In the Year 2889

J >> Jules Verne and Michel Verne >> In the Year 2889

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IN THE YEAR 2889

[Redactor's note: _In the Year 2889_ was first published in the
_Forum_, February, 1889; p. 262. It was published in France the next
year. Although published under the name of Jules Verne, it is now
believed to be chiefly if not entirely the work of Jules' son, Michel
Verne. In any event, many of the topics in the article echo Verne's
ideas.]

IN THE YEAR 2889.

Little though they seem to think of it, the people of this twenty-ninth
century live continually in fairyland. Surfeited as they are with
marvels, they are indifferent in presence of each new marvel. To them
all seems natural. Could they but duly appreciate the refinements of
civilization in our day; could they but compare the present with the
past, and so better comprehend the advance we have made! How much fairer
they would find our modern towns, with populations amounting sometimes
to 10,000,000 souls; their streets 300 feet wide, their houses 1000 feet
in height; with a temperature the same in all seasons; with their lines
of aerial locomotion crossing the sky in every direction! If they would
but picture to themselves the state of things that once existed, when
through muddy streets rumbling boxes on wheels, drawn by horses--yes, by
horses!--were the only means of conveyance. Think of the railroads of
the olden time, and you will be able to appreciate the pneumatic tubes
through which to-day one travels at the rate of 1000 miles an hour.
Would not our contemporaries prize the telephone and the telephote more
highly if they had not forgotten the telegraph?

Singularly enough, all these transformations rest upon principles which
were perfectly familiar to our remote ancestors, but which they
disregarded. Heat, for instance, is as ancient as man himself;
electricity was known 3000 years ago, and steam 1100 years ago. Nay, so
early as ten centuries ago it was known that the differences between the
several chemical and physical forces depend on the mode of vibration of
the etheric particles, which is for each specifically different. When at
last the kinship of all these forces was discovered, it is simply
astounding that 500 years should still have to elapse before men could
analyze and describe the several modes of vibration that constitute
these differences. Above all, it is singular that the mode of
reproducing these forces directly from one another, and of reproducing
one without the others, should have remained undiscovered till less than
a hundred years ago. Nevertheless, such was the course of events, for it
was not till the year 2792 that the famous Oswald Nier made this great
discovery.

Truly was he a great benefactor of the human race. His admirable
discovery led to many another. Hence is sprung a pleiad of inventors,
its brightest star being our great Joseph Jackson. To Jackson we are
indebted for those wonderful instruments the new accumulators. Some of
these absorb and condense the living force contained in the sun's rays;
others, the electricity stored in our globe; others again, the energy
coming from whatever source, as a waterfall, a stream, the winds, etc.
He, too, it was that invented the transformer, a more wonderful
contrivance still, which takes the living force from the accumulator,
and, on the simple pressure of a button, gives it back to space in
whatever form may be desired, whether as heat, light, electricity, or
mechanical force, after having first obtained from it the work required.
From the day when these two instruments were contrived is to be dated
the era of true progress. They have put into the hands of man a power
that is almost infinite. As for their applications, they are numberless.
Mitigating the rigors of winter, by giving back to the atmosphere the
surplus heat stored up during the summer, they have revolutionized
agriculture. By supplying motive power for aerial navigation, they have
given to commerce a mighty impetus. To them we are indebted for the
continuous production of electricity without batteries or dynamos, of
light without combustion or incandescence, and for an unfailing supply
of mechanical energy for all the needs of industry.

Yes, all these wonders have been wrought by the accumulator and the
transformer. And can we not to them also trace, indirectly, this latest
wonder of all, the great "Earth Chronicle" building in 253d Avenue,
which was dedicated the other day? If George Washington Smith, the
founder of the Manhattan "Chronicle", should come back to life to-day,
what would he think were he to be told that this palace of marble and
gold belongs to his remote descendant, Fritz Napoleon Smith, who, after
thirty generations have come and gone, is owner of the same newspaper
which his ancestor established!

For George Washington Smith's newspaper has lived generation after
generation, now passing out of the family, anon coming back to it. When,
200 years ago, the political center of the United States was transferred
from Washington to Centropolis, the newspaper followed the government
and assumed the name of Earth Chronicle. Unfortunately, it was unable to
maintain itself at the high level of its name. Pressed on all sides by
rival journals of a more modern type, it was continually in danger of
collapse. Twenty years ago its subscription list contained but a few
hundred thousand names, and then Mr. Fritz Napoleon Smith bought it for
a mere trifle, and originated telephonic journalism.

