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17 - John Joness Dollar · Astounding Sci-Fi Audiobook Library

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Speaker 1: John Jones's Dollar by Harry Stephen Keeler. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Brian Dirks. John Jones's Dollar by Harry Stephen Keeler.
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Speaker 1: Take aboard with sixty four squares on it. Put a
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Speaker 1: grain of wheat on the first square, two on second,
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Speaker 1: four on the third. Keep doubling in this manner, and
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Speaker 1: you will find that there isn't enough wheat in the
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Speaker 1: world to fill the sixty fourth square. It can be
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Speaker 1: the same with compound interest. On the two hundred first
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Speaker 1: day of the year thirty two twenty one, A. D.
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Speaker 1: The professor of History at the University of Tara, seated
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Speaker 1: himself in front of the visiphone and prepared to deliver
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Speaker 1: the daily lecture to his class, the members of which
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Speaker 1: resided in different portions of the earth. The instrument before
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Speaker 1: which he seated himself was very like a great window sash.
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Speaker 1: On account of the fact that there were three or
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Speaker 1: four hundred frosted glass squares visible in a space at
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Speaker 1: the center not occupied by any of these glass squares
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Speaker 1: was a dark oblong area and a ledge holding a
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Speaker 1: piece of chalk, and above the area was a huge
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Speaker 1: brass cylinder. Toward this brass cylinder, the professor would soon
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Speaker 1: direct his subsequent remarks in order to assure himself that
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Speaker 1: it was time to press the button which would notify
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Speaker 1: the members of the class in history to approach their
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Speaker 1: local visiphones. The professor withdrew from his vest pocket a
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Speaker 1: small contrivance, which he held to his ear. Upon moving
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Speaker 1: a tiny switch attached to the instrument, a metallic voice,
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Speaker 1: seeming to come from somewhere in space, repeated mechanically fifteen
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Speaker 1: o'clock and one minute, fifteen o'clock and one minute, fifteen
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Speaker 1: o'clock and one minute. Quickly, the professor replaced the instrument
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Speaker 1: in his vest pocket and pressed a button at the
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Speaker 1: side of the visophone. As though in answer to the summons,
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Speaker 1: the frosted squares began one by one to show the
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Speaker 1: faces and shoulders of a peculiar type of young men,
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Speaker 1: young men with great bulging foreheads, bald, toothless, and wearing
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Speaker 1: immense horned spectacles. One square, however, still remained empty. On
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Speaker 1: noticing this, a look of irritation passed over the professor's countenance,
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Speaker 1: But seeing that every other glass square but this one
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Speaker 1: was filled up, he commenced to talk. I am pleased, gentlemen,
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Speaker 1: to see you all posted at your local visophones. This
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Speaker 1: after I have prepared my lecture today upon a subject
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Speaker 1: which is perhaps of more economic interest than historical. Unlike
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Speaker 1: the previous lectures, my talk will not confine itself to
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Speaker 1: the happenings of a few years, but will gradually embrace
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Speaker 1: the course of ten centuries, the ten centuries, in fact,
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Speaker 1: which terminated three hundred years before the present date. My
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Speaker 1: lecture will be an exposition of the effects of the
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Speaker 1: John Jones dollar, originally deposited in the dawn of civilization, or,
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Speaker 1: to be more precise, in the year of nineteen twenty one,
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Speaker 1: just thirteen hundred years ago this John jon At this
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Speaker 1: point in the Professor's lecture, the frosted glass square, which
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Speaker 1: hitherto had shown no image, now filled up. Sternly, he
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Speaker 1: gazed at the head and shoulders that had just appeared
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Speaker 1: d two six two h seven two four seven six mail,
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Speaker 1: you are late to class again. What excuse have you
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Speaker 1: to offer today? From the hollow cylinder emanated a shrill voice,
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Speaker 1: while the lips of the picture on the glass square
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Speaker 1: moved in unison with the words, Professor, you will perceive,
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Speaker 1: by consulting your class book, that I have recently taken
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Speaker 1: up my residence near the North Pole. For some reason,
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Speaker 1: wireless communication between the Central Energy Station in all points
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Speaker 1: north of eighty nine degrees was cut off a while ago,
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Speaker 1: on account of which fact I could not appear in
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Speaker 1: the visophone. Hence enough, sir, roared the professor, always ready
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Speaker 1: with an excuse B two six two h seven two
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Speaker 1: four seven six mail, I shall immediately investigate your tail.
