In the December 28, 1900 edition of the newspaper the Hollis Times in Hollis, New Hampshire a person who only identified themselves as G.R. gave his or her thoughts about how the coming 100 years would evolve.
It is 1900 years since we as a Nation began to count time. It is not the privilege of every mortal to see the ending of one century and the beginning of another. You might truly say “What difference does it make?” and yet I think we do a little more keenly appreciate the changes, improvements and advantages which have come to us in the last one hundred years (we who built our first house on Christmas day 1620) if we are here when the new calendar for 1901 appears.
We can but question whether all or a part of the predictions for the next century will come true. Here are a few of the prophecies from the “most learned and conservative minds in America” for the next one hundred years. In population we shall in- crease seven fold. The average height of a person will increase two inches and people will live to be fifty years old instead of thirty five as is the average now.
Building in blocks will be illegal and every one will reside in the suburbs and the fare will be but a penny. English will be the principal language spoken. C, X and Q will be dropped from our alphabet as spelling by sound will have been adopted. Houses will have no chimneys as no fires will be needed. Hot air for heating and hot water will be turned on from faucets furnished by a central supply plant just as our gas and electricity are furnished today. Ready cooked meals will be served hot to private houses through pneumatic tubes or by automobile wagons. Having ones own cook and purchasing ones own food will be an extravagance.
There will be no mosquitoes or flies. No street cars in our large cities. All traffic will be below or high above ground. Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence, snap shots of the event can be published an hour later and will reproduce all of natures colors. Trains will run one hundred and fifty miles an hour. New York to California in thirty six hours, no stops for water or coal. Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today. Farmers will use them instead of the horse which will be more scarce than the ox is now.
Gymnastics will be compulsory in the schools, and a man or woman who cannot walk ten miles at a stretch will be a back number. Electric ships will go from New York to Liverpool in two days. There will be Air ships. In time of war they will hurl deadly thunderbolts which will destroy whole cities, while the fleet of air ships will be hiding among the clouds. Wild animals will cease to be, cats and mice will be extinct, cattle and sheep will have no horns.
Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world, and by the aid of huge cameras and telescopes electrically connected one can see and hear from China as readily as from Cambridge at the present time. A University education will be free to every one. Oranges will be grown in the Middle States. Strawberries, cranberries and currants will be as large as apples. All berries will be seedless. Figs will be raised here in New Hampshire, peas will be as large as beets, roses as large as cabbage heads.
A man in mid ocean can converse with his wife in her own home. Coal will nearly be exhausted. All of our restless waters both fresh and salt will be harnessed to do the work for making electricity for heat, light, and fuel as Niagara is doing today. Last but not least wonder if the one thousand different “right ways” which are being taught today to tell us how to live and how to die will merge into one and that one to do right because it is right.
Planet Graple 