Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/42

 economize a few dollars. If any one by negligence caused the loss of a human life, his life was placed unreservedly at the disposal of the nearest relatives of the slain. It was in their option, either to exact life for life, or to accept a suitable ransom.

To me, a life-member of the Society for the Prevention of Justice to Assassins, and accustomed to regard the lives of homicides alone as specially sacred,—so sacred, indeed, that they must be preserved by any sacrifice of time, money, or justice,—the above-mentioned law seemed, at first, simply barbarous. Afterwards, however, I was obliged to admit that the law worked well in practice, however indefensible in theory. Homicides of any kind were extremely rare.

When we had fairly emerged into the country, the curricle, gradually increasing its speed, moved over the smooth track like a shadow, obedient to the slightest. touch of its guide. Steering was effected much as in the tricycle of the present: the brakes were controlled by the feet. The forefinger, by means of a lever resembling the brake of a bicycle, regulated the amount of force allowed to issue from the reservoir.

"How do you like this?" said Utis, when our speed rose first to fifteen, then to twenty, miles an hour. "But now brace yourself!" he exclaimed, as we reached the brow of a long declivity. A glance, to assure himself of a clear roadway, a warning blast from the sounder, and down we flew with a velocity that reminded me of my once-enough experience on the cow-catcher of a locomotive. Such was the momentum imparted to the vehicle, that it carried us far up the opposite acclivity. Here,