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Speaker 1: From his coat pocket, the professor withdrew an instrument, which,
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Speaker 1: although supplied with an earpiece and a mouthpiece, had no
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Speaker 1: wires whatever attached. Raising it to his lips, he spoke, Hello,
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Speaker 1: Central Energy Station. Please a pause ensued, Central Energy Station.
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Speaker 1: This is the professor of History at the University of
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Speaker 1: Terra speaking. One of my students informs me that the
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Speaker 1: North Pole region was out of communication with the visiphone
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Speaker 1: system this morning. Is that statement true, I would A voice,
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Speaker 1: apparently from nowhere spoken to the Professor's ear Quite true, Professor,
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Speaker 1: A train of our ether waves accidentally fell into parallelism
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Speaker 1: with a train of waves from the Venus substation. By
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Speaker 1: the most peculiar mischance, the two trains happened to be
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Speaker 1: displaced with reference to each other one half of a wavelength,
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Speaker 1: with the unfortunate result that the negative points of one
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Speaker 1: coincided with the positive points of maximum amplitude of the other. Hence,
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Speaker 1: the two wave trains nullvited each other, and communication ceased
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Speaker 1: for one hundred eight five seconds until the Earth had
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Speaker 1: revolved far enough to throw them out of parallelism. Ah,
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Speaker 1: thank you, replied the professor. He dropped his instrument into
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Speaker 1: his coat pocket and gazed in the direction of the
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Speaker 1: glass square whose image had so aroused his ire. I
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Speaker 1: apologize B two six two h sevent two four seven
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Speaker 1: six mail for my suspicions as to your veracity, but
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Speaker 1: I hadn't mind several former experiences. He shook a warning forefinger.
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Speaker 1: I will now resume my talk. A moment ago, gentlemen,
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Speaker 1: I mentioned the John Jones dollar. Some of you, who
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Speaker 1: have just enrolled with the class will undoubtedly say to yourselves,
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Speaker 1: what is it, John Jones? What is a dollar? In
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Speaker 1: the early days before the present scientific registration of human
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Speaker 1: beings was instituted by the National Eugenics Society. Man went
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Speaker 1: around under a crude, multi reduplicative system of nomenclature. Under
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Speaker 1: this system there were actually more John Joneses than there
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Speaker 1: are calories in a British thermal unit. But there was
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Speaker 1: one John Jones in particular, living in the twentieth century,
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Speaker 1: to whom I shall refer in my lecture. Not much
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Speaker 1: is known of his personal life, except that he was
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Speaker 1: an ardent socialist, a better enemy in fact, of the
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Speaker 1: private ownership of wealth. Now, as to the dollar, at
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Speaker 1: this day, when the psychoerg, a combination of the psych
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Speaker 1: the unit of esthetic satisfaction in the ERG, the unit
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Speaker 1: of mechanical energy, is recognized as the true unit of value,
7:39
Speaker 1: it seems difficult to believe that in the twentieth century,
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Speaker 1: and for more than ten centuries thereafter, the dollar a
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Speaker 1: metallic circular disc, was being passed from hand to hand
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Speaker 1: in exchange for the essentials of life. But nevertheless such
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Speaker 1: was the case. Man exchanged his mental or physical energy
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Speaker 1: for these dolls. He then re exchanged the dollars for sustenance, raiment, pleasure,
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Speaker 1: and operations for the removal of the vermiform Appendix. A
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Speaker 1: great many individuals, however, deposited their dollars in a stronghold
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Speaker 1: called a bank. These banks invested the dollars in loans
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Speaker 1: in commercial enterprises, with the result that every time the
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Speaker 1: Earth traversed the solar ecliptic, the banks compelled each borrower
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Speaker 1: to repay or to acknowledge his due the original loan
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Speaker 1: plus six one hundredths of that loan into the depositor.
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Speaker 1: The banks paid three to one hundreds of the deposited
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Speaker 1: dollars for the use of the discs. This was known
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Speaker 1: as three percent or bank interest. Now, the safety of
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Speaker 1: dollars when deposited in banks was not absolutely assured to
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Speaker 1: the depositor. At times the custodians of these dollars were
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Speaker 1: wont to appropriate them and proceed to portions of the
9:03
Speaker 1: Earth sparsely inhabited and accessible with difficulty, And at other
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Speaker 1: times nomadic groups known as yeggmen visited the banks, opened
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Speaker 1: the vaults by force, and departed, carrying with them the contents.
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Speaker 1: But to return to our subject. In the year nineteen
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Speaker 1: twenty one, one of these numerous John Joneses performed an
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Speaker 1: apparently inconsequential action which caused the name of John Jones
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Speaker 1: to go down in history. What did he do? He
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Speaker 1: proceeded to one of these banks, known at that time
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Speaker 1: as the First National Bank of Chicago, and deposited there
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Speaker 1: one of these discs, a silver dollar to the credit
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Speaker 1: of a certain individual. And this individual to whose credit
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Speaker 1: the dollar was deposited was no other person than the
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Speaker 1: fortieth descendant of John Jones, who stipulated in paper which
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Speaker 1: was placed in the files of the bank, that the
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Speaker 1: descendancy was to take take place along the oldish child
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Speaker 1: of each of the generations which would constitute his posterity.
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Speaker 1: The bank accepted the dollar under that understanding, together with
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Speaker 1: another condition imposed by this John Jones, namely that the
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Speaker 1: interest was to be compounded annually. That meant that at
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Speaker 1: the close of each year, the bank was to credit
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Speaker 1: the account of John Jones's fortieth descendant with three one
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Speaker 1: hundredths of the account as it stood at the beginning
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Speaker 1: of the year. History tells us little more concerning this
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Speaker 1: John Jones, only that he died in the year nineteen
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Speaker 1: thirty one or ten years afterward, leaving several children. Now,
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Speaker 1: you gentlemen who are taking mathematics under Professor L one
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Speaker 1: seven seven two four two one Mail of the University
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Speaker 1: of Mars. Will remember that where any number such as X,
10:53
Speaker 1: in passing through a progressive cycle of change grows at
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Speaker 1: the end of that cycle by a proportion P, then
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Speaker 1: the value of the original X after n cycles becomes
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Speaker 1: x times the set one plus p risen to the
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Speaker 1: nth power. Obviously, in this case x equaled one dollar,
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Speaker 1: p equaled three to one hundreds, and n will depend
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Speaker 1: upon any number of years which we care to consider
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Speaker 1: following the date of deposit. By simple calculation, those of
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Speaker 1: you who are today mentally alert can check up the
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Speaker 1: results that I shall set forth in my lecture. At
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Speaker 1: the time that John Jones died, the amount in the
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Speaker 1: First National Bank of Chicago, to the credit of John
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Speaker 1: Jones the fortieth was as follows. The Professor seized the
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Speaker 1: chalk and wrote rapidly upon the oblong space, nineteen thirty
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Speaker 1: one ten years elapsed one dollar thirty four cents. The
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Speaker 1: peculiar sinuous hieroglyphic, he explained, is an idiograph representing the dollar. Well, gentlemen,
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Speaker 1: time went on as time will until one hundred years
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Speaker 1: had passed by the First National Bank still existed in
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Speaker 1: the locality. Chicago had become the largest center of population
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Speaker 1: upon the earth. Through the investments which had taken place
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Speaker 1: in the yearly compounding of interest, the status of John
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Speaker 1: Jones's deposit was now as follows. He wrote, two thousand,
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Speaker 1: twenty one, one hundred years elapsed nineteen dollars ten cents.
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Speaker 1: In the following century, many minor changes, of course, took
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Speaker 1: place in the man's mode of living, but the so
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Speaker 1: called socialists still agitated widely for the cessation of private
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Speaker 1: ownership of wealth. The first National Bank still accepted dollars
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Speaker 1: for safe keeping, and the John Jones dollars still continued
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Speaker 1: to grow. With about thirty four generations yet to come.
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Speaker 1: The account now stood twenty one twenty one, two hundred
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Speaker 1: years elapsed three hundred sixty four dollars, and by the
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Speaker 1: end of the succeeding hundred years it had grown to
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Speaker 1: what constituted an appreciable bit of exchange value in those days.