Every one is familiar with Fritz Napoleon Smith's system--a system made
possible by the enormous development of telephony during the last
hundred years. Instead of being printed, the Earth Chronicle is every
morning spoken to subscribers, who, in interesting conversations with
reporters, statesmen, and scientists, learn the news of the day.
Furthermore, each subscriber owns a phonograph, and to this instrument
he leaves the task of gathering the news whenever he happens not to be
in a mood to listen directly himself. As for purchasers of single
copies, they can at a very trifling cost learn all that is in the paper
of the day at any of the innumerable phonographs set up nearly
everywhere.

Fritz Napoleon Smith's innovation galvanized the old newspaper. In the
course of a few years the number of subscribers grew to be 80,000,000,
and Smith's wealth went on growing, till now it reaches the almost
unimaginable figure of $10,000,000,000. This lucky hit has enabled him
to erect his new building, a vast edifice with four _facades_ each 3,250
feet in length, over which proudly floats the hundred-starred flag of
the Union. Thanks to the same lucky hit, he is to-day king of
newspaperdom; indeed, he would be king of all the Americans, too, if
Americans could ever accept a king. You do not believe it? Well, then,
look at the plenipotentiaries of all nations and our own ministers
themselves crowding about his door, entreating his counsels, begging for
his approbation, imploring the aid of his all-powerful organ. Reckon up
the number of scientists and artists that he supports, of inventors that
he has under his pay.

Yes, a king is he. And in truth his is a royalty full of burdens. His
labors are incessant, and there is no doubt at all that in earlier times
any man would have succumbed under the overpowering stress of the toil
which Mr. Smith has to perform. Very fortunately for him, thanks to the
progress of hygiene, which, abating all the old sources of
unhealthfulness, has lifted the mean of human life from 37 up to 52
years, men have stronger constitutions now than heretofore. The
discovery of nutritive air is still in the future, but in the meantime
men today consume food that is compounded and prepared according to
scientific principles, and they breathe an atmosphere freed from the
micro-organisms that formerly used to swarm in it; hence they live
longer than their forefathers and know nothing of the innumerable
diseases of olden times.

Nevertheless, and notwithstanding these considerations, Fritz Napoleon
Smith's mode of life may well astonish one. His iron constitution is
taxed to the utmost by the heavy strain that is put upon it. Vain the
attempt to estimate the amount of labor he undergoes; an example alone
can give an idea of it. Let us then go about with him for one day as he
attends to his multifarious concernments. What day? That matters little;
it is the same every day. Let us then take at random September 25th of
this present year 2889.

This morning Mr. Fritz Napoleon Smith awoke in very bad humor. His wife
having left for France eight days ago, he was feeling disconsolate.
Incredible though it seems, in all the ten years since their marriage,
this is the first time that Mrs. Edith Smith, the professional beauty,
has been so long absent from home; two or three days usually suffice for
her frequent trips to Europe. The first thing that Mr. Smith does is to
connect his phonotelephote, the wires of which communicate with his
Paris mansion. The telephote! Here is another of the great triumphs of
science in our time. The transmission of speech is an old story; the
transmission of images by means of sensitive mirrors connected by wires
is a thing but of yesterday. A valuable invention indeed, and Mr. Smith
this morning was not niggard of blessings for the inventor, when by its
aid he was able distinctly to see his wife notwithstanding the distance
that separated him from her. Mrs. Smith, weary after the ball or the
visit to the theater the preceding night, is still abed, though it is
near noontide at Paris. She is asleep, her head sunk in the lace-covered
pillows. What? She stirs? Her lips move. She is dreaming perhaps? Yes,
dreaming. She is talking, pronouncing a name his name--Fritz! The
delightful vision gave a happier turn to Mr. Smith's thoughts. And now,
at the call of imperative duty, light-hearted he springs from his bed
and enters his mechanical dresser.

