How Men Will Live a Hundred Years from Now.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1, 6 July 1907, Page 27

How Men Will Live a Hundred Years from Now.

How men w ill live,; dress, keep house, and travel a hundred years from now is forecasted by Baron Russell, the English scientist, who predicts the future from a study of the past and present tendencies of the things that concern our daily life. This has been Baron Russell’s hobby for years, and the result has been given in a book entitled “One Hundred Years Hence,” which is regarded by many sociologists as a most scientific attempt to gaze into the future. In the first place, women will relegate the corset and other injurious clothing to the company of the farthingale and other obsolete garments in a comparatively short time. Already tight-lacing and the wearing of such corsets as unnaturally compress the internal organs of the body are being rejected by women of sense, who decline to injure themselves and their offsprng at the command of fashion. WOMEN WILL DISCARD PETTICOATS. If one were asked to suggest the various steps by which the ultimate costume of the century, whether male or female, will be arrived at, Baron Russell thinks few would not boggie at the task. But two characteristics certainly will be demanded—that it shall give all movements of the body the greatest possible freedom consistent with warmth, and that it shall be as easy as possible to put on and oft. There will be an inner garment wore next the skin for purposes of cleanliness. This will be made of some fabric not unlike the Japanese soft, silky paper, so that it can be destroyed as soon as taken oft'. Next will be a middle garment worn for warmth, and. lastly, an outer suit for protection. It is not in the least likely that so insanitary and degrading an occupation as that of the washer woman can' survive, the middle garment, completely cleansable by vacrFum action and oxygenation, will, of course, be made of some vegetable fibre like cotton or flax. It will be some developed form of combination easy to put on and oft fastened by a single knot bf button. It will be highlv porous, for the importance of properly ventilating the skin will be perfectly well understood. Thus far male and female costume will be identical; It is not to be believed that woman, already long emancipated from the corset, will continue a slave to the skirt and petticoat an 1 other restraining garments. She will, no doubt, wear a costume much like what Miss Rehan wore as Rosalind, a tunic- and knee skirt, probably in one. with gaiters made of some elastic material. FRENC H HEELED BOOTS WILL BE FORGOTTEN. The foot covering will be totally different. Towns will be sanitary underfoot, and the streets will be free from mud. Consequently it will be no longer necessary to wen uncomfortable and deforming boots. Footgear, whatever it be. will be formed of vegetable fibre. One object sought, eonseic Usly or unconsciously, in die s is the class distinction. In the coining age every one will take pride in his work, and no longer will treat work with the disgraceful contempt which we only by degrees are transcending by healthful-and proper appreciation. Consequently, the clothes worn at work no doubt will lx- specially designed to facilitate the exertions of the worker. And |i the copious hours ot leisure there will be variety, increased by the wearing of special garments for special amusements. Everv one will enjoy the comfort of a complete change of dress when play time comes, and every one will dress for dinner, although not in swallow-tail eoats. It is generally agieed that the tendency of the sexes is to become less divergent intellectually and morallyAs it will have been realized long before the advent of the next century that the surest way to improved capacity is in increased responsibility, women will not be allowed a hundred year- hence to shirk their political obligation-. We may see with half an eye that every year women are becoming more capable ami also more desirous of aiding the counsels of the public, and in some of the colonies, as well a- in some of the states -of. the union, they already are voting with the