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Speaker 1: Thus twenty two twenty one, three hundred years, six thousand,
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Speaker 1: nine hundred twenty dollars now The century which followed contains
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Speaker 1: an important date. The date I am referring to is
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Speaker 1: the year twenty two ninety nine a d or the
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Speaker 1: year in which every human being born upon the globe
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Speaker 1: was registered under a numerical name at the Central Bureau
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Speaker 1: of the National Eugenic Society. In our future lessons, which
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Speaker 1: will treat with that period of detail, I shall ask
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Speaker 1: you to memorize that date. The socialists still agitated fruitlessly,
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Speaker 1: But the First National Bank of Chicago was now the
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Speaker 1: first international bank of the Earth. And how great had
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Speaker 1: John Jones's dollar grown? Let us examine the account both
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Speaker 1: on that important historical date and also at the close
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Speaker 1: of the four hundredth years since it was deposited. Look
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Speaker 1: twenty two ninety nine, three hundred seventy eight years sixty
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Speaker 1: eight thousand, nine hundred dollars, twenty three twenty one, four
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Speaker 1: hundred years, one hundred thirty two thousand dollars. But gentlemen,
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Speaker 1: it had not reached the point where it could be
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Speaker 1: termed and unusually a large accumulation of wealth. For larger
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Speaker 1: accumulations existed upon the earth. A descendant of a man
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Speaker 1: once known as John D. Rockefeller possessed an accumulation of
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Speaker 1: great size, but which, as a matter of fact, was
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Speaker 1: rapidly dwindling. As it passed from generation to generation. So
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Speaker 1: let us travel ahead another one hundred years. During this time,
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Speaker 1: as we learned from our historical and political archives, the
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Speaker 1: socialists began to die out, since they at last realized
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Speaker 1: the utter futility of combating the balance of power. The account,
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Speaker 1: though now stood twenty four twenty one, five hundred years,
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Speaker 1: two million, five hundred, twenty thousand dollars. It is hardly
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Speaker 1: necessary for me to make any comment. Those of you
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Speaker 1: who are most astute, and others of you who flunked
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Speaker 1: my course before and are now taking it the second time,
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Speaker 1: of course, know what is coming. During the age in
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Speaker 1: which this John Jones lived, there lived also a man,
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Speaker 1: a so called scientist called Mechnikov. We know from a
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Speaker 1: study of our vast collection of Egyptian papyri and Carnegie
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Speaker 1: Library books that this Mechnikov promulgated the theory that old age,
15:34
Speaker 1: or rather sinility, was caused by colon Basilis. This fact
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Speaker 1: was later verified. But while he was correct in the
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Speaker 1: ideology of sinility, he was crudely primeval in the therapeutics of it.
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Speaker 1: He proposed gentlemen to combat and kill this Basilis by
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Speaker 1: utilizing the fermented lacteal fluid from a now extinct animal
15:55
Speaker 1: called the cow, models of which you can see at
15:58
Speaker 1: any time at the Solaris Museum. A chorus of shrill
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Speaker 1: piping laughter emanated from the brass cylinder. The professor waited
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Speaker 1: until the merriment had subsided, and then continued, I beg
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Speaker 1: of you, gentlemen, do not smile. This was merely one
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Speaker 1: of the many similar quaint superstitions existing in that age.
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Speaker 1: But a real scientist, Professor K one two two B
16:21
Speaker 1: six two four one one male, again attacked a problem
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Speaker 1: in the twenty fifth century. Since the cow was now extinct,
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Speaker 1: he could not waste his valuable time experimenting with fermented
16:32
Speaker 1: cowlecteal fluid. He discovered the old V rays of radium,
16:37
Speaker 1: The rays which euphysicists will remember are not deflected by
16:41
Speaker 1: a magnetic field, were really composed of two sets of rays,
16:45
Speaker 1: which he termed the G rays and the E rays.
16:49
Speaker 1: These last name rays, only, when isolated, completely devitalized all
16:54
Speaker 1: coal and basilliae which lay in their path, without in
16:57
Speaker 1: the least affecting the integrity of any interposed organic cells.
17:02
Speaker 1: The great result, as many of you already know, was
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Speaker 1: that the life of man was extended to nearly two
17:08
Speaker 1: hundred years. That I stayed unequivocally was a great century
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Speaker 1: for the human race. But I spoke of another happening,
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Speaker 1: one perhaps of more interest than importance. I referred to
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Speaker 1: the bank account of John Jones the fortieth It gentlemen
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Speaker 1: had grown to such a prodigious sum that a special
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Speaker 1: bank and board of directors had to be created in
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Speaker 1: order to care for and reinvest it. By scanning the
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Speaker 1: following notation, you will perceive the truth of my statement.
