The twentieth century saw the coup-de-grâce, or death blow, given to sails for propelling ships, horses used for traction purposes and steam in mechanical engineering. Electricity, drawn directly from coal, as well as the air, was procurable in inexhaustible quantities. Electricity long before 1999 was stored with the utmost ease and economy, and shipped all over the world for lighting, heating and motive power. The partnership existing between the old-fashion steam engine and electric dynamos was dissolved forever in 1920. Electricity conducted the business alone and in its own name after steam and its clumsy accessories withdrew from the firm.
One of the first to feel the effects of the [Good-bye Mr. Horse.] change was that greatly admired and beloved creature, the horse. In 1999 plenty of horses were yet to be found in the haunts of civilization. They were generally kept as pets, gentle, graceful and docile creatures, reminders of past centuries in which their progenitors had so laboriously served the ends of man. Occasionally in 1999 some old-fashioned swell, who had been acquainted with horses and their ways in 1930, would occasionally harness up a pair to a curious looking vehicle with shafts and take a short drive, but in 1999 such antiquities were regarded with the same curiosity Noah might have experienced could he have seen an ærodrome circling around the ark. Out in the country, in remote districts and mountain regions, horses were occasionally seen doing farm work, but the sight was an unusual one, invariably attracting much attention. It was estimated in 1999 that in about one hundred more years the horse in cities and country towns would become as rare as the buffalo.
In 1930 when the horse had already ceased to be a beast of burden, epicures openly accepted its flesh as a highly esteemed dish. Indeed it became quite the fad for fast swells to dine on trotter steak. The dray and carriage horses were the first ones to disappear, but the racers held on pretty well. In 1942 the turf and paddock were still popular, though rapidly declining.
The competitors that drove the horse from its field of labor were the electric and compressed air horseless vehicles. As early as 1899 the horseless carriage was rapidly striding into popularity. In 1920 they were common sights everywhere. In 1950 they had crowded the horse to the wall and in 1999 horseless vehicles for business or pleasure were exclusively employed everywhere.