Curtis High School - Curtis Annual Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Yes, things were very different, when I was a boy. Everything was very crude indeed, but we considered our civilization most ad- vanced. Do you see that building out there? That was once a tuber- culosis institution. When this terrible disease was wiped off the face of the earth, the building was used for other purposes. And that building over there along the lake? Is Fort Sheridan, or used to be. Before universal peace, we had soldiers, such as you often read about, stationed there. Now men do not have to waste their time, and the nation its money and energy in keeping up an army and navy. Why, just think! millions of dol- lars used to be spent upon battleships, such as those old relics in the lake near the fort, and they were seldom if ever put to their real use. Not that it would have been better if they had been. You young peo- ple cannot comprehend what a terrible thing war was. Here we are at the observatory, w'e'll get out here and see the new telescope which brings Mars within forty miles of the earth. By the way, uncle, did you read this morning, that last mes- sage from the inhabitants of that planet inviting us to visit them? Perhaps we shall be able to, in one or two years. They were now landed. Passing into the observatory, the pro- fessor allowed them to View Mars through his wonderful telescope. Elsie could see the mountains very plainly and many green meadows and silvery threads which she knew to be rivers. The cities were also distinctly seen and the buildings seemed large. Oh, if I only could see their houses plainer! They say they are very wonderful. Yes, said the professor, their immense palaces are of a new and indescribable architecture and style, very graceful and unlike any- thing in this world. Their beauty is unsurpassed for they are made entirely of a marble which is not found here and is unequalled by any of our own. After they were through looking at Mars and had admired the many wonderful astronomical instruments, they flew back till they reached the great waterway. Here they sat on one of the many de- lightful recreation piers along the lake and watched the great ocean steamers coming in and out. ' Elsie liked to watch the people landing and embarking. They did not have to hurry home for supper for Elsie had brought some tablets of the Elixir and so they staid till after dark. Then without any mishap at all, they slowly flew home. Elsie dreamily looked down Seventy-four

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IN 1930 T WAS half-past twelve when Elsie johnson hurried into her home, one of a new row of the latest model of the Edison Con- crete Houses just erected in Roseland. Her uncle had promised to take her out in his aeroplane that afternoon, and she ex- pected' to hear from him any minute. Her mother and father had just returned from the polls where they had been voting, so they had dinner, which consisted of one tablet of the Elixir of Life each. This meal no longer occupied a half hour or so, but was over in a few moments, whereupon Elsie got ready to go, when she heard the wireless telephone. It was her uncle, he would be there in a few minutes. She entered the automatic elevator and ascended to the aeroplane platform on the roof, and while waiting, looked down on the surrounding town. Down on Michigan avenue, that crowded thoroughfare, storage cell street cars were frequently passing. Over toward the southeast she could see the electric engines of both the Illinois Central and Eastern Illinois whizzing by with incredible speed on the elevated tracks. Farther north the new monorail was almost finished, and faintly in the east one could see huge lake vessels steaming in and out Calumet Harbor. What are you looking at, that is so interesting? queried a voice back of her. Oh! Uncle Jack, how you startled me! Are you ready P Yes. jump in,'l and Elsie jumped into the handsome '31 model and oft they flew. Where do you want to go, Elsie? To the.Field Museum in Jackson Park? They have many new things there. It told all about them in yesterday's evening paper. May be you would like to see preserved specimens of those now extinct species of insects, flies and mosquitoes which used to torment us twenty years ago. I should like to see them very much, having often read and studied about them in school. I don't see how such small insects as they were said to be, could cause so much sickness and death. I wonder if mosquito bites hurt very much. But let's not go to the museum today. Some other day. Today is too beautiful and sunny to spend indoors. Oh! arenlt those horses down there graceful and beautiful! How could any man ever have had the heart to use such creatures as beasts of burden P Seventy- lh ree

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on the great mass of light which illuminated the sky, lake and coun- try around, and gave Chicago the name of the 'KCity of Eternal Day. The brightness hurt her eyes, so she loolged up at the stars and espe- cially at one very red one and wondered at what she had seen and heard that afternoon. So they Hew on, over this great city, now the metropolis of the world, containing over ten million happy and pros- perous human beings, to their homes in that beautiful and populous suburb, Roseland. vt? fd 'B hav J Seven ty- five