most wonderful intelligence and usefulness. The influence bt the female vofe in New Zealand for some time has been perceptible in the legislation of -that highly enlightened colony. DIVORCES WILL BE EASY BUT INFREQUENT. No doubt the marriage laws will undergo amendment in one or two particulars. It will be realized that it is much more immoral to compel unwilling couples to live together matrimonially than to set them free to remedy one of the most hideous mistakes. The frequency of divorce petitions will be diminished from the time we get rid of the idiotic and almost incredibly wicked convention by which we take almost every conceivable caution to insure that a girl in marrying shall have no possible means of knowing to wha>, she is committing herself. The next step will be in recognizing that it is disgraceful for parents to put pressure on the inclinations of their children, and social execration will render such pressure impossible. A third step will be the abatement of our present entire neglect of any demand for good character in a bridegroom, who would be outraged if he thought that the least aspersion could be suggested concerning his bride. In other words, the greatest improvement in the status of marriage will be effected when we recognize the claim of woman to be made the equal of man in knowledge, in discretion, and in social rights. CRIME WILL BE REFORMED OUT OF EXISTENCE. The repression of crime will be largely through preventive measures. With improved detective methods the chances of escape in any given ease will be greatly diminished, the innocent will be rarely accused at all. and the punishment of the guilty will be of a reformatory character. In the meantime the study of mental science will have made great strides, and a great source of crime will be eliminated because men and women with the -mental twist which leads to crime will, be absolutely prevented from propagating their race. In the sweet bye and bye of a hundred vears ..from now' Baron Ru«sell thinks There, will be.no. brooms. Instead there will be handy contrivances of various shapes and furnished with elastic nozzles capable instantly of exhausting the ail -within. Such a wheeled over the floor w ill remove, every particle of dust from the surface of the carpet, at the same time picking up all such things as scraps of paper, pins, and other debris of the previous day. A similar instrument differently shaped will clean the curtains, supposing cur tains to be still in use at the time, and will duet chairs and tables -though there will not be anything like so much dust as there is now. nearly all kinds of combustion being abolished. HEAT AND ENERGY WILL COME FROM WATER. There will be no coal. Water will be our gnat source of energy. The economical analysis of water into it- own component gases whose chemical affinity unci antipodal attraction already are utilized to some extent in sueh appliance- a- the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe and electric;.! storage batteries, is a secret capable of extraordinary benefices to the new age By burning hydrogen in oxy gen we can already produce the greatest heat practically needed in the art-; the electrical furnace only superseding this process because it happens to be more manageable But when we want oxygen and hydrogen we do not in practice now obtain them from water; we only com bine them as waler in the act of utilization. The rational line of progress is ob-viou-Iy to seek means of directly composing water. When we can do this i ninpendioiisly ami economically we shall haw an inexhaustible supply of energy for water thus used is not destroyed as waler, as coal is destroyed, aqua coal, when we utilize its stored energy. The act of utilizing the gases recombines them, and we can use them then for the reproduction of almost every kind of energy that man at present needs We can u-'e them for heat'by burning them together. We can use them for light by burning them in the presence of any substance capable of being made incandescent. We shall lie able to use them to generate electricity by some sort of Contrivance akin to the aeenmnlator of the preseat day, a highly rudimentary

