According to London, the quintessential force that has driven man to survive and wander, or drift, is food. He states that man has drifted since prehistoric times in search of food:
The history of civilisation is a history of wandering, sword in hand, in search of food… It has always been so, from the time of the first pre-human anthropoid crossing a mountain-divide in quest of better berry-bushes beyond, down to the latest Slovak, arriving on our shores to-day, to go to work in the coal-mines of Pennsylvania. These migratory movements of peoples have been called drifts, and the word is apposite. Unplanned, blind, automatic, spurred on by the pain of hunger, man has literally drifted his way around the planet.”
He states that it is hunger, not romance or adventure, that fuels man’s need to drift.
Answer: The short story by Jerome K Jerome (of Three Men and a Boat fame) called The Dancing Partner, is about a group of young girls who are talking about the fact that none of them can seem to find tgood dancing partners. Overheard by one of the girls' fathers, the man determines that he can build the ideal dancing partner, one who won't complain and will not step on their feet. He creates a dancing partner named Lt. Fritz. But when he is built the girls aren't sure about dancing with him. Finally, one girl does dance with him and realizes that she is enjoying herself. The girl, seeking to dazzle the rest of the dancers, loosens the screw on the mechanical dancer, and he goes faster and faster. At some point it becomes evident that she's passed out. They looked for the maker of the robot, but couldn't find him. Finally, they do find him, but it is too late for the young woman. She is dead. From that day forward the mechanical inventor stuck to making smaller things.
Explanation:
