Fifty Years Hence:
OR
WHAT MAY BE IN 1943:
A Prophecy supposed to be based on Scientific
Deductions by an Improved
Graphical Method.
BY
ROBERT GRIMSHAW.
NEW YORK
PRACTICAL PUBLISHING CO.
21 Park Row
1892
Copyright, 1892,
BY
ROBERT GRIMSHAW.
To
MY CHILDREN,
Who may perchance, fifty years hence, compare these
prophecies with what has then come about.
FIFTY YEARS HENCE.
FIFTY YEARS HENCE.
That portion of the public which honors me byperusing what I have been fortunate enough tolearn concerning the future of the inhabitants ofthis planet, half a century from this Christmasof 1892, will naturally, as my name is unknownto either fame or science, wonder on whatgrounds I presume on so bold an undertaking;perhaps what manner of man I might be.
But when I positively disclaim any merit orvirtue as a prophet, and state that I am merelyby chance the medium by which a portion of theveil is torn from the future, it is enough that Idescribe myself, as referred to in sundry recitals,as Francis Ainsworth, of the City andCounty of New York. Perhaps I might add thatI am by choice an electrician, by birth a Pennsylvanian,in age twenty-one, and by no fault of[8]my own still unmarried. For some years I havebeen endeavoring to save enough to enable me tomarry my lifelong friend Estelle Morton, of Philadelphia;but as I have a family of small sistersto support out of my salary and what I can earnby extra work, the period of our engagement hasbeen prolonged beyond the time of even our leastsanguine calculations. Nearly all my eveningsare spent at home, within the sound of the JeffersonMarket clock; for I have chosen the NinthWard because it is even yet an American stronghold,because it is convenient to my place of business,and because it is better than it looks, whichis preferable to looking better than facts warrant.
Once a month, however, I am sure to be at themeeting of my Masonic lodge in the Temple, atTwenty-third Street; for I feel that there I am incontact with both the living present and thedead past; and the Mystic Tie seems well worthcritical study.
One evening as I was about to enter the sideportal on