Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 12, 1927 — page 99: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE RETURN OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, “Tn seventeen ninety-nine. You have since been honored as the Father of your country.” The young man slowly shook his head. His eyes dropped to the microphone. His hand reached out and he touched it gingerly with the tips of his fingers. ‘You say that this silver thing is carry- ing the words that we are saying to fifty million people?” “Yes, Mr. Washington.” “Tt is beyond my comprehension. Let me ask you some questions, sir. Have these United States of America prospered since my death?” “The United States has become the richest, most powerful nation in the world.” “Richer and more powerful than Eng- land?” “Yes, Mr. Washington.” “Than Spain or France?” “Than any nation.” Washington again slowly shook his head. And Larry recalled, from his recent prodig- ious reading, that Washington had always been grave, just short of being sad; that he seldom shook hands or gossiped; that he would listen to jokes with a straight face; that he so seldom smiled that once, when he had laughed in a theater, the newspapers were prompt to record it. “ The population of the United States,” Larry enlightened him, “is now estimated at one hundred and twenty-five millions.” Washington’s eyes grew round again, and again he wearily shook his head. “My dear boy, the population of New York City alone—”’ Aunt Sally impulsively began, when Larry’s angry gesture silenced her. She hastened to Polly and whispered into her ear, and Polly, who had been dividing her attention between Washington and Larry, suddenly bit her lower lip. Larry, with Washington’s fascinated at- tention, went on expounding the glories of the United States of America. He told him pithily of her successful wars, her indus- trial development, he graphically described to his absorbed auditor the invention and perfection of the steamboat, the railroad and the telegraph. He spoke in a clear, incisive voice as a O73 man well might who realized that fifty mil- lion listeners were paying the closest heed to his every syllable. And he was glad that this opportunity had been given to him. In the laboratory, the situation had all but escaped from his control when the reporters began asking ridiculous questions. He was proud to be in this position, introducing to the American people their greatest hero; doing it with dignity, with intelligence, keeping this stern, admirable young man on the pedestal where he belonged. How easily might Grenville Brown or some of those others have reduced him again and again to angry bewilderment; perhaps made of him a laughing stock! Repeatedly Washington commented: “ It is beyond my comprehension.” Or, “I do not understand.” Once he said: ‘‘ Modern America, as you have drawn it before my eyes, is nothing to me but chaos. “This au-to-mo-bile ’—he pronounced the word slowly, hesitantly —“ I cannot pic- ture it at all, darting over the roads faster than the fastest horse can run. Or this machine that flies into the air. Or the other machine that goes so swiftly along two rails. Or vessels that cross the Atlantic in six days without sails. How were these miracles achieved?”’ “By years of patient endeavor,” Larry replied. “In each case, the man who spon- sored it was laughed at by the public. In each case, it was a crude experiment. The inventive genius and the patience of man has perfected each one until, now, our civilization is built upon them; would col- lapse without them.” ‘I cannot comprehend,”’ Washington re- peated. “This instrument I am touching now,” Larry went on, “is called a telephone. It came into existence perhaps sixty years ago. There are millions of telephones in constant daily use. The voice, when you speak into this small rubber mouthpiece, is carried over wires to the man you wish to converse with. : “Many American business deals are transacted over the telephone. America is a vast network of wires, connecting all Gomichbooks