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Speaker 1: Twenty five twenty one, six hundred years forty seven million,
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Speaker 1: nine hundred thousand dollars. By the year twenty six, twenty
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Speaker 1: one eighty two, events of stupendous importance took place. There
17:52
Speaker 1: is scarcely a man in this class who has not
17:55
Speaker 1: heard of how Professor P two two two D two
17:58
Speaker 1: nine three three three Male accidentally stumbled upon the scientific
18:02
Speaker 1: fact that the effect of gravity is reversed upon any
18:06
Speaker 1: body which vibrates perpendicularly to the plane of the ecliptic
18:10
Speaker 1: with a frequency which is an even multiple of the
18:13
Speaker 1: logarithm of two of the Naperian base e. At once,
18:18
Speaker 1: special vibrating cars were constructed which carried mankind to all planets.
18:23
Speaker 1: That discovery of Professor P two two two D two
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Speaker 1: nine three three three Male did nothing less than open
18:29
Speaker 1: up seven new territories to our inhabitants, namely Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
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Speaker 1: and Neptune. In the great land rush that ensued, thousands
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Speaker 1: who were previously poor became rich but gentlemen. Land, which
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Speaker 1: so far had been constituted one of the main sources
18:49
Speaker 1: of wealth, was shortly to become valuable for individual golf
18:53
Speaker 1: links only as it is today, on account of another
18:56
Speaker 1: scientific discovery. The second discovery was, in reality date not
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Speaker 1: a discovery, but the perfection of a chemical process, the
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Speaker 1: principles of which had been known for many centuries. I
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Speaker 1: am alluding to the construction of the vast reducing factories,
19:11
Speaker 1: one upon each planet, to which the bodies of all
19:14
Speaker 1: persons who have died on their respective planets are at
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Speaker 1: once shipped by aerial express Since this process is used today,
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Speaker 1: all of you understand the methods employed. How each body
19:24
Speaker 1: is reduced by heat to its component constituents hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, phosphors,
19:31
Speaker 1: and so forth. How these separated constituents are stored in
19:34
Speaker 1: special reservoirs together with the components from thousands of other corpses.
19:39
Speaker 1: How these elements are then synthetically combined into food tablets
19:43
Speaker 1: for those of us who are yet alive, thus completing
19:47
Speaker 1: an endless chain from the dead to the living. Naturally,
19:50
Speaker 1: then agriculture and stock raising ceased. Since the food problem
19:55
Speaker 1: with which man had coped from time immemorial was solved.
20:00
Speaker 1: Two direct results were first that land lost the inflated
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Speaker 1: values it had possessed when it was necessary for tillage,
20:07
Speaker 1: and second, that men were at last given enough leisure
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Speaker 1: to enter the fields of science and art. And as
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Speaker 1: to the John Jones Dollar, which now embraced countless industries
20:19
Speaker 1: and vast territory on the Earth, it stood in value
20:23
Speaker 1: twenty six twenty one, seven hundred years, nine hundred twelve
20:28
Speaker 1: million dollars. In truth, gentlemen, it now constituted the largest
20:33
Speaker 1: private fortune on the terrestrial globe. And in that year
20:37
Speaker 1: twenty six twenty one a D. There were thirteen generations
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Speaker 1: yet to come before John Jones. The fortieth would arrive
20:44
Speaker 1: to continue. In the year twenty seven to twenty one
20:47
Speaker 1: a D. An important political battle was concluded in the
20:51
Speaker 1: Solar System sent and House of Representatives. I am referring
20:55
Speaker 1: to the great controversy as to whether the Earth's moon
20:58
Speaker 1: was a sufficient menace to interplanetary navigation to warrant its removal.
21:03
Speaker 1: The outcome of the wrangle was that the question was
21:05
Speaker 1: decided in the affirmative consequently, But I beg your pardon,
21:09
Speaker 1: young men, I occasionally lose sight of the fact that
21:12
Speaker 1: you are not so well informed upon historical matters as myself.
21:17
Speaker 1: Here I am talking to you about the Moon, totally
21:20
Speaker 1: forgetful that many of you are puzzled as to my meaning.
