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Foreword
Foreword
In presenting this volume to the public it is not the intention of the author to offer it as a literary masterpiece, but, in his adopted language—conscious of his limitation—merely to give expression to his thoughts on certain problems of life that have always seemed to him of particular significance. At present there appears to be a general bombastic clamor among certain nations who, decrying others as barbarous, claim to have reached the highest pinnacle of civilization. Yet a glance at the ex
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CHAPTER I The Young Ladies’ Seminary
CHAPTER I The Young Ladies’ Seminary
The Diana Seminary had become particularly famous for the especial branches of a curriculum which rendered the young ladies magnificently lovely in form, chic in habilaments, brilliant and vivacious in conversation, serene and dignified in carriage, sweet and optimistic in nature, pure in sentiments, and in addition conferred upon them all the necessary qualifications of accomplished housewives, virtues all of which are inherent in American women and susceptible of highest development. The gradu
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CHAPTER II The Initiation
CHAPTER II The Initiation
A peep in the temple revealed a bewildering spectacle, an “Adamless Eden” of loveliness as it were. Margaret MacDonald, enveloped in gorgeously embroidered Grecian robes, enthroned on an elevated dais, a golden sceptre in hand, and a brilliant diadem on her shapely head, presented an imposing figure as High Priestess, while Aurora in a tight fitting cuirass of variegated spangles, holding a trident, performed her official duties. Other functionaries attired in chaste Grecian costumes occupied th
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CHAPTER III The Moonlight Soirée
CHAPTER III The Moonlight Soirée
“Is the Jewski After You Again?” “Aw, really, how brave you are Margie!” replied Aurora, looking admiringly at her classmate. “You will not desert me? By the way,” went on Aurora, gradually recovering her composure, “I just met Norma Southworth coming from the modiste with her graduation gown. It was such a bonnie gown, aw, so lurid and so sweet, don’t you know.” “I bet you hers won’t cut any ice with my togs, when they arrive tomorrow. Aurora, you and I will make a jim-dandy pair on graduation
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1900 An Era of False Prosperity
1900 An Era of False Prosperity
St. Pierre, Martinique, was destroyed by a volcanic eruption of Mount Peleé, on the eighth day of May. In a few minutes more than thirty thousand human beings were hurled into eternity....
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1902 The Cataclysm at Martinique
1902 The Cataclysm at Martinique
The anti-plural wives laws were enforced to the letter. Its emphatic application to all members of the sect was brought about principally by the Women’s Clubs, whose persistent and overwhelming aggressiveness played an important factor in the stamping out of this demoralizing and materialistic religion. In this era of civilization the existence of a religious organization of this character, like a cancerous growth, was threatening to debase womanhood and lead the communities to unbridled licenti
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1908 The Mormon Question
1908 The Mormon Question
Every new movement, be it religious, political or economic, has its birth like a volcano, and unionism was no exception to this rule. The labor unions at first had their violent agitators who, possessing greater physical than mental calibre, laid the crude foundation of a force in an arbitrary manner that consequently had its gradual evolution of development. Their constant conflicts with capital were characterized by an unreasonable amount of physical argument which resulted in more or less dis
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1909 Capital and Labor
1909 Capital and Labor
It is one of the strangest inconsistencies of social problems, that although political economists and scholars have preached the doctrine, that inventions and improved methods in mechanical lines contribute to the blessings of mankind by cheapening the necessities of life, yet in spite of their plausible declarations, the cost of living year by year grew higher and higher, entailing untold suffering and despair among the poorer classes. The cause of this lamentable perversion was due to a certai
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1910 The Expense of Living
1910 The Expense of Living
Professor Henry Richfield, a profound scholar, and the author of “How to Get Rich”—a ponderous work in twelve octavo volumes—passed away in an attic, in abject penury and squalor....
