October 26, 1910.
THE ELON COLLEGi; WEEKLY.
3
THE WEEKLY DIRECTORY.
Burlington (N. C.) Business Houses.
Buy Dry Goods from B. A. Sellars & Sons.
See Burlington Hardware Co. for Plumb
ing. .
Get your Photographs at Anglin’s Studio.
B. A. Sellars & Sons for Clothing and
Gents’ Furnishings.
See Dr. Morrow when in need of Uental
Work.
Real Estate, Insurance and Loans, Ala-
naanee Insurance & Real Estate Co.
Bairber Shop, Brannoek & Mat kins.
Dr. J. H. Brooks, Dental Surgton.
See Freeman Drug Co. for Drugs.
Elon College, N C.
For general merchandise seeJ.J.Lambeth.
For an Education 20 to Elon College.
Gibsonville, N. C.
Dr. G. E. Jordan, M. 1).
High Point, N. C.
People’s House Furnishing Co
Greensboro, N. C.
Pierce Stamp Works for stamps.
Hotel Huffine.
Burtner Furniture ('o., for furniture.
A NEW PROPHECY.
Whether there is any difEtrence be
tween prophcy and well diiected imagina
tion, if, indeed, ima,aination can be direct
ed at all, is a question we do not projHise
settling here. But anyway, there have
been imaginations that turned out to be
prophecies. So, an imagination that comes
true is thereafter termed a prophecy. A
class in English Composition was once
asked to write an imaginary story. The
purpose of the instructor was to ascertain
the power of imagination which each mem
ber of the class possessed. One member
of the class laid his story in the year
6,000 A. D. Upon the arrival of this dis
tant Century the Atlantic Ocean had gone
dry and the American continents were
vast oceans joined by the strait of Pan
ama. The bottom of the Atlantic was a
vast fertile continent studded with cities
■of marvelous cleanliness and beauty, and
the most astonishing discoveries had been
made by science. Fuel was being manu
factured from the air, and also a thousand
and one other, now unbelievable, conven
iences. Mind reading: was as prevalent as
the reading of books now. Thus the hiding
places of deception and other forms of sin
were becoming as scarce as the hiding pla
ces for game in the most densely popula
ted parts of Europe to-day. The Pacific
Ocean was one vast succession of broken
mountain ranges and lakes and swamps.
The power tliat drives the planetai'y worlds
in their orbits had been discoveired and
was the principal power used in travel,
manufacturing and all kinds of domestic
life.
Whether the student who wrote such
a story is the a'.thor of the following
prophecy in Harper’s Weekly for October
22, 1910, I do not know, but it sounds very
much like him. Here it is: “Contracts
were signed yesterday by the New York,
Saturn and Milky Way Transportation
Company for the construction of two new
radium airships accommodating 8,000
first class passengers, each to ply
between New York City and all cerulean
parts from the Polar Star to the Southern
Cross. They are required to have a speed
capacity of 8,000,000 knots per hour and
are expcted to be ready for traffic on or
about Januai-y 1, 2912. The vessels are
to be built by the Maritan Radium Car
and Ship Corporation, at a cost of .$3,000-
000 apiece.
A new series of elevators has just been
installed in the Gridiron Suburban Home
Building in the Borough of Philadelphia,
of Greater Manhattan. At present they
are working a little stiffly, but within two
or three weeks are expected to make the
round trip from the cellar to the roof in
five hours. Their installation has been
made necessary by the recent addition of
five hundred more stories to this architec
tural wonder, in order to accommodate the
enormous increase in this desei-vedly pop
ular enterprise. V'illa plots on the upper
floors of the building are selling at two
tliuusand iloilai's a square foot.
The House of Representatives yester
day passed to its third readitrg the bill
l>roviding for the extenion of the current
day from forty-eight to ninety-six hours.
The Solar Light Trust has forrght the mea
sure tooth arrd nail, from the beginning,
but it has beerr a losing battle all along the
line. At the same time, it is expected that
when the bill reaches the Senate some
thing will be done for its relief, possibly
by an arnendrrreirt providing that its corr-
tract rernuueratioir for light furrrished
be regulated by meter, and trot paid for
as at present, on the diem basis.
