the pounding of the horses' feet, so that the
substitution of electricity for animal power has done much to solve the
problem of attractive streets.

"Scarcely a ton of coal comes to Manhattan Island or its vicinity in a
year. Very little of it leaves the mines, at the mouths of which it is
converted into electricity and sent to the points of consumption by
wire, where it is employed for all uses to which fuel was put, and many
others. Consequently there is no smoke, and the streets are not
encumbered with coal-carts; the entire width being given up to
carriages, etc. The ground floors in the business parts are used for
large warehouses, trucks running in to load and unload. Pedestrians
therefore have sidewalks level with the second story, consisting of
glass floors let into aluminum frames, while all street crossings are
made on bridges. Private houses have a front door opening on the
sidewalk, and another on the ground level, so that ladies paying visits
or leaving cards can do so in carriages. In business streets the
second story is used for shops. In place of steel covering, country
roads have a thick coating of cement and asphalt over a foundation of
crushed stone, giving a capital surface, and have a width of
thirty-three feet (two rods) in thinly settled districts, to sixty-six
feet (four rods) where the population is greater. All are planted with
shade and fruit trees, while the wide driveways have one or two broad
sidewalks. The same rule of making the slow-moving vehicles keep near
the outside prevails, though the rate of increase in speed on
approaching the middle is more rapid than in cities, and there is
usually no dividing ridge. On reaching the top of a long and steep
hill, if we do not wish to coast, we convert the motors into dynamos,
while running at full speed, and so change the kinetic energy of the
descent into potential in our batteries. This twentieth-century
stage-coaching is one of the delights to which we are heirs, though
horses are still used by those that prefer them.

"We have been much aided in our material progress by the facility with
which we obtain the metals. It was observed, some time ago, that when
artesian and oil wells had reached a considerable depth, what appeared
to be drops of lead and antimony came up with the stream. It finally
occurred to a well-borer that if he could make his drill hard enough
and get it down far enough, keeping it cool by solidified carboni