Two minutes later the machine deposited him all dressed at the threshold
of his office. The round of journalistic work was now begun. First he
enters the hall of the novel-writers, a vast apartment crowned with an
enormous transparent cupola. In one corner is a telephone, through which
a hundred Earth Chronicle _litterateurs_ in turn recount to the public
in daily installments a hundred novels. Addressing one of these authors
who was waiting his turn, "Capital! Capital! my dear fellow," said he,
"your last story. The scene where the village maid discusses interesting
philosophical problems with her lover shows your very acute power of
observation. Never have the ways of country folk been better portrayed.
Keep on, my dear Archibald, keep on! Since yesterday, thanks to you,
there is a gain of 5000 subscribers."

"Mr. John Last," he began again, turning to a new arrival, "I am not so
well pleased with your work. Your story is not a picture of life; it
lacks the elements of truth. And why? Simply because you run straight on
to the end; because you do not analyze. Your heroes do this thing or
that from this or that motive, which you assign without ever a thought
of dissecting their mental and moral natures. Our feelings, you must
remember, are far more complex than all that. In real life every act is
the resultant of a hundred thoughts that come and go, and these you must
study, each by itself, if you would create a living character. 'But,'
you will say, 'in order to note these fleeting thoughts one must know
them, must be able to follow them in their capricious meanderings.' Why,
any child can do that, as you know. You have simply to make use of
hypnotism, electrical or human, which gives one a two-fold being,
setting free the witness-personality so that it may see, understand, and
remember the reasons which determine the personality that acts. Just
study yourself as you live from day to day, my dear Last. Imitate your
associate whom I was complimenting a moment ago. Let yourself be
hypnotized. What's that? You have tried it already? Not sufficiently,
then, not sufficiently!"

Mr. Smith continues his round and enters the reporters' hall. Here 1500
reporters, in their respective places, facing an equal number of
telephones, are communicating to the subscribers the news of the world
as gathered during the night. The organization of this matchless service
has often been described. Besides his telephone, each reporter, as the
reader is aware, has in front of him a set of commutators, which enable
him to communicate with any desired telephotic line. Thus the
subscribers not only hear the news but see the occurrences. When an
incident is described that is already past, photographs of its main
features are transmitted with the narrative. And there is no confusion
withal. The reporters' items, just like the different stories and all
the other component parts of the journal, are classified automatically
according to an ingenious system, and reach the hearer in due
succession. Furthermore, the hearers are free to listen only to what
specially concerns them. They may at pleasure give attention to one
editor and refuse it to another.

Mr. Smith next addresses one of the ten reporters in the astronomical
department--a department still in the embryonic stage, but which will
yet play an important part in journalism.

"Well, Cash, what's the news?"

"We have phototelegrams from Mercury, Venus, and Mars."

"Are those from Mars of any interest?"

"Yes, indeed. There is a revolution in the Central Empire."

"And what of Jupiter?" asked Mr. Smith.

"Nothing as yet. We cannot quite understand their signals. Perhaps ours
do not reach them."

"That's bad," exclaimed Mr. Smith, as he hurried away, not in the best
of humor, toward the hall of the scientific editors.

With their heads bent down over their electric computers, thirty
scientific men were absorbed in transcendental calculations. The coming
of Mr. Smith was like the falling of a bomb among them.

"Well, gentlemen, what is this I hear? No answer from Jupiter? Is it
always to be thus? Come, Cooley, you have been at work now twenty years
on this problem, and yet--"

"True enough," replied the man addressed. "Our science of optics is
still very defective, and though our mile-and-three-quarter telescopes."

"Listen to that, Peer," broke in Mr. Smith, turning to a second
scientist. "Optical science defective! Optical science is your
specialty. But," he continued, again addressing William Cooley, "failing
with Jupiter, are we getting any results from the moon?"

"The case is no better there."

"This time you do not lay the blame on the science of optics. The moon
is immeasurably less distant than Mars, yet with Mars our communication
is fully established. I presume you will not say that you lack
telescopes?"

"Telescopes? O no, the trouble here is about inhabitants!"

"That's it," added Peer.

"So, then, the moon is positively uninhabited?" asked Mr. Smith.

"At least," answered Cooley, "on the face which she presents to us. As
for the opposite side, who knows?"

"Ah, the opposite side! You think, then," remarked Mr. Smith, musingly,
"that if one could but--"

"Could what?"

"Why, turn the moon about-face."

"Ah, there's something in that," cried the two men at once. And indeed,
so confident was their air, they seemed to have no doubt as to the
possibility of success in such an undertaking.