21:24
Speaker 1: I advise all of you who have not yet attended
21:27
Speaker 1: the Solaris Museum on Jupiter to take a trip there
21:30
Speaker 1: some Sunday afternoon. The Interplanetary Suburban Line runs trains every
21:34
Speaker 1: half hour on that day. You will find there a
21:37
Speaker 1: complete working model of the old satellite of the Earth, which,
21:41
Speaker 1: before it was destroyed, furnished this planet light at night
21:45
Speaker 1: through the crude medium of reflection. On account of this
21:48
Speaker 1: decision as to the inadvisability of allowing the Moon to
21:52
Speaker 1: remain where it was, engineers commenced its removal in the
21:55
Speaker 1: year twenty seven twenty one. Piece by piece, it was
21:59
Speaker 1: chipped away and brought to the Earth in interplanetary freight cars.
22:03
Speaker 1: These pieces were then propelled by zotolite explosive in the
22:06
Speaker 1: direction of the Milky Way with a velocity of eleven thousand,
22:10
Speaker 1: two hundred seventeen meters per second. This velocity, of course,
22:14
Speaker 1: gave each departing fragment exactly the amount of kinetic energy
22:17
Speaker 1: it required to enable it to overcome the backward pull
22:21
Speaker 1: of the Earth from here to infinity. I dare say
22:24
Speaker 1: those moon hunks are going yet. At the start of
22:27
Speaker 1: the removal of the Moon in twenty seven twenty one
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Speaker 1: a d. The accumulated wealth of John Jones the fortieth
22:33
Speaker 1: stood twenty seven twenty one eight hundred years seventeen billion,
22:38
Speaker 1: four hundred million dollars. Of course, with such a colossal
22:43
Speaker 1: sum at their command, the directors of the fund had
22:46
Speaker 1: made extensive investments on Mars and Venus. By the end
22:50
Speaker 1: of the twenty eighth century or the year twenty eight
22:53
Speaker 1: o seven a d. The Moon had been completely hacked
22:56
Speaker 1: away and sent piecemeal into space, the job having required
23:01
Speaker 1: eighty six years. I give herewith the result of John
23:05
Speaker 1: Jones's dollar both at the date when the moon was
23:08
Speaker 1: completely removed, and also at the close of the nine
23:12
Speaker 1: hundredth year after its deposit twenty eight O seven eight
23:17
Speaker 1: hundred eighty six years two hundred nineteen billion dollars twenty
23:22
Speaker 1: eight twenty one, nine hundred years, three hundred thirty two
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Speaker 1: billion dollars. The meaning of those figures, gentlemen, as stated
23:31
Speaker 1: in simple language, was that the John Jones Dollar now
23:34
Speaker 1: comprised practically all the wealth on Earth, Mars, and Venus,
23:39
Speaker 1: with the exception of one university site on each planet,
23:42
Speaker 1: which was of course school property. And now I will
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Speaker 1: ask you to advance with me to the year twenty
23:48
Speaker 1: nine six a d. In this year, the directors of
23:53
Speaker 1: the John Jones Fund awoke to the fact that they
23:55
Speaker 1: were in a dreadful predicament. According to the agreement under
23:59
Speaker 1: which John Jones deposited his dollar away back in the
24:02
Speaker 1: year nineteen twenty one, interest was to be compounded annually
24:06
Speaker 1: three percent. In the year twenty nine hundred a D.
