The Awesome Book Chapter 2

When Mr. Smith to-day entered the sky-advertising department, he

found the operators sitting with folded arms at their motionless

projectors, and inquired as to the cause of their inaction. In

response, the man addressed simply pointed to the sky, which was of

a pure blue. "Yes," muttered Mr. Smith, "a cloudless sky! That's

too bad, but what's to be done? Shall we produce rain? That we

might do, but is it of any use? What we need is clouds, not rain.

Go," said he, addressing the head engineer, "go see Mr. Samuel

Mark, of the meteorological division of the scientific department,

and tell him for me to go to work in earnest on the question of

artificial clouds. It will never do for us to be always thus at the

mercy of cloudless skies!"

Mr. Smith's daily tour through the several departments of his

newspaper is now finished. Next, from the advertisement hall he

passes to the reception chamber, where the ambassadors accredited

to the American government are awaiting him, desirous of having a

word of counsel or advice from the all-powerful editor. A

discussion was going on when he entered. "Your Excellency will

pardon me," the French Ambassador was saying to the Russian, "but I

see nothing in the map of Europe that requires change. 'The North

for the Slavs?' Why, yes, of course; but the South for the Matins.

Our common frontier, the Rhine, it seems to me, serves very well.

Besides, my government, as you must know, will firmly oppose every

movement, not only against Paris, our capital, or our two great

prefectures, Rome and Madrid, but also against the kingdom of

Jerusalem, the dominion of Saint Peter, of which France means to be

the trusty defender."

"Well said!" exclaimed Mr. Smith. "How is it," he asked, turning

to the Russian ambassador, "that you Russians are not content with

your vast empire, the most extensive in the world, stretching from

the banks of the Rhine to the Celestial Mountains and the

Kara-Korum, whose shores are washed by the Frozen Ocean, the

Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean? Then, what is

the use of threats? Is war possible in view of modern

inventions-asphyxiating shells capable of being projected a

distance of 60 miles, an electric spark of 90 miles, that can at

one stroke annihilate a battalion; to say nothing of the plague,

the cholera, the yellow fever, that the belligerents might spread

among their antagonists mutually, and which would in a few days

destroy the greatest armies?"

Chapter 2: Roll the what?