The March 10, 1925 article from the Chicago Daily Tribune titled, Age 75 to Be Noon of Life in Year 2000, begins with a fictional news story from the year 2000:
Washington, D.C.- [Special.] - Gen. Harry Doe, known in the army as "Light Horse Harry," was killed late today when struck by an automobile while crossing the street. The general was only 103 years old, and was a dashing soldier.
"He was cut off in the flower of his manhood," said the secretary of war.
"A young man with a great future before him. We must enact more stringent laws against reckless driving."
The article goes on to explain that such stories will "be common in the papers seventy-five years hence" and that "according to Dr. Gilbert Fitz-Patrick, famous surgeon of the Gorgas Memorial Institute, a man's expectancy of life will have been raised from the present fifty-seven years to 100 years, perhaps more."
Aside from the obvious fact that today, 100-years-old is not the average life expectancy I'd like to address the quote from the secretary of war, "He was cut off in the flower of his manhood." I wish that modern day secretaries of defense (even hypothetical ones) could say such things.
It makes me giggle like a schoolgirl when I picture Donald Rumsfeld or Robert Gates saying, "the flower of his manhood," but I guess they had different expressions in 1925.
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1 comment:
The future doesn't sound very safe if people getting ran over is a common feature in the newspaper.
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