upon his
flagship at Kiel, and now he was following the other fleets on their
great mission to the Western Continent.

Why did they bring their warships when their intentions were peaceable,
do you ask? Well, it was partly the effect of ancient habit, and partly
due to the fact that such multitudes of officials and members of ruling
families wished to embark for Washington that the ordinary means of
ocean communications would have been utterly inadequate to convey them.

After we had feasted our eyes on this strange sight, Mr. Edison suddenly
exclaimed: "Now let us see the fellows from the rising sun."

The car was immediately directed toward the west. We rapidly approached
the American coast, and as we sailed over the Allegheny Mountains and
the broad plains of the Ohio and the Mississippi, we saw crawling
beneath us from west, south and north, an endless succession of railway
trains bearing their multitudes on toward Washington. With marvelous
speed we rushed westward, rising high to skim over the snow-topped peaks
of the Rocky Mountains and then the glittering rim of the Pacific was
before us. Half-way between the American Coast and Hawaii we met the
fleets coming from China and Japan. Side by side they were plowing the
main, having forgotten, or laid aside, all the animosities of their
former wars.

I well remember how my heart was stirred at this impressive exhibition
of the boundless influence which my country had come to exercise over
all the people of the world, and I turned to look at the man to whose
genius this uprising of the earth was due. But Mr. Edison, after his
wont, appeared totally unconscious of the fact that he was personally
responsible for what was going on. His mind, seemingly, was entirely
absorbed in considering problems, the solution of which might be
essential to our success in the terrific struggle which was soon to
begin.

"Well, have you seen enough?" he asked. "Then let us go back to
Washington."

As we speeded back across the continent we beheld beneath us again the
burdened express trains rushing toward the Atlantic, and hundreds of
thousands of upturned eyes watched our swift progress, and volleys of
cheers reached our ears, for everyone knew that this was Edison's
electrical warship, on which the hope of the nation, and the hopes of
all the nations, depended. These scenes were repeated again and again
until the car hovered over the still expanding capitol on the Potomac,
where