Electricity 



the telegraph ! At its click both locomotive and 

 steamship speed to the relief of famine in any 

 quarter of the globe. In times of plenty or of 

 dearth the markets of the globe are merged 

 and are brought to every man's door. Not less 

 striking is the neighbourhood guild of science, 

 born, too, of the telegraph. The day after Ront- 

 gen announced his X rays, physicists on every 

 continent were repeating his experiments were 

 applying his discovery to the healing of the 

 wounded and diseased. Let an anti-toxin for 

 diphtheria, consumption, or yellow fever be pro- 

 posed, and a hundred investigators the world 

 over bend their skill to confirm or disprove, as if 

 the suggestor dwelt next door. 



On a stage less dramatic, or rather not drama- 

 tic at all, electricity works equal good. Its motor 

 freeing us from dependence on the horse is 

 spreading our towns and cities into their adjoining 

 country. Field and garden compete with airless 

 streets The sunny cottage is in active rivalry 

 with the odious tenement-house. It is found 

 that transportation within the gates of a metro- 

 polis has an importance second only to the means 

 of transit which links one city with another. 

 The engineer is at last filling the gap which too 

 long existed between the traction of horses and 

 that of steam. In point of speed, cleanliness, 

 and comfort such an electric subway as that of 

 South London leaves nothing to be desired. 

 Throughout America electric roads, at first sub- 

 urban, are now fast joining town to town and 

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