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1911 Death of an Eminent Scholar
1911 Death of an Eminent Scholar
Although the mortality statistics in the United States for last year reached the round number of two million persons from various diseases, among them chiefly from consumption, pneumonia, typhoid fever and epidemics of smallpox and diphtheria, a few sporadic cases of death were recorded resulting from mosquito bites, which gave grave concern to the medical fraternity. The outcome of this alarm was the calling of a general conference of bacteriological experts. The mosquito, that had hitherto enj
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1912 The Annihilation of Mosquitoes
1912 The Annihilation of Mosquitoes
The dwarfing and crippling of the mental, moral and physical growth of tender children, by the avaricious employers, and its baleful consequence of peopling the community with moral and bodily degenerates, devoid of the desirable elements of good citizenship, had become so appallingly flagrant that a general sentiment of the people was aroused in a mighty protest to the Federal authorities. Thanks to the aggressive and strenuous legislative warfare of Labor Unions in every State, aided by the pe
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1913 Child Labor
1913 Child Labor
The fabulously high price of this metal had awakened the cupidity of a coterie of adroit schemers who, had palmed off on unsuspecting men of science, a rank substitute which cost only a trifle to manufacture. After securing an enormous sum of money, the schemers had decamped to parts unknown. It was discovered that the spurious metal thus disposed was nothing more than a highly compressed form of phosphorous....
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1914 The Great Radium Swindle
1914 The Great Radium Swindle
Dr. Wisehardt, the brilliant young physician and surgeon who discovered the electro-magnetic germ-cells of life, and invented methods to prolong life itself by the cultivation of these cells, died in the 27th year of his age from premature senility....
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1915 Death of an Eminent Physician
1915 Death of an Eminent Physician
The most memorable event of this year was a gigantic tidal wave of tremendous height, which swept over the lower coast of Florida. In a few minutes it inundated and destroyed a vast area of the coast, doing incalculable damage to shipping. It was estimated that nearly fifteen thousand persons lost their lives in this cataclysm....
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1916 A Tidal Wave
1916 A Tidal Wave
The stubborn attitude of the Central American Republic, Columbia, towards the United States, by her menacing antagonism to the construction of the interoceanic canal, gradually created a breach of the peace that led ultimately to a forcible demonstration by the United States, and precipitated the invasion by the latter of the Republic of Panama. Peace was re-established after a crushing defeat of the Columbians. The famous waterway, the Republic of Panama, then became United States territory, by
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1917 War Between United States and Columbia
1917 War Between United States and Columbia
The Women’s Clubs which, during their first inception, were the subject of much ridicule, and the proceedings of their meetings a theme for ribald jokes in the secular press, gradually developed into such gigantic proportions that their influence became a powerful factor in every public question of the day, and in fact so continues unabated unto this day. The last Federal statistics show more than two thousand Institutions in the form of sanitariums, refuges, technical schools of practical utili
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1918 The Women’s Clubs
1918 The Women’s Clubs
A cyclonic tornado of intense velocity and destructive force struck New York City, demolishing in its path, in the shape of a semi-circle from the Battery to Twenty-third Street, West, two hundred and seventy-five buildings. Fortunately, the day being a holiday, the loss of life was comparatively small....
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1919 The Tornado
1919 The Tornado
Through emancipation from its shackles of monarchic censorship and subserviency to despotic masters, the upward rise of the Press to usefulness and power was without a parallel—a power to which even Napoleon Bonaparte was sensible when he said, “I fear three newspapers more than a hundred thousand bayonets.” But like everything else in the universe, the Press also had its dual potentiality. Like a two-edged sword, it could be wielded for good or evil. In the bands of an unscrupulous politician i
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1920 The Power of the Press
1920 The Power of the Press
Strange to say, from the time of Archytas of Tarantum to Otto Lilienthal, and from Montgolfier Bros. to Santos Dumont, Bell, Maxim and Langley, very little or no progress had been made in practical and safe aerial navigation. Though all these inventors, whether cranks with a smattering of mechanical knowledge, or veritable savants and scientists, efficient in physics according to their own accounts, had studied the subject of aerial flight from the fowls of the air, the failure of their experime
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1921 Balloons and Airships
1921 Balloons and Airships
In the spring of this year the Mississippi Valley was flooded and submerged by terrible cloudbursts which, combined with melting of snows on the mountains, and subsequent bursting of dams and levees, devastated a vast area. According to records the lives lost in the inundated districts reached the total of sixty thousand....
