigers and wolves?Can the brain of man flourish when the heart is dead?"

  I rose and left the room.

  I had observed that the air of the hotel was sweeter, purer andcooler than that of the streets outside. I asked one of theattendants for an explanation. He took me out to where we couldcommand a view of the whole building, and showed me that a greatcanvas pipe rose high above the hotel, and, tracing it upwards, faras the eye could reach, he pointed out a balloon, anchored by cables,so high up as to be dwarfed to a mere speck against the face of theblue sky. He told me that the great pipe was double; that through onedivision rose the hot, exhausted air of the hotel, and that thepowerful draft so created operated machinery which pumped down thepure, sweet air from a higher region, several miles above the earth;and, the current once established, the weight of the colderatmosphere kept up the movement, and the air was then distributed bypipes to every part of the hotel. He told me also that the hospitalsof the city were supplied in the same manner; and the result hadbeen, be said, to diminish the mortality of the sick one-half; forthe air so brought to them was perfectly free from bacteria and fullof all life-giving properties. A company had been organized to supplythe houses of the rich with his cold, pure air for so much a thousandfeet, as long ago illuminating gas was furnished.

  I could not help but think that there was need that some man shouldopen connection with the upper regions of God's charity, and bringdown the pure beneficent spirit of brotherly love to this afflictedearth, that it might spread through all the tainted hospitals ofcorruption for the healing of the hearts and souls of the people.

  This attendant, a sort of upper-servant, I suppose, was quitecourteous and polite, and, seeing that I was a stranger, he proceededto tell me that the whole city was warmed with hot water, drawn fromthe profound depths of the earth, and distributed as drinking waterwas distributed a century ago, in pipes, to all the houses, for afixed and very reasonable charge. This heat-supply is so uniform andso cheap that it has quite driven out all the old forms offuel--wood, coal, natural gas, etc.

  And then he told me something which shocked me greatly. You know thataccording to our old-fashioned ideas it is unjustifiable for anyperson to take his own life, and thus rush into the presence of hisMaker before he is called. We are of the opinion of Hamlet that Godhas "fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter." Would you believe it,my dear brother, in this city they actually facilitate suicide! Arace of philosophers has arisen in the last fifty years who arguethat, as man was not consulted about his coming into the world, heha
s a perfect right to leave it whenever it becomes uncomfortable.These strange arguments were supplemented by the economists, always apowerful body in this utilitarian land, and they urged that, as mencould not be prevented from destroying themselves, if they had madeup their minds to do so, they might just as well shuffle off themortal coil in the way that would give least trouble to theirsurviving fellow-citizens. That, as it was, they polluted the rivers,and even the reservoirs of drinking-water, with their dead bodies,and put the city to great expense and trouble to recover and identifythem. Then came the humanitarians, who said that many persons, intenton suicide, but knowing nothing of the best means of effecting theirobject, tore themselves to pieces with cruel pistol shots or knifewounds, or took corrosive poisons, which subjected them to agonizingtortures for hours before death came to their relief; and they arguedthat if a man had determined to leave the world it was a