Invention; and it would even now be a simple matter to utilize their explosive recombination for the direct production of power as motion. THERE WILL BE NO DIRT IN THE FUTURE. Utilized apart, the constituent gases •f water have many uses and possible Uses. Hydrogen under suitable treatment yields the greatest obtainable cold, •s oxvgen and hydrogen together yield the greatest heat. If our flying machines need a sort of ballast to reinforce their Mechanical lifting apparatus, hydrogen is the best possible assistant. And the probable uses of oxygen still more are Bvir.erotts. One of the greatest problems of onr own day is the disposal of waste products of all sorts, the sources of inconveniences, disease, and dirt. Oxygen. if readily and copiously obtainable, is capable of destroying them all. Medicine likely will find in oxygen the great propulsive force of its forward movement. Numerous diseases not only can be cured but ultimately abolished when we have once discovered how to use oxygen. The universal source of power likely will be in the decomposition and the recomposition of water. But electricity probably will not until after several decades approach the limits of its realm. KEEPING HOUSE WILL BE A DREAM. The kitchen fire, of course, will be Un electric furnace. Lighting will all be electric and no doub f wireless. The abolition of horse traffic in the cities end the use of vacuum apparatus which Will be continually at work in all the streets, keeping them free and dry from mud, practically will remove the necessity for boot brushing, even supposing that we shall still wear boots. Every man an I woman in dressing will pass A vacuum instrument over his or her clothes and get rid of the little dust existing, for we shall be more and more intolerant of dirt in any form, having by that time fully realized how dangerous dirt isA woman of the year 2000 who could be miraculously transported back to the present moment probably wofild faint at the intolerable disgustiness of our cleanest cities of this age, even if the cruelty of employing horses for fraction and the frightful recklessness of allowin them to soil the streets in which people walk did not overpower her sensibilities in another way. LITI.TE COOKING DONE AT HOME. Cooking perhaps wsii not be done at ah on any large scale at home. At any rate, it will be a auuelt less disgusting process than it is to-day. In no ease will the domestic servant of a hundred years heme lie called upon to stand by a roaring tire laid by himself and |o be cleaned up by herself when done with in order to cook the family dinner. Every measure of heat will be furnished in electrically fitted receptacles with Or without water jackets or steam jackets; and unquestionably all cooking will be done in hermetically closed vessels. Animal food will have been wholly abandoned before the end of the century. the debris of the kitchen will lie much more manageable than at present, and the kitehen sink will cease'to be a place of unapproachable loathsomeness. Di-hes and utensils will be dropped into an automatic receptacle for cleansing, Bwir’ed by clean water delivered with force and charged with nascent oxygen, dried by electric heat, and polished by elect ic force. And all that has come off t’.ie plates will drop through the •cullery floor into the destructor beneath to be oxygenated and made away PURE UH NTKY AIR IN THE CITY FLAT. All apartments in city homes will contain an oxygenator, which will furnish purer air than the air of the fresh eoun’ ryside. And in bedrooms at least there will be a chemical apparatus which will absorb carbon dioxide and at the same time slowly give off a certain •mount of oxygen —ju.-t enough to raise oxygenation of the air to the standird of the best country places. Similar Appliances will be at work in the streets. •<> that town air will be just as wholeBome. ju-t as tonic and invigorating as •ounrry air. Since the high buildings of the future Wil; keep out the sunlight, electric light.

carrying on all the ray activity of the sunlight and just as ea|»»ble of fostering life and vegetation, will serve the streets. Thus so far as hygiene goes, town life will be on a par with country life.

TRAINS WILL RUN 200 MILES AN HOUR.

A hundred years hence trains will be run one over top the other, perhaps to the height of several stories, not necessarily provider'c'wit h supporting rails, for we may have discovered means by which vehicles can be propelled above the ground in some kind of guideways, doing away with the great loss of power caused by wheel friction; that is to say. the guides will direct but not support the cars. The clumsy device of locomotive engines will have been dispensed with. Whatever power is employed to drive the trains of the next century will certainly be conveyed to them from central power houses. The trains perhaps will not stop at all. They will only slacken speed a little, but the platform will begin to move as the train approaches and will run along beside it at the same speed as the train so that passengers can get in and out as if the train were standing still. When all are aboard the doors will be closed all together bv the guard and the platform will reverse its motion and return to its original position. With trains travelling at quite 200 miles an hour, and certainly nothing less would satisfy the remoter suburbanites of the next century, a passenger putting his head out of the window would be blinded and suffocated. So the windows will be glazed, the oxygenators and carbon dioxide absorbers in each carriage keeping the air sweet, and other suitable appliances adjusting its temeperature.

There will be no such thing as grade crossings; wherever the road crosses the line there will be bridges provided with endless moving tracks to carry passengers and vehicles across- Of course horses will long have vanished from the land. Cities will be provided with moving street ways always at action at two or more speeds, and we shall have learned how to hop on and off the lowest speed from the stationary pavement and from the lower to the higher speeds without danger. M hen streets cross one rolling roadway will rise in curve over the other. HORSES AND WAGGONS FORGOTTEN. There will be no vehicular traffic at all in cities of any size. All the transportation will be done by the road's own motion. In smaller towns and for getting from one town to another automatic motor cars will exist, coin worked. A man who wished to travel will step into a motor car. drop into the slot machine the coin which represents the fare for the distance he wants to travel, and assume control. We may safely suppose that the ocean ships of a hundred years hence will be driven by energy of some kind transmitted from the shores on either side. The ships of a hundred years hence will not lie in the water. They will tower above the surface, merely skimming it with their keels and the only engines they will ca rry will be for receiving and utilizing the energy transmitted to them from the power houses ashore, perhaps worked by the force of the tides.