powerful draft so created operated machinery which pumped down the
pure, sweet air from a higher region, several miles above the earth;
and, the current once established, the weight of the colder
atmosphere kept up the movement, and the air was then distributed by
pipes to every part of the hotel. He told me also that the hospitals
of the city were supplied in the same manner; and the result had
been, be said, to diminish the mortality of the sick one-half; for
the air so brought to them was perfectly free from bacteria and full
of all life-giving properties. A company had been organized to supply
the houses of the rich with his cold, pure air for so much a thousand
feet, as long ago illuminating gas was furnished.

I could not help but think that there was need that some man should
open connection with the upper regions of God's charity, and bring
down the pure beneficent spirit of brotherly love to this afflicted
earth, that it might spread through all the tainted hospitals of
corruption for the healing of the hearts and souls of the people.

This attendant, a sort of upper-servant, I suppose, was quite
courteous and polite, and, seeing that I was a stranger, he proceeded
to tell me that the whole city was warmed with hot water, drawn from
the profound depths of the earth, and distributed as drinking water
was distributed a century ago, in pipes, to all the houses, for a
fixed and very reasonable charge. This heat-supply is so uniform and
so cheap that it has quite driven out all the old forms of
fuel--wood, coal, natural gas, etc.

And then he told me something which shocked me greatly. You know that
according to our old-fashioned ideas it is unjustifiable for any
person to take his own life, and thus rush into the presence of his