much time were to be occupied in that way, but the cars are propelled so
swiftly that the time from one station to another is hardly appreciable.
At every stop the cars are opened and apparatus set in motion which
changes the air completely almost in a moment. Where the tubes run under
water shafts for air are put in at the stations. There is always a double
line, one tube for each direction. No chance is left for accidents.

"Of course we navigate the air, swiftly and safely. If not in too much
haste we always take the aerial passage, and often on a pleasant day the
sky over a great city will be as full of air ships, or balloons as we
still sometimes call them, as its harbor is of pleasure boats. In this
department inventors had a fruitful field, the use of aluminum offering
abundant opportunity for the greatest variety of devices, and the
development of the flying machine was one of the most interesting features
in the march toward our present high civilization. Perhaps the presence of
so many electrical machines in the air and the utilization of so much
electricity on land and water have, after thousands of years, done much
toward freeing us from the thunderstorm, with its deadly lightning. We
have fairly robbed the clouds of their electricity and taught it to do our
work.

"Swift and economical as our modern electric cars are, there is one mode
of traveling sometimes adopted which is more rapid still, and the cheapest
and in some respects the easiest way of getting over the surface of the
globe ever dreamed of. It was discovered by accident, just before
accidents entirely ceased, in the following manner:

"A couple of scientific enthusiasts, of the kind we call cranks--I don't
know what you call them on the earth--conceived the idea that they could
find something better to take the place of the highly purified and buoyant