"Meanwhile," asked Mr. Smith, after a moment's silence, "have you no
news of interest to-day?"

"Indeed we have," answered Cooley. "The elements of Olympus are
definitively settled. That great planet gravitates beyond Neptune at the
mean distance of 11,400,799,642 miles from the sun, and to traverse its
vast orbit takes 1311 years, 294 days, 12 hours, 43 minutes, 9 seconds."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?" cried Mr. Smith. "Now inform the
reporters of this straightaway. You know how eager is the curiosity of
the public with regard to these astronomical questions. That news must
go into to-day's issue."

Then, the two men bowing to him, Mr. Smith passed into the next hall, an
enormous gallery upward of 3200 feet in length, devoted to atmospheric
advertising. Every one has noticed those enormous advertisements
reflected from the clouds, so large that they may be seen by the
populations of whole cities or even of entire countries. This, too, is
one of Mr. Fritz Napoleon Smith's ideas, and in the Earth Chronicle
building a thousand projectors are constantly engaged in displaying upon
the clouds these mammoth advertisements.

When Mr. Smith to-day entered the sky-advertising department, he found
the operators sitting with folded arms at their motionless projectors,
and inquired as to the cause of their inaction. In response, the man
addressed simply pointed to the sky, which was of a pure blue. "Yes,"
muttered Mr. Smith, "a cloudless sky! That's too bad, but what's to be
done? Shall we produce rain? That we might do, but is it of any use?
What we need is clouds, not rain. Go," said he, addressing the head
engineer, "go see Mr. Samuel Mark, of the meteorological division of the
scientific department, and tell him for me to go to work in earnest on
the question of artificial clouds. It will never do for us to be always
thus at the mercy of cloudless skies!"

Mr. Smith's daily tour through the several departments of his newspaper
is now finished. Next, from the advertisement hall he passes to the
reception chamber, where the ambassadors accredited to the American
government are awaiting him, desirous of having a word of counsel or
advice from the all-powerful editor. A discussion was going on when he
entered. "Your Excellency will pardon me," the French Ambassador was
saying to the Russian, "but I see nothing in the map of Europe that
requires change. 'The North for the Slavs?' Why, yes, of course; but the
South for the Matins. Our common frontier, the Rhine, it seems to me,
serves very well. Besides, my government, as you must know, will firmly
oppose every movement, not only against Paris, our capital, or our two
great prefectures, Rome and Madrid, but also against the kingdom of
Jerusalem, the dominion of Saint Peter, of which France means to be the
trusty defender."

"Well said!" exclaimed Mr. Smith. "How is it," he asked, turning to the
Russian ambassador, "that you Russians are not content with your vast
empire, the most extensive in the world, stretching from the banks of
the Rhine to the Celestial Mountains and the Kara-Korum, whose shores
are washed by the Frozen Ocean, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the
Indian Ocean? Then, what is the use of threats? Is war possible in view
of modern inventions-asphyxiating shells capable of being projected a
distance of 60 miles, an electric spark of 90 miles, that can at one
stroke annihilate a battalion; to say nothing of the plague, the
cholera, the yellow fever, that the belligerents might spread among
their antagonists mutually, and which would in a few days destroy the
greatest armies?"

"True," answered the Russian; "but can we do all that we wish? As for us
Russians, pressed on our eastern frontier by the Chinese, we must at any
cost put forth our strength for an effort toward the west."

"O, is that all? In that case," said Mr. Smith, "the thing can be
arranged. I will speak to the Secretary of State about it. The attention
of the Chinese government shall be called to the matter. This is not the
first time that the Chinese have bothered us."

"Under these conditions, of course--" And the Russian ambassador
declared himself satisfied.

"Ah, Sir John, what can I do for you?" asked Mr. Smith as he turned to
the representative of the people of Great Britain, who till now had
remained silent.

"A great deal," was the reply. "If the Earth Chronicle would but open a
campaign on our behalf--"

"And for what object?"

"Simply for the annulment of the Act of Congress annexing to the United
States the British islands."

Though, by a just turn-about of things here below, Great Britain has
become a colony of the United States, the English are not yet reconciled
to the situation. At regular intervals they are ever addressing to the
American government vain complaints.

"A campaign against the annexation that has been an accomplished fact
for 150 years!" exclaimed Mr. Smith. "How can your people suppose that
I would do anything so unpatriotic?"

