CHAPTER IV. ·

"Oh! the daily edition of 'Humanity's Star' has been delivered."

"Is it the current newspaper?"

"Yes."

"Let me see it. I am eager to know the difference between the old and the new. Is there any difference?”

"How can you ask me such a question when the newspaper is the mirror of the life, thought, and civilization of people?"

"Of course; new times must have produced a new type of newspaper. How is it gotten out?"

"We have only one newspaper in New Orleans. It is published by the municipality. As everybody has received a thorough education the newspaper of to-day is but a scientific daily magazine, where we find all the news concerning the intellectual life of the world and social progress. Of course no one would read scandalous gossip, stupid tales, and empty political discussions. These in the old time were the favorite 'intellectual' diet of the ignorant masses. Read only the subject headings of this newspaper and you shall gain an idea of what it is:

"I.

ADMINISTRATION AFFAIRS.

“It gives us all the news concerning the public business Fasts without comment are here the rule.

"II. FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

"It gives us the same news of other countries. "III. HYGIENE.

"IV. PHYSICS.

"It keeps people informed of what medical science achieves and says all over the civilized world.

"You find therein what science achieves on that line. To-day we have an article by an eminent specialist on 'Light Waves."

"V.

AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

"VI. ASTRONOMY.

"VII.

PHILOSOPHY.

"In this department are found, for instance, the discussion between the deists and atheists.

"Oh, here! Let me read this poetry, Will.

"We translate a "Song" from our old confrere, "Avanti," and written by a young Italian after a trip in the United States:

66.6. THE AMERICAN VENUS.

""She was on the point of opening her eyes To the most beautiful smile

Of a lovely and mysterious land;

When a genie, wandering in this virgin forest,
Said to her, 'Wait, wait for my return.'
The genie departed, and like the bee,
Fluttering from blossom to blossom,
He visited the haunts of beauties ancient;
Of the maidens of Athens and Rome,
He begged the glorious profile,

And the artistic lineaments of their faces;
Of Italy's sky, then beaming most brightly,
He requested the joyfulest smile,

To place upon the scarlet lips of his beloved;

He then departed for Spain, and of the beauties

Of the scorching sun he begged for the sparkling eyes, With light mysterious as the unfathomable depths of

the sea,

Bewitching as the glance of a siren :

Afterward he proceeded to France,

And of its lilies took grace most seductive

And the intoxicating charm of their countenance. From the nebulous shores of the Danube and Rhine, And their castle crowned slopes,

He asked for the tresses of gold,
And the velvety fairness of cheek,
White as the foam of the sea.

At his backcoming bloomed the blossoms again,
And the time of songs and kisses was returning.
It was a smiling and odorous April,
And the untamed forest warbled love songs.
'Come, my beloved,' said the genie, 'come,

Open your eyes. I am ready for your breathing.
The kiss of the sun awaits you.'

She opened her eyes, and the sun, enveloping her
With his beams and softly caressing

Her lovely visage, placed upon her inviting mouth
One of his most passionate kisses.

In this lovely, virgin, mysterious land

There were no castles with towers and battlements;
Nor did the mailed hand of a jealous knight

Dare to cruelly imprison the Venus,

Who, being free, and of herself the mistress,
Said to her lover: 'I do not wish

To be gazed at from far, in the moonlight.
No, look at me closely, more closely,

By the brightest rays of the sun.""

"The poets, Doctor, will be always the same. Even

educated in a Socialistic civilization, they never will write poetry without mentioning a genie.”

"If they had not fervid imagination they would be no poets. And verses would be but prose."

"Oh, here! What? News from the North and South Poles ?"

"Certainly! Why are you so shocked. They were long ago visited by men."

"By what means ?"

"That glory was reserved for the automobile."

"What did they find ?"

"Apart from the scientific achievements which permitted physics to re-establish some facts already known, they found enormous masses of ice, some bears and sea-calves,— and

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"And what else?"

"They said that it is very cold there."

CHAPTER V.

"Is there new literature ?"

"A most beautiful one. The pagan civilization had its Homer to sing and eternalize the Trojan war, in which so many sons of gods and goddesses received immortality. The Roman epoch had a Virgil to sing its armavirrumque. Their life produced a number of deep philosophers, elegant prose writers, fine poets, great orators, and witty comedians. The Christian civilization, as it took the place of the pagan world, produced also a beautiful literature. The belief in a paradise as a place of heavenly recompense for the good; in a purgatory for expiation of venial sins; and in hell, for a place of eternal punishment, produced 'La Divina Commedia.' The old tale of an angry God casting out Adam and Eve from Eden, used by a strenuous believer, produced 'Paradise Lost.' The Crusades had their Tasso. The deeds of the Knights of the Round Table found their Ariosto to immortalize them, and a Cervantes to ridicule them, also. All the crimes of our past life found their great painters in Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, etc. Our misery produced Goethe and Foscolo; our vices found their Zola; and so on.

"The Socialistic civilization has already its new literature. This epic struggle I told you of immediately afterward found men of genius who have eternalized the great deeds and immortalized the heroes. And I do not hesitate if I tell you that, as the Socialist heroes, struggling for the welfare and happiness of mankind, have been far greater and nobler than the pagan and Christian heroes, so they