An interesting j)aper was read last night
before the Dramatic-Historical Society of
Boston, by Mis. Sadie Hickerrdrooper
Jorres, advancing the tlreory that the Clas
sic Comedy, “The Merry Widow,” hith
erto supposed to have been the work of
William Shakespeare, was really written
by Mr. G. Ibsen-Ader, a playwright of
some distinction in Norway, in the latter
part of the middle ages just before tbe
Ethiopian ascendency. Mrs. Jones paper
was received with corrsiderable entlrusi-
asm by even the mosl conservative mem
bers of the Society, but rather for the
daring of its arguments than for arry cou-
vinciirg quality in her thesis. The gener
al feeiirrg is against her view, and as for
ourselves, frankly we do irot take airy
stock in the lady’s arguments at all. It
is as clear to our minds from the inter
nal evidence of the lines that the “Merry
Widow” was written by the same hand
that wrote the “Texas Steer,” which is
undeniably Shaki'speare’s.
The Allied Libraries of New York, Bos
ton, and Chicago report a gener’ous gift
from an unknown benefactor of ten thou
sand disks for the novelophone, containing
the complete works of Victor Hugo, inclu
ding his famous “Nicholas Carter Sto
ries;” the best of William Makepeace
Dickens, inclrrding “Mabel the Cloak-
Maker’s Model,” Susan the Sewing Girl,
and others; and the Rollo Books, said to
have been written by Gustave Flambert,
a French writer of distinction, in collabo
ration with that famorrs Americarr humor
ist, Samuel Johnson, whose relaxatiorr
from literature back in the nineteenth
century, cr possibly it was the twentieth,
took the unusual form of the prize-»’ing.
We understand that upon the first pre
sentation of these records at the Readina-
Stadium in Boston over thirty thousand
listeners attended, and that they were
completely enthralled by the lofty senti-
merrts so graciously expressed by these
authors of a well-nigh forgotten past.”
Although this is a new prophet thus
giving us a glimpse of the distant future,
yet it is not a new form of composition.
Dean Swift used this same style of com
position in much that he wrote, and es
pecially in that part of “Gulliver’s Trav
els” which gives an account of the visit
to the Flying Island. In response to Gul
liver’s reqrrest that the authorities call
up some of the spirits of the departed, a
feat they frequently indulged in, a num
ber of the interpreter's of Homer were
first called up, and finally Homer himself
was called for, and orr suddenly appearing
irr the midst of his critics was rrot recog-
rrized by a single one of them. Another
book written in a kindred style is Ed
ward Bellamy’s “Lookiirg Backward, 2,-
000,” which has had almost as wide a
reading as “Gulliver’s Travels,” and per
haps will be read as long as the latter
has been.
The reason that suoh writing appeals
to the average intellect is on the same
basis on which the appeal of fortune-
telling and phrenologj- rests. We have a
personal interest in what the seer dis
covers ahead of rrs on life’s path. So
also are we interested in what the jest
ing prophet half seriously intimates is to
be revealed by corning centuries.
A LITTLE STORY OF REAL LIFE.
The Coveted Prince Albert.
(By Belle Kant in Everybody’s).
Solomon Cohen ran his hands fiercely
through his shock of gr^ry hair and stormed
back and forth irr the dormitory. Through
a veil of tobacco-smoke the two old men
on the sofa watched him indifferently, but
Mrs. Marks, the rnatrorr, raised a silence-
imidoring hand against his harairgue.
“My brother-in-law’’s cousirr is a direc
tor of this home,” he shouted hoarsely.
“I will see that he hears about the way
you have divided the things. He has a say
about them, surely, if arry has. If I dorr’t
get that Prine Albert ci>at—if I dorr’t—
you’ll see. There will be trouble, Mrs.
Maiks!” He thrust his bullet-head for
ward aggressively, and, his breath and
blrrster giving out, sank into a chair.