"We at home think that your people must now be sated. The Monroe
doctrine is fully applied; the whole of America belongs to the
Americans. What more do you want? Besides, we will pay for what we ask."

"Indeed!" answered Mr. Smith, without manifesting the slightest
irritation. "Well, you English will ever be the same. No, no, Sir John,
do not count on me for help. Give up our fairest province, Britain? Why
not ask France generously to renounce possession of Africa, that
magnificent colony the complete conquest of which cost her the labor of
800 years? You will be well received!"

"You decline! All is over then!" murmured the British agent sadly. "The
United Kingdom falls to the share of the Americans; the Indies to that
of--"

"The Russians," said Mr. Smith, completing the sentence.

"Australia--"

"Has an independent government."

"Then nothing at all remains for us!" sighed Sir John, downcast.

"Nothing?" asked Mr. Smith, laughing. "Well, now, there's Gibraltar!"

With this sally, the audience ended. The clock was striking twelve, the
hour of breakfast. Mr. Smith returns to his chamber. Where the bed stood
in the morning a table all spread comes up through the floor. For Mr.
Smith, being above all a practical man; has reduced the problem of
existence to its simplest terms. For him, instead of the endless suites
of apartments of the olden time, one room fitted with ingenious
mechanical contrivances is enough. Here he sleeps, takes his meals, in
short, lives.

He seats himself. In the mirror of the phonotelephote is seen the same
chamber at Paris which appeared in it this morning. A table furnished
forth is likewise in readiness here, for notwithstanding the difference
of hours, Mr. Smith and his wife have arranged to take their meals
simultaneously. It is delightful thus to take breakfast _tete-a-tete_
with one who is 3000 miles or so away. Just now, Mrs. Smith's chamber
has no occupant.

"She is late! Woman's punctuality! Progress everywhere except there!"
muttered Mr. Smith as he turned the tap for the first dish. For like all
wealthy folk in our day, Mr. Smith has done away with the domestic
kitchen and is a subscriber to the Grand Alimentation Company, which
sends through a great network of tubes to subscribers' residences all
sorts of dishes, as a varied assortment is always in readiness. A
subscription costs money, to be sure, but the _cuisine_ is of the best,
and the system has this advantage, that it, does away with the pestering
race of the _cordons-bleus_. Mr. Smith received and ate, all alone, the
_hors-d'oeuvre, entrees, roti_ and _legumes_ that constituted the
repast. He was just finishing the dessert when Mrs. Smith appeared in
the mirror of the telephote.

"Why, where have you been?" asked Mr. Smith through the telephone.

"What! You are already at the dessert? Then I am late," she exclaimed,
with a winsome _naivete_. "Where have I been, you ask? Why, at my
dress-maker's. The hats are just lovely this season! I suppose I forgot
to note the time, and so am a little late."

"Yes, a little," growled Mr. Smith; "so little that I have already
quite finished breakfast. Excuse me if I leave you now, but I must be
going."

"O certainly, my dear; good-by till evening."

Smith stepped into his air-coach, which was in waiting for him at a
window. "Where do you wish to go, sir?" inquired the coachman.

"Let me see; I have three hours," Mr. Smith mused. "Jack, take me to my
accumulator works at Niagara."

For Mr. Smith has obtained a lease of the great falls of Niagara. For
ages the energy developed by the falls went unutilized. Smith, applying
Jackson's invention, now collects this energy, and lets or sells it. His
visit to the works took more time than he had anticipated. It was four
o'clock when he returned home, just in time for the daily audience which
he grants to callers.

One readily understands how a man situated as Smith is must be beset
with requests of all kinds. Now it is an inventor needing capital; again
it is some visionary who comes to advocate a brilliant scheme which must
surely yield millions of profit. A choice has to be made between these
projects, rejecting the worthless, examining the questionable ones,
accepting the meritorious. To this work Mr. Smith devotes every day two
full hours.

The callers were fewer to-day than usual--only twelve of them. Of these,
eight had only impracticable schemes to propose. In fact, one of them
wanted to revive painting, an art fallen into desuetude owing to the
progress made in color-photography. Another, a physician, boasted that
he had discovered a cure for nasal catarrh! These impracticables were
dismissed in short order. Of the four projects favorably received, the
first was that of a young man whose broad forehead betokened his
intellectual power.

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