chapter 5 part 2

After a short, brisk walk, they stood in front of a gigantic industrial building. Big letters on its wall read: „Livestock-processing-plant Electropolis“
Konrad was the first through the gates.
Seemingly endless herds of animals stood in the courtyard, waiting to be processed. They clustered, stomping and mooing in front of a giant funnel at least 20 meters across. The herd got slowly sucked into it. Oxen, cows, calfs – all vanished in the hundreds, mysteriously sucked into the gleaming opening.
„Why do the humans murder all those poor animals?“ asked the horse.
„Yes, it is a pity“, answered the uncle. „But if you had ever eaten a steak, you would be more tolerant.
Konrad ran along the side of the giant hall. From the machines rose a great din. Ringelhuth and the horse had a hard time catching up with the boy. At last they reached the backside of the plant. Long lines of rail-cars waited there, drawn by big electric engines. From chutes on the back wall of the building the products fell into the cars. Leather suitcases from one, barrels with butter from the next, leather shoes from a third. From other chutes rolled giant cheeses, combs, sausages, cans with milk, violin-strings, cream and so on.
Once the cars were filled, a bell rang. At this signal, the trains rolled forth and new, empty ones took their place under the chutes.
„And no living soul in sight anywhere! Nothing but oxen!“ shouted uncle Ringelhuth over the noise. „Everything electric, automated!“
But just as he had said that, a man came towards them across the yard. He greeted them and said: „It is my shift today. One day every month. Twelve days a year. I control and maintain the machines.“
„Just one question, old chap“, said the horse. „What do you do on the other threehundred-fifty-three days of the year?“
„Oh, this and that“, replied the man happily. „I have a vegetable-patch. I play football and i like to draw. You see, I have problem keeping myself occupied... oh and sometimes, I like to read history-books. It is amazing how complicated people used to live.“
„That's true“, said the uncle. „But from where do you get these huge amounts of electricity you need to run your city?“
„From the Niagara falls“, the man told them. „We unfortunately had unusually strong rainfall the last few weeks. I am quite concerned. The voltage has increased so much that we fear it could blow out some circuits at central distribution. Ah, look, the 4-o'clock-newspaper is just coming in!“
„Where?“, asked Konrad.
The overseer stared into the sky and the others followed his example. And really, in the sky appeared, in white letters on the blue background, the news. „No danger for Electropolis!“ the headline said. A report from the security-council followed. Also there were news about the ongoing diplomatic talks with Mars about a trade-agreement, the latest developments in science and the upcoming radio- and home-cinema-program. The newspaper ended with the serial novel being projected against the sky.
Konrad was just about to start reading the novel, when a sudden, infernal noise erupted from the building. The products fell out of the chutes with increasing speed. It was literally raining shoes, suitcases, butter, milk, cheese and steaks. The cars overflowed. And now bricks, Windowpanes and parts of machines flew out of the chutes!
„Oh now!“, the overseer screamed. „The factory consumes itself!“ And he ran off.
The disaster began when the power-plants at the Niagara falls produced a hundred times as much power as normally due to the flooding. The machines of the livestock-processing-plant ran empty when the last herd was processed. In the end, they ran backwards, sucking all the butter, shoes, cheeses and other products back in. The original animals were spit out of the gates. The oxen, calves and cows stampeded nervously and screaming onto the street and into the city.
The uncle and Konrad had climbed onto the horse. The panicking herds pulled them along. On the streets the moving sidewalks quickened to a sickening speed. The automated cars shot through the lanes like lightning, driving into the houses and raced up the stairs. The electric lamps melted, the artificial gardens bloomed and withered at the same time. On the sky the newspaper for the day after tomorrow appeared.
The horse could no longer cope with all of this. It stood rooted on a driveway, its knees quivering.
„Please excuse me, Mr Caballo!“ cried the uncle and gave the horse a slab on the back with his cane. The animal was so shocked that it forgot his fears and raced through the surrounding pandemonium as if the devil himself was on its tail.
They left the city behind them after endless minutes and were safe.
Looking back, they saw how lifts shot through the roofs of the houses. The roar of the trembling aluminium skyscrapers sounded like war.
Uncle Ringelhuth patted the horse's neck, wiped the sweat from his forehead and said: „Paradise is blowing up.“
Konrad took him by the arm. „Don't be sad. When I'm grown up, we shall build a new one!“
And then they rode on. Always straight ahead. Towards the south sea.

chapter 5 part 1

Danger! High Voltage!


At the exit of the world turned upside down, they found a subway-station. They walked down the stairs, saw a train and got in.
„What a strange subway“, said Konrad. „I can't see a conductor, nor a driver. I wonder where to the trip will go.“
„We shall see“, answered the uncle. At that point, the train started. A second later, it shot through a concrete tunnel like lightning. Ringelhuth fell of his seat and said: „OK, maybe we won't live to see it. Dear nephew, if something happens to me, don't forget – over all your grief – that you will inherit my pharmacy.“
„And if you should happen to outlive me, dear uncle“, replied the boy, „my school books and my compasses will be yours.“
„Thank you so much!“ answered the uncle. And then the two solemnly and moved shook hands.
„Lets not get all soft“, said the horse and looked out of the window. The subway shot through the tunnel like a rocket and the tracks wailed and the train screamed as if it was afraid of itself.
Uncle Ringelhuth climbed back onto the seat and said in desperation: „If something happens to me now, I can forget about the night shift at the pharmacy.“ But at that moment he fell off again, because the train had just stopped as if it had rammed an ice-berg.
„That does it! Out of here!“ cried the uncle, got to his feet jerked the doors open and stumbled onto the platform. The horse and Konrad hurried to follow him.
After they had climbed up the stairs, they had a look around and already wanted to sit down again. They were standing right in the middle of a bunch of skyscrapers!
„...Cor!“ the horse said after a while. Konrad started to count the storeys of the nearest skyscraper. He reached forty-six before he had to stop, for the rest of the house was concealed in the clouds. Onto one of the clouds were projected the words

Electropolis
the automated city

Danger!
High Voltage!