24:09
Speaker 1: The thirty ninth generation of John Jones was alive, being
24:13
Speaker 1: represented by a gentleman named J. Six sixty four M
24:16
Speaker 1: four seven two one male who was thirty years of
24:19
Speaker 1: age and engaged to be married to a young lady
24:22
Speaker 1: named T two four six a M four to two
24:23
Speaker 1: sixty five two female. Doubtless you will ask what was
24:27
Speaker 1: the predicament in which the directors found themselves. Simply, this
24:31
Speaker 1: careful appraisement of the wealth on Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus,
24:37
Speaker 1: and Mercury, and likewise Earth, together with an accurate calculation
24:41
Speaker 1: of the remaining heat in the Sun, and an appraisement
24:44
Speaker 1: of that heat at a very decent valuation per calorie,
24:48
Speaker 1: demonstrated that the total wealth of the solar system amounted
24:52
Speaker 1: to six trillion, three hundred nine billion, five hundred twenty
24:56
Speaker 1: five million, two hundred forty one thousand, three hundred sixty
24:59
Speaker 1: two dollars and fifteen cents. But unfortunately, a simple computation
25:05
Speaker 1: showed that if mister J sixty sixty four m four
25:08
Speaker 1: to two seven two one male married missed T two
25:11
Speaker 1: four six M four two sixty five two female and
25:14
Speaker 1: was blessed by a child by the year twenty nine
25:17
Speaker 1: twenty one, which year marked the thousandth year since the
25:21
Speaker 1: deposit of the John Jones Dollar, then in that year
25:24
Speaker 1: there would be due the child the following amount twenty
25:29
Speaker 1: nine twenty one one thousand years, six trillion, three hundred
25:34
Speaker 1: ten billion dollars. It simply showed, beyond all possibility of
25:38
Speaker 1: argument that by twenty nine twenty one a d we
25:42
Speaker 1: would be four hundred seventy four million, seven hundred fifty
25:45
Speaker 1: eight thousand, six hundred thirty seven dollars and eighty five
25:48
Speaker 1: cents shy that we would be unable to meet the
25:51
Speaker 1: debt to John Jones the fortieth I tell you, gentlemen,
25:55
Speaker 1: the Board of Directors was frantic. Such wild suggestions were
25:58
Speaker 1: put forth as the sending of an expeditionary force to
26:01
Speaker 1: the nearest star in order to capture some other solar
26:04
Speaker 1: system and thus obtain more territory to make up the deficit.
26:08
Speaker 1: But that project was impossible on account of the number
26:11
Speaker 1: of years that it would have required. Visions of immense
26:14
Speaker 1: lawsuits disturbed the slumber of those unfortunate individuals who formed
26:18
Speaker 1: the John Jones Dollar Directorship. But on the brink of
26:22
Speaker 1: one of the biggest civil actions the courts had ever known,
26:26
Speaker 1: something occurred that altered everything. The professor again withdrew the
26:30
Speaker 1: tiny instrument from his vest pocket, held it to his
26:33
Speaker 1: ear and adjusted the switch. A metallic voice rasped fifteen
26:37
Speaker 1: o'clock and fifty two minutes fifteen o'clock and fifty two
26:41
Speaker 1: minutes fifty He replaced the instrument and went on with
26:44
Speaker 1: his talk. I must hasten to the conclusion of my lecture, gentlemen,
26:49
Speaker 1: as I have an engagement with Professor C one two
26:52
Speaker 1: two B two four nine nine nine mail of the
26:54
Speaker 1: University of Saturn at sixteen o'clock. Now, let me see.
26:58
Speaker 1: I was discussing the big civil action that was hanging
27:01
Speaker 1: over the heads of the John Jones Dollar Directors. While
27:04
Speaker 1: this mister J six six four M four two seven
27:07
Speaker 1: two one male, the thirty ninth descendant of the original
27:10
Speaker 1: John Jones, had a lover's quarrel with Miss T two
27:13
Speaker 1: four six M four two sixty five two female, which
27:16
Speaker 1: immediately destroyed the probability of their marriage. Neither gave in
27:20
Speaker 1: to the other, neither ever married, And when mister J
27:24
Speaker 1: sixty six four M four two seven two one male
27:26
Speaker 1: died in twenty nine forty six eighty of a broken heart,
27:30
Speaker 1: as it was claimed he was single and childless. As
27:35
Speaker 1: a result, there was no one to turn the solar
27:37
Speaker 1: system over two. Immediately the interplanetary government stepped in and
27:41
Speaker 1: took possession of it. At that instant, of course, private
27:44
Speaker 1: property ceased in the twinkling of an eye. Almost we
27:48
Speaker 1: reached the true socialistic and democratic condition for which men
27:52
Speaker 1: had futally hoped throughout the ages. That is all today
27:56
Speaker 1: gentlemen classes dismissed one by one, the face faded from
28:00
Speaker 1: the visophone. For a moment the professor stood ruminating, A
28:05
Speaker 1: wonderful man, that old socialist John Jones the first, he
28:08
Speaker 1: said softly to himself, A far seeing man, a bright man,
28:12
Speaker 1: considering that he lived in such a dark air as
28:14
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. But how nearly his well contrived scheme
28:18
Speaker 1: went wrong. Suppose that fortieth descendant had been born, and
28:24
Speaker 1: of John Jones's dollar by Harry Stephen Keeler