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1922 The Flood in Mississippi Valley
1922 The Flood in Mississippi Valley
The unprecedented increase of divorces all over the United States and the attendant scandalous proceedings at the courts had reached such a maximum, and its baneful influence on the public morals had developed into such a point of danger that, a great awakening among the clergy and lawmakers of the nation was the result. At a conclave of representatives of the legal profession from every State in the Union, was promulgated a uniform divorce law for the United States of America....
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1923 Uniform Divorce Laws
1923 Uniform Divorce Laws
The Zionist movement which for thirty years past gained more than two million converts and within that period had collected more than fifteen million dollars, was declared impracticable and illusionary! The estimable originators of this sentimental movement, Herzl , Nordau, Zangwill and others, although beyond the shadow of a doubt sincere and well-meaning, through the intensity of their zeal for the amelioration of their less fortunate brethren, were entirely blindfolded to the intricacies of p
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1924 The Zionist Movement or The Bursting of the Zion Bubble
1924 The Zionist Movement or The Bursting of the Zion Bubble
Another ethnologist of repute expounded the fact, that the Jews were the life and essence of commercial activity and consequently formed an integral part of a prosperous commonwealth . Sublimely industrious, instinctively provident and economical by nature, the Jews were persecuted because of their inherent virtues. He proved by clever historical documents, that their expulsion from Babylon, Egypt, Spain, Russia or wherever their rights were abrogated, were the fundamental causes of the decadenc
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1925–26 The Anglo-American Alliance
1925–26 The Anglo-American Alliance
The evening following the moonlight fête , a little after sunset when the western sky, stained with a luminous golden hue, had spread on verdant hills and valleys its radiance of languorous serenity, two motor cyclists were speeding along on a secluded path that led into the main highway, from the Diana Seminary to the West Point Military Academy. The one in advance was wheeling in a leisurely way, while the one behind exerted greater speed, as if in pursuit of the other. He was gaining rapidly
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CHAPTER V The Fistic Duel
CHAPTER V The Fistic Duel
Professor Cielo Allenson, better known at the Military Academy as the “Old Guard,” was a venerable man past seventy. He had a highly intellectual countenance and his silvery white hair and patriarchal beard gave him a noble dignity which commanded respect. His strenuous virility and inexhaustible energy was ever a lesson and a rebuke to the many indolent youths who came in contact with him. He was a philosopher of the first rank and an intense lover of nature. Imbued with the deeper knowledge of
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1927 Colonization of Central Africa
1927 Colonization of Central Africa
One of the most wonderful and at the same time awful conflagrations of its kind on record in the history of the world, was that of the apparent burning of the Atlantic Ocean, covering an area one hundred and fifty miles wide. It started in the Gulf of Mexico and, like a prairie fire, only a thousand times more furious, this floating furnace consumed scores of vessels that came into its fiery path. A few weeks previous to this awful holocaust, the petroleum wells in Texas, New Mexico and Louisian
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1928 The Conflagration of the Atlantic Ocean
1928 The Conflagration of the Atlantic Ocean
In this year was completed and dedicated the Court of Labor at Washington. This was an imposing building, in which all the momentous labor problems were discussed before a tribunal of disinterested justices, through the able representatives of each faction, without resorting to disastrous strikes, lockouts and disturbances of public comfort. One of the most remarkable features of this Court of Arbitration was, the colossal group erected between the two grand entrances to the building. This was n
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1929 The Court of Labor
1929 The Court of Labor
One of the most scandalous evils which had crept gradually in the United States, and eventually became a source of grave anxiety to the government, was a system of Landlordism amongst the very rich. While the general public were slumbering in blissful ignorance, this coterie of avaricious syndicates and multi-millionaires had mysteriously become possessors of vast tracts of lands, in every state of the Union. Some of these holdings comprised hundreds and thousands of square miles in extent. Mile
