A perfect system of communication is established from one end of the ponderous tube to the other.  It frequently happens when an attempt is made to fasten the car that the clamps fail to work and consequently the carriage commences its second journey toward the center.  Another effort is made to hold the carriage when it again comes to a stop; but if this is not successful, then comes the most peculiar experience of all.  The carriage of its own momentum continues dashing backward and forward until it comes to rest at the center of gravity.  Then the engineer, by communicating with the surface, gets the longest stretch of rope and is drawn two hundred and fifty miles to the surface.

This world has no atmosphere and life is not sustained by breathing, neither by the process found on the Moon.

The inhabitants get their sustenance from the soil with which they must be connected, directly or indirectly over one-half the time, or they will suffer in a manner similar to us when we are suffocating.

From this faint glimpse of their life, it can be seen that the people of Holen in their habits are totally incongruous to all our conceptions, and if one of them were to make a visit to our world, everything he would here see would appear just as ridiculous and unthinkable to him as the things on their globe did to me.

As I surveyed this world, everything evidenced the fact that these people are born engineers.  Our Eiffel Tower and Ferris Wheel would be mere playthings compared with the sky-scraping structures that adorn the various parts of this little world.  It appears that the international mind runs in this one direction more than in any other, and while they surpass us in this respect, they are inferior to us in the limitless field of science and philosophy as well as in the variety of manufacturing plants.

In their religion, the Holenites have developed to a high degree.  They have no sacred book akin to our Bible.  Their whole authority comes from the lips of the Divine Family, as we would term it.  This family serves for religion the same purpose as the Royal Family does for the civil realm in some countries of our world.  The Divine Family are genuinely descended from their sacred ancestors who were, by a visible show of omnipotent power, appointed and consecrated to the sacred work of dispensing truth and officiating in all sacraments.  The ordination of all the ministers of Holen must be held by a member of this Divine Family.  By reason of this one source of authority, there is, therefore, no confliction of creeds.  The great battle of the Church is with the several infidel organizations that give no heed to the genuine religion.

This Sacred Family received a code of laws which they have held from the beginning and, strange to say, no one is allowed to copy these laws in written or printed form.  To do so is a type of blasphemy for which a severe penalty is imposed.  Some of the infidel organizations find delight to print all or a part of these laws and scatter them secretly among the people.  Such documents fall with as much pain on the premises of a believer as oaths do in our world on the ear of a delicately trained soul.