Life in a Thousand Worlds Part 16

4. The superintendent of any large works can, at his will, peer into any apartment he wishes from his head office. The advantages of this arrangement can be easily seen.

5. A minister can see from his study the nature of his audience before he leaves home.

6. Farmers can watch their cattle and their fruits without leaving the house or barn, according to where the connections are made.

7. Persons can be in bed at night, and if they imagine they hear a robber in any room they can first turn on the photograph current and then the light flash. In this way one can look, without leaving his bed, into each room of the house.

Having given a few ill.u.s.trations of this marvelous invention, the reader can readily see the variety of uses which it will serve.

Their latest discovery in light is a decided improvement over our electric light. I know of no sensible name to give it, but the name that comes nearest to describing it, according to our terms, would be Phosphorous Light. It gives a mild but yet positive radiance, and closely resembles diffused sunlight.

THE AGES OF PLOID.

One of the strangest theories of the whole universe I found on this cultured world of Ploid. They divide time into three general periods of ages:

1. Age of Fire.

2. Temperate Age.

3. Age of Ice.

The people teach that there was a race of human beings who inhabited their world when it was yet in a molten state and that, as their earth cooled off, the race became extinct.

This age, they claim, was followed by the Temperate Age, or the age in which they are now living.

It is also claimed that, when their earth cools and the frigid blasts freeze out the world, there will gradually commence the Age of Ice, or the age in which human species will exist by reason of the earth's stiff coldness.

I had no way of learning the truth or falsity of this theory.

THOUGHT PHOTOGRAPHY.

These Ploidites have distanced us in the study of the nervous system, including the intricate problems of the cerebrum and cerebellum. They have ascertained, by long ages of observation and experimenting, the exact effect of every kind of impulse on the brain matter. The experts are able to tell, at a post-mortem examination, what kinds of thinking were most prevalent during the subject's life, just as easily as we can judge the great or little use of the arm by an examination of its muscles.

But more wonderful, a thousand fold, is their ability to follow the course of thought in a living cerebrum after the brain has been made visible by a light more potent than the X ray. After this exposure the operator, with his wizard magnifying lens, watches the tiny tremulous brain cells in their infinitesimal quivering, as they carry messages from the soul to the world of sense and being.

The voluntary nerve action is distinguished from the involuntary, and there is no escape from the conclusions formed by an expert observer.

The parts of the brain at work must of necessity determine the nature of the thought, and amplified experiments have been made to prove the correctness of these processes.

This scientific mind reading impressed me as the highest expression of inventive skill that had come to my attention in any world of s.p.a.ce, and gave me new light on some of the old mysteries of mind and matter.

I tarried as long as possible on this instructive planet and have not yet forgotten many of the valuable hints of inventions that can be reproduced in my own world. Surely we are far enough away from Ploid to escape any charge of infringement, should we proceed to patent some of their inventions.

CHAPTER XVI.

A Singular Planet.

I visited the other seventy worlds that revolve around Sirius. Among them is one of note, called Zik, which is forty-two hundred millions of miles from its sun, and is slightly smaller than our world. It is inhabited by a race of pigmies which I will call Zikites. Wonderful indeed is the intelligence of these creatures, although their form is out of symmetry according to our standards. I will therefore avoid a description of their physical features, lest it might mar the picture of their accomplishments.

The air of Zik is heavy and the sky is opal in its effects. The chemists have thus far found in nature ninety elementary substances, and it is partly due to this large variety that the Zikites have surpa.s.sed their fellow men in thousands of worlds.

As you study the past events of this unusual planet, you are reminded of our own history. On Zik there are heathen tribes and all grades of conflicting civilized nations.

War has reddened this distant world for several thousand years, and as yet there is no peace. Notwithstanding all this unceasing upheaval, the tide of human progress has steadily risen. It does appear that the highest light of intellect is generated like electric light through sharp friction.