The horse wanted to turn around on the spot, telling the other to let the bloody south sea get lost. But uncle and nephew would not have any of that and instead started to cross the big square in front of them. So Negro Caballo had to follow them, whether or not he wanted. Hundreds of cars swarmed around them.
„No one seems to work here“, observed Ringelhuth, „everyone just drives around in their cars. Can you understand this?“
Konrad, after having a curious look at one of the cars, came back to them, shaking his head in disbelief. „You won't believe this“, he said, „all the cars drive by themselves, without drivers or steering. I'm completely at a loss.“
A car stopped next to them. A nice old lady sat in it, crocheting. „You're not from here, are you?“ she asked friendly.
„This does it“, said the uncle. „Could you please enlighten us to why the cars here drive on their own?“
The lady smiled: „Our cars are remote-controlled“, she explained. „The system works through coupling an electromagnetic field with radio control. Easy, isn't it?“
„Ludicrously easy“, said the uncle.
„Just ludicrous“, mumbled the horse.
And Konrad shouted angrily: „And I wanted to become a chauffeur!“ The old lady put her crochet-work aside. „Why on earth do you want to become a chauffeur?“
„To earn money, of course“, the boy answered.
„Why do you want to earn money?“ asked the lady.
„Are you pulling my leg?“ said Konrad. „If you don't work, you don't earn money. And without money, you'll starve.“
„Those are quite the outdated views you have, my dear“, the old lady replied. „Here in Electropolis, you only work for fun, to lose weight or to learn something. We get everything we need for free, since everything is produced by machines.“
Uncle Ringelhuth thought for a moment: „But before you process them, you have to plant the foodstuffs. And the livestock does not grow like weeds.“
„Our farmers outside the city do that“, answered the nice lady. „But even they have little mandatory work to do, since farming is thoroughly industrialized, too. Machines do most of the work there, too.“
„And the farmers give you their produce for free?“ asked the horse.
„The farmers get everything else they need in exchange“, the lady told them. „Everyone can get everything, because the machines and the land produce more than enough, of course. Didn't you know that?“
Uncle Ringelhuth did not and so was a little bit ashamed. „Of course we know that. Still most people are in dire need where we come from.“
„How preposterous!“ cried the old lady. But then she was smiling again and said: „OK, I'll be off to our artificial gardens. The trees and flowers there smell of ozone. That's very healthy. Have a nice day!“
She pressed a button and said into a speaking-tube: „To the artificial park! I want to have coffee in the café near the carbonated fountain!“ The mysterious car obediently got under way and drove off. The nice old lady sat back comfortably, resuming her crocheting.
The three were baffled and stared after her. And the uncle said: „Now this is something. One day, the whole world will be like this! I hope you'll still be there when it happens, my boy.“
„Just like Cockaigne“, the horse said.
„There is one important difference“, Ringelhuth objected.
„Which one?“, asked the horse.
„People here actually work. They are not lazy. They just work for fun, true, but lets not hold that against them! OK, lets get a move on.“
The turned into a street packed with traffic to look at the displays in the shops' windows. But as soon as they set foot onto the sidewalk, all three fell on their noses. Or, in the horse's case, its snout. Though they had no intention to do so, they slid along the sidewalk. „Help!“ Konrad cried out. „The sidewalk has come to life!“
The sidewalk was, in fact, a conveyor belt, so people did not have to walk. People just stepped onto it and without setting one foot in front of the other, one could go through the whole city. If someone wanted to enter a shop or cross the street, one stepped off it and once again stood on firm cobbles.
That crocheting grandma could have told us“, the horse complained. It rode down the main street of Electropolis on his behind and could not get up thanks to the roller skates. Ringelhuth and Konrad had to help it stand up. After that, it even had fun with the living sidewalk.
The uncle wanted to have a look at the display of a bakery and stepped off the belt. He did not, however, have enough practice, yet and banged his head on the wall of one of the houses. They heard a strange humming sound. „Where did that come from?“ asked Konrad and knocked against the house. The humming got louder. He scratched the wall and was surprised. „What do you say to this? The skyscrapers are made of aluminium!“
„Now this is a practical city!“ said the uncle. „we should send our mayor here, he could learn a thing or two.“
But the most astonishing thing was this: a gentleman, who was sliding along the sidewalk in front of them, suddenly stepped off it, took a phone-speaker from the pocket of his coat, said a number into it and said: „Gertrud, listen, I'll be home about an hour later today for dinner. I want to go to the lab before. Goodbye, honey!“ Then he put the phone back into the coat and stepped back onto the belt. Once again reading his book, he resumed his trip.
Konrad and the horse were at a loss for words. Some people passing them in the opposite direction remarked: „Those with the horse, they must be some hicks from who knows where.“
Ringelhuth shrugged and tried to look as indigenous as possible. But, doing so, he fell over again. When Konrad tried to help him up again, he declined: „Oh, don't bother, I'll have a seat for the rest of the journey.“
They went from one street to the next. The skyscrapers of aluminium started to sing because of a breeze.
After a quarter of an hour, the conveyer belt came to an end. There were no skyscrapers anymore.
Once again, they had to walk on their own.