Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/25

Rh many more. The attempt to employ automatic letter carriers, waiters, tramcar-conductors, and the like was unsuccessful and soon abandoned, as the event proved that a small modicum of human intelligence was requisite for the proper performance even of these humble offices.

All the foregoing description of the condition of society before the great disaster of 1948 is indeed unnecessary for the information of my own generation; but as that generation is passing away and its successor will be reared under wholly different surroundings it is essential to try to convey some idea of things as they were before that date. Having completed this slight sketch I now proceed to my story proper.