Sarah Sees the Future

In or around 1896, when she was 13 or 14 years old, Sarah Eva Howe was already a voracious reader, prolific writer, and skilled storyteller. In the following theme, she muses about what life will be like for herself and her school friends 16 years into the future. In the process, she predicts something that might surprise us 100 years later!

A Possible Scene
As I enter my studio this fair morning in June 1912 and take my station at the great window, where I touch a button, and the sash flies up letting in the balmy air for, however great the changes in other civilized machinery, the air and sunlight are not changed, two little individual flying-machines of the common kind as used by newsboys and letter-carriers alight at the front door, and immediately the chimes begin to play “A Flying Machine for Two,” the latest popular song. A moment later, down the silver slide connected with this front door, come two letters and a newspaper, with blue lines around some columns of the paper, to call attention to them. I take up the letters first, of course, and see that the postmark on one shows it to be from that great busy metropolis Carrollton, at the junction of the Ohio and Ky. Rivers. I open it, and see that it is from my cousin Jenne [Jenne Howe, daughter of William Ficklin Howe and his wife, Louisiana "Lou" Winslow], now Mrs. Remardo Berdo; and it “reads” thus:

“Dear Sarah: I am so glad to hear of your progress in your artwork and that your last picture ‘Frolic’ sold for $1000. I am doing well, too. I have finished my course at the Conservatory, you know, and have written a march and two other pieces of music; I am quite in demand for entertainments. But don’t imagine that I neglect Louise. By the way, poor little Louise has been unwell lately, and I had to call in Dr. J. Rowland. Do you remember him? By the way, there is a rumor of his soon being wedded to a certain fair young novelist. Professor Browinski is giving great satisfaction as the principal of the Carrollton College, a magnificent building which has been erected on the site of the old college, and his wife, Miss S_ P_, is much admired and liked by all of us. But I must be closing. One word more. There is much sorrow at our house just now, because brother Beverly, Capt. Beverly W. Howe [Jenne's brother, Sarah's cousin], has just left with his wife to take command of the United States troops at Hawkswing, Wash. Well, Louise is nodding and must be put to bed. Good-night and Good-bye. Yours affectionately, Jenne.”

Much pleased with that letter, I take up the other, which is postmarked Chicago, and is from Madame Bornlaski, neé Miss Mildred A. Goslee [possibly a cousin], who has been there for a short time recovering from a slight illness. She has not much time to spare, so the letter is “short,” but “sweet.”

Now I take up the paper, the Carrollton “Post,” and the first thing that catches my eye is an advertisement reading “Transact your law business at the office of W. Shoesmith and J. C. Winslow, Attorneys,” but as there is a blue line above the “Literary Notes,” I turn to them. There I see that “a book that bids fair to be very popular this summer is “Boys and Girls, A Reminiscence of Old School-days,” by the bright and interesting young novelist Miss Mary Emily Merrill, formerly of this city. Still another advertisement attracts me – “Miss Grace Rowland, Kindergartner, assisted by Misses R. Louise Howe and Paulina Winslow [Sarah's relatives].” And among the “Personal Items” I see that “Miss Mildred Merrill, a fair young lady of this city, is assisting Miss Velma Donaldson in the primary department of Miss Elizabeth Howe’s [a cousin] private school.”

What is this, heavily marked, on the inside of the paper? A sermon! By whom, pray? Why, it is by the Rev. Richard H. Stanton, who graduated only a year ago! I must read it. When I think of the time when we all were children together, and of what and where we are now, it almost makes me sad; but “the world do move,” and we with it, and I lean my head on my hand and think of the gay girl who went to school, and that I am now a real artist, and an old maid of twenty-nine.

Will all of this come true? Why not? The world is what we make it, and we may mold the future with our own childish hands.
[signed] Sarah Eve Howe

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Yes, Sarah Eva Howe foresaw the invention of drones and their use to make deliveries! She also predicted a future as a professional artist, but that did not come to pass – nor did her prediction that in 1912 she would be an “old maid at age 29.” Sarah married in 1905 at the age of 22.