Page:Fifty years hence, or, What may be in 1943 - a prophecy supposed to be based on scientific deductions by an improved graphical method (IA fiftyyearshenceo00grim).pdf/70

 Scarcity of rain in any one place is promptly counteracted by each local government by consent of the others concerned; great fires being started to attract the clouds, which will bring in their arms the friendly drops.

The fine arts of 1943 have kept pace with other branches of culture.

Sculpture and painting, instead of having been thrown into the shade by the wonderful achievements in photography and engraving, have received a great impetus. Leading citizens vie with each other in purchasing (sometimes even in making), statues to adorn their own homes and gardens, and public streets and parks. In the same way painting is taught as a science as well as an art; to be a fair painter being more common than to be a fair performer upon the instrument once known as "pianoforte."

The pipe organ has become the national musical instrument, and its glorious tones are heard from houses of far less than palatial pretensions.

The public buildings of this country, no longer laughing-stocks for foreigners, are at once spacious, beautiful, substantial and convenient. In them the new American style of architecture,