16 nature's Afracte*. 



In the old days all Europe could be involved 

 in a great war and the news of it would be 

 \\tt ks in reaching our shores, but now the 

 firing of the first gun is heard at every fireside 

 tin- world over, almost before the smoke has 

 cleared away. Our planet is threaded with 

 iron nerves that run over mountains and under 

 seas, whose trembling atoms, thrilled with the 

 electric fire, speak to us daily and hourly of 

 the great throbbing life of the whole civilized 

 world. 



Electricity has given us a voice that can 

 be heard a thousand miles, and not only heard, 

 but recognized. It has given us a pen that 

 will write our autograph in New York, al- 

 though we are still in Chicago. It has given 

 us the best light, both from an optical and a 

 sanitary standpoint, that the world has ever 

 seen. The old-fashioned, jogging horse-car 

 has been supplanted by the electric " trolley," 

 and we no longer have our feelings harrowed 

 with pity for the poor old steeds that pulled 

 those lumbering coaches through the streets, 

 with men and women crowded in and hanging 

 on to straps, while everybody trod on every 

 other body's toes. 



' In olden times we took a car 

 Drawn by a horse, if going far, 



And felt that we were blest ; 

 Now the conductor takes the fare 

 And puts a broomstick in the air 



And lightning does the rest. 



