The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-06-22
The yalue, Of Life.


Tie condition of ..other worlds than
ours has long been fascinating spec
ulation. Gazing into unfathomable
space. sparsely Lit by its stellar lamps,
no thoughtful person can but question
its mystery and wonder if there beings
of like passions as ourselves suffer.
struggle, toll and enjoy the same that
do on this planet. There is some
thing overwhelming in the thought that
our little ball is the sole and solitary
home of organized life, and that the
sun lights and warns for our exclusive
benefit the space through which we
swing and spin. The feeling is akin to
that which comes over one in the dense
solitude of the forest, or upon the sum-
NIT of mountains sense of desola-
ton, desertion, loneliness and awe.
Even the teeming millions which swarm
upon the earth seem few and solitary
when we conceive of them as the only
conscious Inhabitants sailing through
everlasting depths. The ark and the
eight souls saved therein, with the
beasts and the birds, floating upon the
flood which hid all signs of existence,
or the balloon disappearing in infinite
depths is not a picture of intenser soli-
tude than the earth swimming in a
ocean, broken only by planet
airy islands wholly deserted.
Yet if we may trust a writer in the
Popular Science Monthly, such. or near
ty such are the conclusions of science.
The great planets, Jupiter and Saturn.
are lit by their own and not by reflected
light. Hence, like the sun, they must
be incapable of sustaining any life con-
oeiyable to us. And should they ever
become fit for it. life there will have to
submit to conditions which would render
existence on the earth quite impossible.
The attraction excrted by Jupiter is
three hundred times that of the earth.
A man of average weight here would
there have a pOnderous tread of more
than twenty tons; his own weight would
crush him into pulp; Il falling hickory
nut would whiz through him like rifle
ball; a wave would shiver. an iron-clad
TO pieces; riyulet cut mile-deep can
yons, and moderate breeze sweep
away the hills and mountains. In
some points, however, this description
is exaggerated; for were man to be
weighted to the earth by pressure of
tons he could not easily be
moved by water, and the hills and
would be so firmly fixed by
their own gravitation that the weight of
the moving atmosphere could not dis
place them. In other words, every
thing on the planet of Jupiter would be
cd 20,
On Mars the conditions would be re-
There, man would weigh only
two and a half pounds. 1t would be
easy to fly, but an eighty-ton lOcomo-
tive could not draw train of empty
ears; Niagara Falls would furnish
scarcely power enough to turn mill,
and rifle ball might be caught in the
hand without harm. In an atmosphere
even as dense as our own, all animal
and vegetable forms would there be the
merest gossamer, blown to pieces by
every breeze. But no such an atmOs-
phere as ours is possible in Mars. Its
pressure would be less than that of our
on the tops of our highest
rendering existence an i'm
Moreover, Mars has less
han half the heat from the sun which
the earth enjoys. On his torrid zone
he thermometer would never rise above
ifty degrees, and even that is made i'm
possible by the thinness of the atmOs-
Dhnre. Nothing can be more certain
'ha that there is no liguidin Mars and
10 life" On the moon the conditions
are even worse than in Mars; while its
day and night, each two weeks long
utterly forbid the presence OF life there.
Mercury, with its temperature of boil
NO water at the poles and red-hot iron
1t the equator, cannot sustain life
Beside the earth, therefore, Venus is
he only member of the solar system
Thich science declares canpreserve life,
md on it life, though in lower forms
han those of the earth, probably does
Exist; but this insignificant little globe
5 the only one on which there are any
Prob; bilities of life, so that if the inhab-
tsnts of the earth were equally dis
ributed through solar space, al per-
'Ohs would be thousands of miles apart.
Moreover. life has existed on the earth
or thousands of years. The time that
t has taken to ripen our highest civil |
cation, which is an eternity of itself, |
las been necessary to give birth to a
and to develop intellect
.apable of glimmering comprehension
# what mas created them. Life is far |
more rare and far more costly in our
oar system than diamonds in the
.arth." All else Is waSte-space, heat,
mercy, except as it is being used for
he production of life in eternities
,eyond. er,r-.r
Considering this as fact. if itbe one,
low little value is placed upon life.
Destruction by war, by slaughter, by
mems own appetites and passions, by |
Hague, pestilenees. fevers and other
tgencies, to a degree at least under
mems control, is never ceaS;ng. In
crowded cities and provinces human
ife is the cheapest of all commodities;
n great manufacturing communities, it
5 esteemed at smaller valve than the
machine which it operates, the product |
yEich it turns out. Notwithstanding
nat life is as rare in the universe as
diamonds in the earth, it is flung away
Is reckleSsly rs if diamonds were
,ebbles and not precious stones.-De-
rot Post and Tribune.
N.r,r,nfL M;ll;a..,:.os