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1930 Landlordism In America
1930 Landlordism In America
The North Pole, that mysterious geographical locality which for centuries had baffled scientists and explorers, was located and verified by the combined efforts of American and British Governments. The expedition was on a gigantic scale, the force of the explorers being in round numbers two thousand five hundred persons who by a system of depots and rendez-vous for supplies, formed almost a continuous chain. All the latest devices in the form of dynamo-vans and motor-sleds, with balloon attachme
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1931 The Discovery of the North Pole
1931 The Discovery of the North Pole
The discovery, by an American, of a germicide for indolence was announced during this year, by which lethargic persons were regenerated into acute activity. It was a concentrated double extract of pitch-blend, containing the radio active element, and when applied to certain parts of the body, it instantaneously transformed the feeling of laziness and ennui, into one of hustling energy and alertness. The negroes of the Southern States, the natives of tropical countries and also officials in the p
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1932 Cure for Laziness
1932 Cure for Laziness
The abolishment of capital punishment in many States of the Union, through the impulsive sentimentality of a minority, had given birth to an old time evil, that of feudalism. It was well for people preaching mercy for murderers, when somebody else was the victim, but when the crime was perpetrated against one of their homes, their feelings were entirely changed. The increase of vendetta was the result, and it occurred with such a lamentable degree of frequency, that the old uncontrovertible Mosa
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1933 Capital Punishment
1933 Capital Punishment
The agitation for the abolition of hereditary titles in England caused a crisis in the political and social world of Great Britain. The degeneracy of hereditary nobles, their utter incapacity adequately to fill the positions left by their illustrious ancestors, to the detriment and retrogression of the British government, was the main cause of bringing about this bloodless internecine revolution. Despite the most strenuous opposition by the friends of the nobles, a new law was added to the revis
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1934 Abolition of Hereditary Titles In England
1934 Abolition of Hereditary Titles In England
The most remarkable sensation of this year was that of a German scientist and statistician who, after a thorough investigation and mathematical calculation, announced his conclusions, that it was in the range of collective human power, that is, by the combined aid of labor, time, money and high explosives, to rend the earth in twain, or into fragments, and thus create new planets in space, producing new climatic conditions, fauna and life, adaptable to their new positions in the solar system....
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1935 Blowing the Earth Into Fragments
1935 Blowing the Earth Into Fragments
The census of this year revealed an unprecedented number of evil-doers, causing great anxiety to the Government. There were recorded ninety-two thousand criminals in prisons and seventy-six thousand paupers in the poor houses. This army of public charges cost the State authorities more than thirty million dollars for their maintenance. At last by the stress of popular agitation the government adopted a policy of penal colonization. Selecting a desirable island in the Philippines, the Federal aut
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1937 An American Penal Colony
1937 An American Penal Colony
With the munificent contributions to a general fund, amounting to two million dollars, by the English, American and French Governments, the greatest telescope which the world has ever known was constructed in Paris. Its lenses measured more than two meters in diameter which, combined with a mammoth revolving camera obscura, brought the moon and some of the planets within the range of visual observation, revealing on Venus and Mars the existence of vegetation and moving objects....
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1938 The Great Telescope
1938 The Great Telescope
Emil Flammarion, the worthy grandson of the eminent French astronomer, demonstrated by an extremely clever mechanical contrivance in Vacuo, that the Earth was merely an electric Motor in space!...
