These things I discussed openly and on the platform for many years and then I published them in my book, The New Cosmogony, in 1898, in Invisible Light in 1900 and in The Cities of the Sun in 1901. My attention was first called to this subject about twenty years ago when Prof. Henry built the first electric street railway ever built in this country. It was built on East Fifth Street, in Kansas City, Missouri, the city where I was living, and attracted much attention. It was used for only a short time because the machinery was not sufficiently perfected, and there was too great a waste of power, and the insulation was bad, for it magnetized and stopped the watches in the pockets of the passengers. While pondering over this electric railway and its mysterious force, as I sat in the twilight in the parlor of the old Coates House, a servant came in to light the gas. Instead of using a match, he turned on the gas, took a few gliding steps over the carpet and lit the gas by a flash of electricity from his finger, produced by touching his finger against the tip of the gas jet. I was surprised and said, "Have you enough fire in your body to light the gas?" He answered, "Yes, sir." I said, "Can you do that again?" "Yes, sir," and he turned on another jet took a few gliding steps over the carpet, touched the tip of the jet with his finger; there was a flash and the gas was lit. I was amazed, for this was a new electric manifestation to me. He said, "You can do it, sir." "Well, I'll see if I can," and I took a few gliding steps over the carpet. He turned on the gas, I touched the jet with the tip of my finger and a flash of electric fire, an inch long, lit the gas. This I did many times afterwards and saw a dozen others do the same thing. In fact the servants seldom used matches in that parlor, the carpet held such a surplus of electricity most any person could by a few gliding steps increase the electricity of their body so they could light the gas by a touch. Then I began to think--electric fire in man's body, in the clouds, in coal and wood, on the telegraph line, in flint, in cold steel--in everything. Electricity must be light, heat, life and creative force, and will explain the mysteries of nature.