The Mind Motor [pp. 527-535]

THE MIND MOTOR.
courts in their favor. By some it is
averred that the corporation, refusing Du
Bois's appeals for the privilege of redemption, Shylock-like, insisted upon the letter of the law and their pound of flesh.
On the other hand there is strong reason
for believing that the scientist, so overjoy)ed at his triumph as to be entirely oblivioLus to the financial possibilities of his
invention, submitted willingly to his new
masters. However this may have been,
the events that we are about to relate
are very generally accepted and fairly
well authenticated.
The Mammoth Loan & Trust Company was, at that time, probably the
wealthiest and most powerful corporation
in the United States. In addition to possessing the larger part of the banking
capital of the Pacific coast, they practically owned three transcontinental railroad lines with their tributary feeders,
controlled the street car systems of San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, and many smaller cities,
and operated numerous steamship lines
plying from California to all parts of the
world. They were estimated to employ
in these various enterprises, something
over five hundred thousand men.'
From Du Bois himself we learn that,
having frankly shown and explained to
his new masters the wonders of his invention, he was at once installed in a
mansion near the city of San Francisco,
where he was given every luxury and
accorded every consideration that he
could ask, except freedom. He was placed
upon parole not to attempt to leave the
grounds surrounding his residence, nor to
communicate his secret to outside parties. A perfectly appointed workshop
and laboratory was fitted up for his use,
and with a trained and carefully guarded
'This gigantic corporation remained in existence until the
year x982, when it was ruined by the invention and general
adoption as a means of transportation, of the Keller Flying
Machine.
corps of assistants he was set to work, or
rather requested to begin the manufacture of the mind motors. His captivity
was not irksome and he appears to have
been so wrapped up in his work and so
overjoyed at the prospect of seeing his
invention tried and proved on a large
scale before the eyes of the world, as to
be oblivious of all else.
The tree soon began to bear fruit. Two
months after his incarceration, suddenly
and without warning or explanation, three
fourths of the employees of the railroad
systems owned by the Mammoth Loan
& Trust Company were discharged, and
all trains operated by means of the mind
motors. These were insignificant-looking
little iron boxes, which could be placed indiscriminately on any part of a train, but
which would cause any reasonable rate
of speed to be attained by means of a
simple lever. No more skill was required
in their manipulation than in the handling of an electric motor, and the company rather gave the preference to men
of small mental capacity, in order to discourage anything like investigation.
We will not dwell upon the sensation
that this action caused throughout the
civilized world. A great national gasp of
astonishment went up to heaven. Men
were simply dumbfounded! No explanation of the mystery could be had: motors
that were stolen by the curious, when
broken open revealed nothing but a very
simple arrangement of glass tubes filled
with a colorless liquid, and for once the
press was unable to offer any reasonable
explanation and could only vent its helpless astonishment in the long rows of
huge black exclamation marks, that covered the sheets of the daily papers.
In another week similar action followed
in the street car systems, upon which
only motormen, conductors, and trackmen, were retained, and the electrical
and cable forces discharged. The steam
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