Man Abroad by Anonymous

A small break in the machinery of the electric car had compelled a stoppage; fortunately we were in the vicinity of a stray asteroid, which, in the remote past, had cut loose from its fellows between Mars and Jupiter, and, drawn by some temporary source of attraction, had located its orbit between the Earth and Venus. The Ethereal Fast Line, on which I was traveling, had located a flag station upon it, but it was little used, although the company ran its cars so as to cross the asteroid's orbit at a point at which that body itself was due at the time of crossing.

A peculiar people inhabited this asteroid. There was but little communication between them and the United States, and the Jupiterns and Venusians had even less to do with them, while the inhabitants of Mercury and Mars ignored them entirely. The prevailing notion was that the population of this asteroid consisted of Socialists. The asteroid itself is known as Henrygeorgia.