Caesars Column | Page 6

far beyond that point, in
full possession of all their faculties.
I glanced around the great dining-room and inspected my neighbors. They all carried the

appearance of wealth; they were quiet, decorous and courteous. But I could not help
noticing that the women, young and old, were much alike in some particulars, as if some
general causes had molded them into the same form. Their brows were all fine--broad,
square, and deep from the ear forward; and their jaws also were firmly developed, square
like a soldier's; while the profiles were classic in their regularity, and marked by great
firmness. The most peculiar feature was their eyes. They had none of that soft, gentle,
benevolent look which so adorns the expression of my dear mother and other good
women whom we know. On the contrary, their looks were bold, penetrating, immodest, if
I may so express it, almost to fierceness: they challenged you; they invited you; they held
intercourse with your soul.
The chief features in the expression of the men were incredulity, unbelief, cunning,
observation, heartlessness. I did not see a good face in the whole room: powerful faces
there were, I grant you; high noses, resolute mouths, fine brows; all the marks of
shrewdness and energy; a forcible and capable race; but that was all. I did not see one,
my dear brother of whom I could say, "That man would sacrifice himself for another; that
man loves his fellow man."
I could not but think how universal and irresistible must have been the influences of the
age that could mold all these Men and women into the same soulless likeness. I pitied
them. I pitied mankind, caught in the grip of such wide-spreading tendencies. I said to
myself: "Where is it all to end? What are we to expect of a race without heart or honor?
What may we look for when the powers of the highest civilization supplement the
instincts of tigers and wolves? Can the brain of man flourish when the heart is dead?"
I rose and left the room.
I had observed that the air of the hotel was sweeter, purer and cooler than that of the
streets outside. I asked one of the attendants for an explanation. He took me out to where
we could command a view of the whole building, and showed me that a great canvas pipe
rose high above the hotel, and, tracing it upwards, far as the eye could reach, he pointed
out a balloon, anchored by cables, so high up as to be dwarfed to a mere speck against the
face of the blue sky. He told me that the great pipe was double; that through one division
rose the hot, exhausted air of the hotel, and that the 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 Maker before he is called. We are of the opinion of Hamlet
that God has "fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter." Would you believe it, my