Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-25

city. Even tombs and graveyards were no
longer to be pereeived; ruins themselves were
destroyed. Everywhere nothingness. ice. ST.
lence. DAYS followed days, and every night
The rcd disk OF the sun set behind the white
plain. which slowly. at each twilight, took the
violet tints of death.
Already half the members of the expedition
had died OF hunger and cold, when the fotilla
thought they saw from their airy heights an
immense ruined city near an uEfroZen river.
They steered toward tho unknown city and
thought themselves dreaming, when they dis
covered on the banks OF the river group Of
men walking. A cry of happiness and wonder
sounded from every breast. and in an instant
all the skiffs we're tied up by the river banks.
They were received as unexpected saviors
by men who had long belieyed themselves to be
the only survivors OF terrestrial humanity
looking on with despair at the last days of the
world At the head of the group stood an old
man enveloped in reindeer skins. Of COM
manding stature, his hollow black eyes shaded
by bushy white eyebrows. with q long beard as
white a. snow, and his skull as yellow as an
tique ivOry--it was felt that his was one of
those energetic characters who have endured
ali the trials of life without yielding, but whose
hearts have hidden farewell to every hope. How
ever. his countenance lit up with Joy at the ar
rival of the newcomers. His sons and their
companions threw themselves into the arms of
the aerial travellers.
They made large fires and seated themselves
at a modest meal, composed principally of fish
which had Just been caught The newcomers
informed their hosts that they were about the
last survivors of equatorial Africa: that they
came from the celebrated metropolis now de-
serted. and they asked if their aerial route had
not deceived them-if they had not left the
equator and if they had landed at the mouth of
the Amazon. as their calculations indicated.
My friends" replied the old man, ''the
ancient Amazon river, whose waters still flow
over the circle of the equator, no longer rolls
between Its shores the impetuous floods which,
II we believe tradition, caused ii formerly to be
compared to a sea. At the period, long
since vanished. when the empire of Brazil, the
Argentine Republic and Colombia fourished
In South America; when North America
divided into confederated states; when France.
England, Germany, and Russia struggled for
supremacy in European politics. the Atlantic
ocean extended, as we see on the maps. from
the ruins of New York to those of Havre, and
from Pernambuco to Dakar-ruins which are
now forever buried beneath the ice. The
great continent of the West Indies was, it APP
pears, cut up into innumerable small islands,
scattered over immense sea. The oceans
were far yaster and deeper than today, the
rains frequent, the rivers inc xhaustible, ice
and snow never showed themselves in our
country. and the rays of a beneticent sun ferti-
lied the earth in its youth, giving birth to
flowers and fruits, nests and love.
But now all is over with the planet and all
the works which have illustrated its history.
days have become longer. the moon is more
distant and the sun has become colder. The
prediction of the astronomers is fulfilled. The
waters OF the oceans which the solar heat
caused to evaporate in the atmosphere, and
which gave birth TO the clouds, the rains the
springs. the brooks and the rivers, have from
century to century been partially absorbed by
the deep rocks; the air has become drier and
drier. and ceased to be a protecting cover for
the preservation of the heat received; the
M r1rn al md h.,
caused all the heat borrowed from the sun to
rHdiate into space. and the cold of the poles
comes gradually nearer and nearer the tropical
and equatorial zones.
The submits of the mountains had already
been long frozen because above them the at
mosphere too dry and too rarefied to pre-
serve the heat; but life established itself in the
plains and valleys along the streams which
traversed the surface OF the globe. The limits
of vegetation, and, at the same time, the condi-
lions favorable to life, insensibly descended.
The last zone o. terrestrial life has been the
zone of the equatorial plains along the thermic
equator, which trayerses on one side South
America. where we are, and on the other, Cen
trail Africa. whence you came.
when Europe had disappeared beneath the
invading glaciers coming from the north pole,
from Siberia, from Lapland, from the Alps,
from the Caucasus, from the Pyrenees, being
finally reduced to the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, many centuries had already elapsed
since civilization had abandoned il to shine in
America, along which continent it gradually
descended. In consequence of u strange social
organization all the states Of Europe had per-
ished in their own blood; had mutually opened
each others veins. Some governments had
convinced millions of citizens that the greatest
happiness. the supreme honor and the highest
glory consisted In wearing uniforms Of all
. colors and killing each other to the sound of
music. They believed that until the day when
the Chinese invasion came and confscated
them like q band of schOolbOvs.
The annals of modern times report that
anciently expeditions mad been sent through
the ice to lind the ruins OF Paris Of London. Of
/ Berlin, of Vienna, of st. Petersburg, and that
| they had principally found forts, barracks. ar
| senals, arms and ammunition on nearly all the
| territories 1t was doubtless a primitive race
| hardly differing from the animal races.
| This opinion Is, moreover, confirmed by the
| books of ancient history preserved in the
| libraries, showing a state of rude barbarism in
| the customs OF these populations. We find
among other things, long list of curious
! fortunes. Criminals were murdered with
the sword, with poison. with re-
markable choice of varied weapons. Then
they cut up the bodies into small pieces. So
cIety in turn killed the crininals in various
ways. Here their heads were cut off by means
OF axes, swords, and guillotines; there they
we're strangled or hanged; further on thew were
impaIed drowned. On certain DAYS of reyo-
luton in the midst OF the capitals of this pre-
tended civilization the victors seen to place
the Sanquished quietly along the walls and
shoot them down by the hundred. Historians
state that at period not far removed the most
civilized nations KEEP. executioners who were
exercised in crushing the limbs, quartering,
taking OH the skin, burning with red-hot irons,
pulling out the eyes and the tongue breaking
the limbs and torturing in every manner the
victims. whom they generally ended by burn
ing IN the public squares on holidays. The
commentators are right in saying that these
ancestors of our species did not yet deserve the
title of mer.
If the end of the worl1 had taken place at
this period the destruction OF the race would
not have been grea. loss But this ancien.
race made way for ours, and we too must
perish We perish of cold. Sterile nature no
longer produces anything. For many centuries
pas! there has been more wheat or vines.
For many centuries there have been no NOR,
pastures OF focks. We are now reduced to the
last tsh But added the old man, the table
will still outlive the guests for there are no
newborn babes among Us: there actually
only men here. those that you see, the last child
of the other sex, my poor little Speranza, not
having survived her birth"
This declaration produced on all the men,
bers OF the expedition the effect of an electric
shock. The fall of Il thunderbolt in the midst
OF the assembly would not have brought about
| a greater confusion.
What - cried the chief of the fotilla
There Is no longer a single woman among
you!'
Not sipola ,pswarad 900 - Al.