Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/126

122 were by nursing brought to the years of maturity and allowed to marry. Many thoughtful people used to wonder what this would all come to, if decrepit and diseased life was to be taken care of and perpetuated in this way. If the sickly and diseased were to be preserved, it must, they stated, lead to sad results later on. Their prophecies turned out to be but too true. At the time my sketch starts the people of the earth were in a deplorable state. They had not the proper means of living in common decency, and, notwithstanding the admitted great skill possessed by their medical men, diseased and decrepit people were more numerous than the strong and healthy. There had also been a great change in the government of England and its dependencies. The colonies long prior to this gave up all but nominal allegiance to Great Britain; all became practically independent, and only sought the assistance of the mother country when, like the prodigal son, they got into trouble; then they came quickly enough and claimed parental assistance.