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1939 The Earth An Electric Motor
1939 The Earth An Electric Motor
Religious thought or spiritual belief is not an invention of mortals. It is an inborn attribute of the human mind. While man was in his savage or semi-barbarous stage, the ethical and spiritual conceptions were correspondingly crude and religious warfare predominated. With the advance of civilization its development kept pace with it until at the dawn of the twentieth century it had undergone, by natural evolution, a marked metamorphosis. It gradually divested itself of its legendary mysticism,
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1940 The Trend of Religious Thought
1940 The Trend of Religious Thought
“ When we gaze at an automobile, which is the creation of a creature, we see a wonderful parallelism; its requirements to make it an active energy, bears a strong analogy of its inventor, yet, an automobile with all its requirements for power supplied, is a worthless mass, unless operated and guided by its creator. Does not this vast universe with all its wonderful manifestations suggest a creative force, which governs it?” “Albeit, it is not within my province nor in my power to penetrate the v
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1941 The Birthday Anniversary of Noted Centenarians
1941 The Birthday Anniversary of Noted Centenarians
“ The re-conquest by France of Alsace Lorain. “ The puerile uprising by a section of Irish people against England are still fresh in our memory—and to which most of you have been eye-witnesses—are some of the events worthy of record.” Here the Professor, after a pause, changed his subject to future possibilities and, presenting to the class in eloquent words a glowing, optimistic picture of conditions for future generations, brought his discussion to a close. When he stepped down from the rostru
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CHAPTER VII The Regatta
CHAPTER VII The Regatta
When the preliminary signal to make ready was given, both the crews rowed gracefully to the starting ground and began to manoeuvre. At the sharp report of the signal gun, the two shells shot past the line almost abreast, amidst deafening acclamation from the spectators on the shore and the shrill tooting and whistling of the sailing craft of every description that had formed almost a compact circle around the course. The calm and pleasant weather had allowed the waters of the Hudson to run as sm
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CHAPTER VIII Dr. Hyder Ben Raaba
CHAPTER VIII Dr. Hyder Ben Raaba
His appearances in public began to diminish gradually after the various animals were received there, as he was engrossed in his laboratory, engaged in some experiment in vivisection! Indeed, in the dead of night, weird and uncanny sounds often emanated from the inner recesses of his laboratory. Sometimes a piteous mew, or the piercing caterwaul of felines, or the whining of dogs. At other times, the plaintive beating of a goat, the squeaking of a goose or the squeal of a pig broke the silence of
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CHAPTER IX A Ray of Hope
CHAPTER IX A Ray of Hope
Taking thereupon her pulse into his hand, he began to question the chauffeur, where she had gone, with whom, what was the other young lady’s name, etc. He knew that, although she was in a state of coma, her senses of hearing and of understanding were performing their regular functions. At the mention of the name of Aurora Cunningham there was a remarkable change in Margaret; her pulse began to beat double quick! After repeating the experiment, and satisfying himself that the cause was a matter p
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CHAPTER X The Transformation
CHAPTER X The Transformation
Ben Raaba’s Laboratory An awful sensation crept over one upon looking around about this den called the Laboratory. Glittering saws and scalpels were hung in rows on the walls; lances, beakers and retorts were scattered on the tables and on the floor, and a hundred and one other apparatus and bottles could be seen upon the shelves. A big cat-owl perched on a pedestal in one corner, and a black tom-cat with intense green eyes, prowling about the room, gave to the scene a cabalistic and weird aspec
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CHAPTER XI Lord Cunningham, Viceroy of India
CHAPTER XI Lord Cunningham, Viceroy of India
Dashing and handsome officers vied with each other in their endeavor to do homage to the beautiful Aurora, who was enthroned next to her mother. After a prelude on the dulciphone, Abou Shimshek, amidst the huzzah and clamor of the assemblage, with great dignity came forward, and with uplifted arms, invoking the spirits of Hafiz and Firdozy to endow him with eloquence, began the account of his thrilling adventure as follows: “Up, on the Kinchinginga’s lofty summit, where earth and heavens meet, w
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CHAPTER XII Adventures of Abou Shimshek, the Astronomer of Ispahan
CHAPTER XII Adventures of Abou Shimshek, the Astronomer of Ispahan
“The greatest efforts of men are brought to naught with the elements controlled by Allah’s command, or are so small in scale and scope as to be beyond compare with His wondrous works. Through the greatest telescope that man’s ingenuity and skill can produce, astronomers cannot agree whether the canals of Mars are single or double. “Pshaw! Away with those numberless imposters who have deluded mankind with their consummate lies! Some even claim to have traversed the inter-etherial space by flying
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CHAPTER XIII Spencer Hamilton
CHAPTER XIII Spencer Hamilton
The portfolio of their operatic creations was a revelation. Especially did an operetta , called “Phantasie Senegambienne” arouse the enthusiasm of the audience to such a high pitch of spirituelle tension that at the conclusion—regardless of the (color line)—there was a simultaneous rush of both sexes to where the singers stood. A scene of indescribable osculatory battle raged, the sound of the contact of those luscious thick lips of the Dusky Quartette echoing and reverberating to the utmost rec
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Corrections
Corrections
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