Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-08-15
LAST DAY ON EARTH
PlSCIFUL sKErdH OF TIE RND OF ALL
THINGS.
What Nay Happen in About 2OOO0OO Tears
From NOw-Ths Earth Will Grow Cold but
Love Will Forever Bloom.
Camille Einnnnrion.


The primary age had occupied more
than 6.OOO. 900; the secondary age, Is
3OO, 900 years; the tertiary age, 5OO,ooO
years; the primitive human age, the
time OF national divisions, OF 6arDarlsm
and OF militarism had filed about 3OO,-
600 years, and the. sixth age, that OF IN
tellectual humanity, had reigned ior
nearly 1000, 600 years.
During that long succession or ages
the earth had grown larger and the sun
colder, and, In consequence the geo.
graphical aspect OF the globe had me-
tamorphosed itself; the water OF the
ocean had slowly penetrated through
the earth's crust; the sea was con-
tracted to a fourth of its area In the
early human neriod; warm valleys ana
equatorial regions alone were haoitaoie.
All the rest was frozen. From CEN
fury to century humanity had attained
forms of exquisite beauty and no longer
w orked materially.
A network OF electricity covered
the globe, producing at will all that was
II was then united race, entirely
different from the rude and hetero-
geneous races that had characterized
the first period.
About the year 100000 after Jesus
Christ the last great focus OF human
civilization shone in the centre or equa-
torial Africa, in the brilliant city OF
Suntown, which had already several
times been raised from its ashes. The
sites where Paris, London, Vienna and
New York had stood were then buried
beneath the ice.
The. capital Of this aristocratic re-
public had attained the last limits OF
luxurious and volumptuous civilization.
Wives no longer became mothers except
by accident; they no longer desired the
inconvenience of maternity, and reigned
in all the splendor Of their unblemished
beauty.
Life had been, If not dried up at its
source, at least rendered irremediably
unfruitful. No young women remained;
the soil, too, was sterilized, and the gen.
GRAFTON saw the end approaching.
In this dilemma an aerial fOtilla was
constructed, and all the strong men
started on a voyage OF investigation OF
the equatorial zone, to see whether any
isolated human groups still existed.
The entire cath had almost disappeared
beneath snow and ice, and already half
the members of the expedition had died
Of hunger and cold, when the survivors
discovered human settlement on the
banks of an unfrozen river.
They were received as saviors by men
who believed themselves the only sur
vivors Of terrestrial humanity, looking
on with despair at the last days Of the
world.
The river on whose banks they were
camped was the once famous Amazon.
The last woman of the community was
already dead, the wine and the grain
were extinct, and the men subsisted
solely on fish.
On hearing of this the guests were in
despair; their country was still wealthy,
science rendered them independent of
soil and natural temperature, and the
leader Of the party exclaimed:
1--WE came in search OF female associ
ates, and had we found but one single
wife all the riches of our land would
have been hers"
Some time before these events hap
pened in Africa and America the island
of Ceylon, now attached to Asia, was
the last refuge Of the human in Asia;
and there in this former earthly pari
disc, not far from the equator, at the
foot of Adams Peak, dwelt IL women,
some heiresses of the last uneXtin-
guished families.
The male sex had completely disap-
peared. The youngest OF the females,
little Eva, was years old. The decline
of natural forces had brought about
decline of human forces, and with it the
decline Of inventions and usages which
had formally seemed so indispensable.
Crossing the Pacific ocean our adven-
from ice than other regions, and ap-
preaching 1t they saw to their JOY
group of five women In mourning, the
then last survivors of the race in Asia.
They alighted, told the object Of their
explorations and had no difficulty in
convincing the fair Asiatics.
Their despair disappeared like mist;
and few hours after the arrival Of the
aeronautS the five nuns had become the
most elegant Of women. But Ceylon
was more desolate than Suntown; pro-
visions were scarce, and the whole party,
taking the women with them, returned
to their African home.
Arrived there, they found that the
friends and relatives they had left be-
hind were all dead or dying from an
epidemic; the cold, too, was increasing;
and, although they kept up fires and
shut off all communication with the
outer air, death was busy among them,
until, at the end of few weeks, all had
passed away save only the youngest
woman, Eva, her lover Omegar, who
saw without delusion the inevitable fate
which awaited them, well knowing that
no other spring would ever bloom on
earth.
However, the sky cleared, and the
young couple, taking all the provisions
available, rose in their aerial boat to
judge Of the last invasions of the snow,
and saw that the whole city was buried.
They then started for the Nile valley,
and on reaching 1t saw with delight that
the great pyramid was still standing,
the last evidence on earth of the work
of mans hands.
There they found shelter among the
ruins, and, folded in each others arms,
took their last look at earth, and MUIR
muring, eternal love to each other they
sunk into the sleep Of death.
And the snow continued to fall, as
fine powder, on the surface of the earth.
And the earth continued to revolve
on its axis and to float through the i'm
mensity of space.
And the sun continued to shine, but
with reddish and barren light, and
stars continued to scintillate In the i'm
mensity OF the heavens.
And the infinite universe continued to
exist, with its billions of living or ex-
tinet planets.