The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-08-04
RECIPROCITY WITH MARS.

Summer is more than half gone and
yet the cholera plague that Prophet
Virgins announced would strike
America before autumn has failed to
materialize. IL must not be supposed
that Virgins was off i'm his calcula-
tions. lie deduced his prophecy from
the stars, and while the movements of
the heavenly bodies are characterized
by reasonable regularity and a pre-
cision sufficient TO constitute a basis
for ordinary mathematical computa-
tions, their finer qualities and influ-
ences may be affected at any time by
nm altered set of conditions. The uni
verse is a big thing, and since Virgins
predicted cholera an entirely new and
improved nebula may have been man.
ufactured somewhere, which, though
not perceptibly disturbing the motions
of n solar system. may have subtly
acted upon ii in such u manner as to
transfer the choleratic agencies from
this planet TO some other. IL is for
this reason perhaps that Virgins has,
temporarily ut least. quit exploring the
universe ut large and is combining his
attention TO Mars.
The residents of Mars have always
excited the interest of the people of
this country, and this interest Virgins
has discovered is earnestly ~reciprocated.
such being the case, and communica.
ton between the two planets at some
future day being, according to the
Canadian astronomer. entirely within
the range of possibilities, il is permiss-
able to go a step farther than Virgins
and suggest the feasibility of establish.
ing u suitable system of reciprocity.
The means of communication once
having been found, the only thing TO
hinder the consummation of the plan
would be the kicking of short-sighted
and thick headed Mckinleyites. That
the kicking would be confined exclu-
siyely to the earth is n foregone con-
clusion, since Virgins informs ms that
the people of Mars possess wisdom and
intelligence. The reasoning by which
he reaches this important deduction is
worthy of note:
You see, rs the planets grow they rccede from
the sun and shin their axis. And rs they re-
cede from the sun, or the center ~ gravity, they
swell or enlarge. Life on Mars il much p%rcfcra-
able To that ON the earth, for the people there
have smaller bones, because the attraction Is
less, and they need less muscular eNertion for
locomoiion. They have more mental energy,
therefore, Tor study, and hence are much wiser
and longer lived than we are. We may infer,
also, that they are not subject to disease, and
their mental energy may he NJ great that they
renew their bodies by sinking into a sort OF
chrysalis state, and without the agency OF death,
80 that their lives may lie eternal.
Obviously the people of Mars pos.
sess many and marked advantages over
the residents of this mundane sphere,
and assuredly, to speak i'm "A metaphys.
ical sense, have the deadwood ON us.
Some people may have difficulty In fol
lowing Virgins logic, the sequence be-
tween great mental energy and ever
lasting life being particularly hard To
get onto, but when this world is as wise
as Mars, or e Virgins, all these
things will be made plain. IL is enough
for the present TO accept Virgins
statement.
since then the people of Mars are in
t%elIgent, they are in favor Of reel