, others across the Pacific to San Francisco, Mr. Edison said to me:

"This will be a fine spectacle. Would you like to watch it?"

"Certainly," I replied.

A Grand Spectacle.

The Ship of Space was immediately at our disposal. I think I have not
yet mentioned the fact that the inventor's control over the electrical
generator carried in the car was so perfect that by varying the potential
or changing the polarity he could cause it slowly or swiftly, as might
be desired, to approach or recede from any object. The only practical
difficulty was presented when the polarity of the electrical charge upon
an object in the neighborhood of the car was unknown to those in the
car, and happened to be opposite to that of the charge which the car, at
that particular moment, was bearing. In such a case, of course, the car
would fly toward the object, whatever it might be, like a pith ball or
a feather, attracted to the knob of an electrical machine. In this way,
considerable danger was occasionally encountered, and a few accidents
could not be avoided. Fortunately, however, such cases were rare. It was
only now and then that, owing to some local cause, electrical polarities
unknown to or unexpected by the navigators, endangered the safety of
the car. As I shall have occasion to relate, however, in the course of
the narrative, this danger became more acute and assumed at times a most
formidable phase, when we had ventured outside the sphere of the earth
and were moving through the unexplored regions beyond.

On this occasion, having embarked, we rose rapidly to a height of some
thousands of feet and directed our course over the Atlantic. When half
way to Ireland, we beheld, in the distance, steaming westward, the smoke
of several fleets. As we drew nearer a marvellous spectacle unfolded
itself to our eyes. From the northeast, their great guns flashing in
the sunlight and their huge funnels belching black volumes that rested
like thunder clouds upon the sea, came the mighty warships of England,
with her meteor flag streaming red in the breeze, while the royal
insignia, indicating the presence of the ruler of the British Empire,
was conspicuously displayed upon the flagship of the squadron.

Following a course more directly westward appeared, under another black
cloud of smoke, the hulls and guns and burgeons of another great fleet,
carrying the tri-color of France, and bearing in its midst the head of
the magnificent republic of