“You can’t deny that we have an equal
right to it,” sard Hymarr Mendel, one of
the occupants of the sofa, after impres
sively clearing his throat. He was a lean
stooping old man with a long, white, patri
archal beard. His bald head shone like
ivory. “David arrd I have a right, too,
and Daniel Sterrr—peace be rrpon him!—if
he were alive could also claim it. The
bundle of clothes was sent to his room for
distribution. You got the shoes and hat
that you wanted, and David the under
clothes, and I the knitted jacket. But
that”—he pointed to the frock-coat that
the matron held, a garment frayed at the
edges and plentifully besprinkled with
spots, but smooth and satiny still with
the gloss of expensive broadcloth—“truly,
Mrs. Marks, you know that I have need
of it.”
“Yes, yes, 1 rrirdeistand,” the matron
cried impatiently. “But if I give it to you,
hear the fuss that Mr. Cuhen will make.”
“Of course, Mr. Mendel, who walks to
the syrragogrre with Mrs. Marks every Sab
bath morning, must get the best always
from the cloth s that are sent here,” Solo
mon sneerid. “But if it is given to him
Mrs. Marks, I go and tell my brother-iir-
law’s cousin.”
David Hertz, the little hunchback, was
the only one in the room who had not
s{>oken. From berreath a black skull-cap
his mournful, childlike, brown eyes looked
wistfully at the coat. How often he had
seen just such, about the prosperous forms
of the pillars of the synagogue. No mem
ber of the Home for Aged Hebrews pos
sessed so fine a garment. That was why
Solomon and Hyman were wrangling so
for its ownership. David had no hope;
he had rrot put in any claim agairrst the
stronger opponents; but he could not help
w'ondering earnestly if berreath its volumi
nous folds his deformity might not be less
noticeable.
“Wherr Mrs. Marks was re-lected it
was orr accourrt of her well-known justice
and ability,” Hymarr went orr pacifically,
striving' to fan a spark of irrdependence
in the depths of the matron’s mind. “She
has the trust and confiderrce of the pres
ident and the directors, arrd she sees fit
to bestow the coat where ”
“Nonsense!” snapped Solomon. “That
is what you said when she gave you Dan
iel Stern’s silver-headed cane.”
“But you already had one cane.”
“That has nothing to do with it. And
this I will have! It can be made to fit
me if the buttons are moved.”
Hyman turned to the matron and
spread out his hands appealingly. “Now,
Mrs. Marks, does he speak the truth ? Is
not the coat almost as if it were made
for me, while he looks like a—like a—
like an over-stuffed sausage in it?”
“Sarrsage, indeed!” Solomon retorted.
“It hangs around you as it would around
a stick. I have the figure to wear a
Prirrce Albert, but you—yoir look in it
like a sausa.ge-skin which is emptied of
all the meat. I ”
“Excuse me, Mr. C-ohen,” David here
interrupted gently. “Here are three col
lars, number seventeens, that Mrs. Marks
gave me. I can’t wear them—they are
too big. If you could use ”
“Yes,” Solomon ungraciously accepted
them. He was gethering his forces for
another w'ord-war witji Hyman.
Mrs. Marks bxiked helplessly about.
There seemed rro avenue of escape, and t
determined men noted her every movement.
Finally, plucking up courage, she went to
the door and hung the coat on a neutral
hook.
“I mrrst see about dirrner,’’she said,
heedless of their remonstrances. “In the
morning I will decide which of you is to
have it—not until then.”
The late afternoon shadows crowded the
Dr. J. H. Brooks.
DENTAL .SURGEON
Office Over Foster’s Shoe Store
BURLINGTON, N. C.
LINEN MARKING OUTFITS:
Name Stamp, Indelible Ink and Pad,
40c. Postpaid on receipt of price.
PIERCE STAMP WORKS.
Greensboro, N. C.
HOTEL HUFFINE
Near Passenger Station
Greensboro, N. C.
Rates $2 up. Cafe in connection.
C A l\ L O A I) SAL T.
At J. J. LAMBETH’S 55c Bag.
Full line of NICE GROCERIES at
right prices. Come and see.
R. ]\r. MORROW,
Surgeon Dentist,
MORROW BUILDING,
Comer Front and Main Streets,
BURLINGTON, N. C.