A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 80, 24 May 1911, Page 2

A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.

Professor Camille Flammarion, the eminent French scientist, has lately appeared in the role of a prophet. Ho foresees mighty changes during the next thousand years. The population of Europe will have increased, he ti inks from 375,000,000 to 700,000,000, ti'iit of Asia from 870,000,000 to 1.000. that of America from 120.000. to 1,500,000,000. that of Africa from 75,000,000 to 200,000,000, and that of Australia from 5,000,000 to 00,000,000, the general total of the people of the world thus rising from 1.450.000. to 8,360,000,000. The English language, says the professor, will he practically universal throughovt the globe, and war will disappear scon after the year 2000 lias been reached, all international disputes being settled by arbitration. Kings and queens will disappear, and every country will adopt the republican form of government. A single money currency will prevail the world over. There will ho one universal meridian that of Greenwich —and the hours will ho calculated from 1 to 21. Meteorology will become as exact a science as astronomy, and to foretell the weather with unerring accuracy. Steam as a motive power will be wholly superseded by electricity for all purposes, and the most popular method of transport from one place or country to another will be by dirigible balloon. London will he connected with Paris by a rapid transit electric railway; the Mediterranean will he united to the Atlantic by canal, and compressed air tubular trains will connect Spain and Portugal with Northern Asia. There will he telephonic communication all over the earth, and people of Australia and Now Zealand will be able to listen to Italian opera in London or Paris without leaving tbeir own fireside. They will ho able, also, to witness the great dramas and spectacular pieces of the future, produced in the cities of (he Old TTorld, in the same easy fashion. Altogether hV'fcssor Flammarion paints an alluring picture of the good time coming. but some, at least, of the things ho p - edicts ought to come to pass in considerably less than a thousand years.