Thus did the creature of Professor Rennick's inventive genius play its
first part as the peacemaker of the world.
When the _Astronef's_ message had been duly given and recorded, her
propellers began to revolve, and her head swung round to the north-east.
So began, as all the world now knows, the most extraordinary
electioneering trip that ever was known. First Baltimore, then
Philadelphia, and then New York saw the flashes in the sky. There were
illuminations, torchlight processions, and all the machinery of American
electioneering going at full blast. But when people saw, far away up in
the starlit night, those swiftly-changing beams glittering down, as it
were, out of infinite Space, and when the telegraph operators caught on
to the fact that they were signals, a sort of awe seemed to come over
both Republicans and Democrats alike. Even Tammany's thoughts began to
lift above the sordid level of boodle. It was almost like a message from
another world. There was something supernatural about it, and when it
was translated and rushed out in extra editions of the evening papers:
"Vote for sound men and sound money" became the watchword of millions.
From New York to Boston, Boston to Albany, and then across country to
Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha--then westward to St. Paul and
Minneapolis, and northward to Portland and Seattle, southward to San
Francisco and Monterey, then eastward again to Salt Lake City, and then,
after a leap across the Rockies which frightened Mrs.
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