St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-19
LAST DAY OF EARTH.
a Fanciful Sketch of the End o
All Things Terrestrial


All Things Terrestrial.
Camille Flammarion.
The earth has been inhabited for
about 22,000,000 years. The primnidial,
age has taken not less than 10,00O,00O
years to go through its several phases.
The primary aye had occupied more
than 6.000,0 600; the secondary age. $780,
600 years; the tertiary age, 500, 900 years;
the primitive human age the time OF
national divisions. of barbarism and Of
militarism, has filed about 800, 900 years:
and the sixth age, that of intel5
lectual humanity, had reigned for
nearly 100000 years. During that
long succession of ages the earth
has grown older and the sun
colder. and. in consequence. the geo.
graphical aspect of the globe had metaaf
mOrphOSed itself; the water of the ocean
had slowly penetrated through the
earth's crust; the sea was contracted to
a fourth of its area in the early human
period; warm valleys and equatorial
regions alone were habitable. All tie
rest was frozen. From century to cen
fury humanity had attained forms of ex-
quisite beauty and no longer worked
materially. A network OF electricity
covered the globe, producing at will all
that was needed. 1t was then unified
race. entirely different from the rude
and heterogeneous races that had char
acteriZed the first period, About the
year 100000 after Jesus Christ, the last
great focus of human civilization shone
i'll the center of equatorial Africa, in
the brilliant city of Suntown, which
had already several times been raised
again from its ashes. The sites where
mic
York had stood were then buried be-
meath the ice. The capital of this ars-
tOcratic republic had attained the last
limits of luxurious and voluptuous
civilization. Wives no longer became
mothers unless by accident: they no
longer desired the inconvenience of
maternity, and reigned in all the splen-
dor of their unblemiShed beauty. Life
had been, if not dried up at its source.
at least rendered irremediably unfruit-
full. No young women remained; the
soil, too. was steriliZed, and the genera
ton saw the end approaching. In this
dilemma an aerial f1otilla was coll
structed, and all the strong men started
on a voyage of investigation of the
whole equatorial zone, to see whether
any isolated human groups still
existed. The entire earth had al
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 survivors 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 COM
munity was already dead, the wine and
the grain were extinct, and the men
subssted solely on fish. On hearing
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: I'VE came III
search of female associates, and had we
found but one single wife, all the riches
of our land would have bee II
hers" Some time before these
events happened in Africa and
America, the island of Ceylon,. now at
tached to Asia, was the last refuge Of
the human i'll Asia; and there, in this
former earthly paradise, not far from
the equator, at the foot of Adams Peak,
dwelt twelve women, sole heiresseS of
the last uneXtinguiShed families. The
male sex had completely disappeared.
The youngest of the females, little Eva,
was three years old. The decline of
natural forces had brought about de-
cline of human forces, and with it the
decline of inventions and usageS which
had formally seemed SO indispensable.
Crossing the Pacific ocen, our adven-
turers observed that Ceylon was freer
from ice than other regions. and APP
preaching it, they saw to their Joy a
grOupe of five women in mourning, the
theh last survivors of the race in
Asia. They alignted, told the object of
their explorations and had no diff
Guilty in convincing the fair Asiatics.
Their despair disappeared like a
mist; and few hours after the arrival
of the aeronauts the five nuns had be-
come the most elegant of women. But
CeylOn was more deSolate than Sun
town; provisions were scarce, and the
whole party, taking the women with
them, returned to their African home.
Arrived there, they found that the
hind were all dead or dying from an
epidemic; the cold, too, was increasing;
ana. 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 pro-
visions available, rose in their aerial
boat to judge of the last inva-
sions of the snow. and saw that the
whole city was buried. Then they
started for the Nile valley, and on
reaching it 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 murmuring eternal love to
each other they sunk into the sleep of
death. And the snow continued to fall,
as a fine powder, on the surface of the
earth. And the earth continued to re-
voIve OH Its axis and to float through
the immensely of space. And the sun
continued to shine, but with a reddish
and barren light, and the stars con-
tinued to scintiliate in the immensely of
the heavens. And the infinite universe
continued to exist, with the billions of
suns and Its billions of living or extinct
planets. And in all the worlds peOpled
with the joys of life, love continued to