The Zikites have had their Men of War, vessels of mighty strength and death-dealing in their action. But all such defense has been abandoned over five hundred years ago, and it came about in a natural manner. One of the many ill.u.s.trious inventors perfected the submarine boat and the flying-machine at about the same time. Their flying-machine might appropriately be called in our language, the Flying Devil, for such it is if you consider its destroying power. One of these ominous looking machines is capable of destroying a whole navy as fast as it can move high in the air from one vessel to another.

It can also tear to pieces an enemy's camp that lies in the open field.

All this is accomplished by dropping sh.e.l.ls composed partly of some elements not found in our world. These sh.e.l.ls are made in such a way that they explode as soon as they touch any substance, and the concussion is much more terrible than is caused by our most powerful explosives. Because no s.h.i.+p could hold together under such destructive sh.e.l.ls, the nations abandoned their navies and devoted their energy to devising a safe camp for soldiers and to building these air-vessels with additional improvements.

It was found that the only way to protect a camp was to cover it with a water proof shed, so constructed that nine or ten inches of water would remain on the roof. Then a wide shallow trench was dug around the shed and kept filled with water. These sh.e.l.ls will not explode if they fall in that depth of water, but will explode in water of greater depth. You can see at a glance how difficult it is to manage an army under these circ.u.mstances. The only redeeming feature is that the enemy also is compelled to resort to the same protection. An international law forbids the destruction of homes in times of war.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Battle of the "Flying Devils."]

Wars are of short duration. Usually the decisive conflict is fought in the air, and is the most terrible of them all. Imagine two of these Flying Devils approaching one another far above the surface of Zik. Each vessel is set in action long before it is in range of the other in the hope of firing the first effective shot. Each party of the conflict knows that the air vessel first struck will be at an end forever, for it will be blown to pieces and every life on board will be shattered into shapeless ma.s.ses, while the wreckage falls amidst the burning of the combustibles. What a horrible ending of a short battle!

The wisest of the Zikites have proposed many plans to settle international differences but, like us, they have failed to suggest any plan that has proved to be practicable.

The largest nation of Zik has advanced far ahead of us on the labor question, but this was not reached until the contest between capital and labor had left its blood-marks through many centuries.

A brief description of the manner in which the industrial problem was solved will not be out of place. I will waste no words n showing the many points of difference between our customs and those of Zik.

After hundreds of years of painful struggling, the many laborers of this largest nation completed a solid organization and thereby gained control of the whole government. Then, in their zeal to legislate in favor of the laboring cla.s.ses, the ruling element stepped to the other extreme by pa.s.sing many unreasonable laws. Things pa.s.sed along in this unsettled condition until a certain few of the labor leaders, having become wealthy themselves, yielded to a heavy bribe and amended the laws so as to favor the wealthy minority. The magnates of capital shrewdly took advantage of this traitors.h.i.+p and, in the following campaign, won the national election.

The wealthy, now having the reins of power in their own hands, took the initiative and called for a consultation between the heads of the government and the chief leaders of labor.

This proved to be a wise political move and, as a result, a new system of laws relating to all trades and occupations was enacted. The following conditions still prevail:

1. A day's work consists of one-fourth less hours.

2. A minimum scale of wages is adopted for each trade. This scale is based upon the price of certain staple articles, and within a certain limit it rises or falls with the price of these necessities.

3. All regular citizens must be supplied with work if they desire it. If they cannot get employment from some firm or corporation, the government officials represented locally must supply it or its equivalent in money.

The government controls enough of the business to employ two-thirds of the male population. This enables the government to take so great a responsibility and bear it with satisfactory results.

4. Any man through negligence failing to support his family is put to the government penitentiary service, and his family is thereafter supported from the public treasury.

5. A widow or orphan is cared for by regular authorities. The by-laws of this fifth article regulate the work of women.

6. No credit is allowed except on a government credit-slip signed by the local representative of the state. If the bill is not paid by the one making the debt, the amount of which is always stipulated, the government will pay it and proceed to collect it in one of three ways.

The last resort is according to article four.

There are several other sections governing private owners.h.i.+p of property, land and business. These new laws have had a very good effect.