The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-30
A DOOMED CONTINENT.
Tho Startling Prophecy OF u Noted
Scientist.
America. to Become Gradually Exhausted
and.Undt for tho Abode OF tho Cnu-
casian Decentralization
Eatcd.

casian Decentralization
Fatcd.
IL Is not a comfortable theory to re-
hect upon that state after state of tho
union will decay like Nevada until this
whole continent shall become barren
wilderness inhabited only by savagcs.
Yet this Is the prophecy recently made
by Prof Otis Mason of tho bureau of
ethnOlogy of the national museum. The
professor said:
SIN order that this may be under
stood, it is first necessary to explain
that this western part of the world,
known as North and South America, is
from the scientific point Of view TN In
ferior continent as compared with tho
land masses Of the other hemispheres.
BY that is meant that, while superior to
Europe, Asia or Africa In point of veg
etable productiveness, 1t is less adapted
for the support of animal life. To show
that this is so make little comparison
for yourself between the beasts of this
hemisphere and those of the other. Tho
elephant of the old world is represented
hero by the tapir. What we have as a
substitute for the camel is the llama,
which is just big enough and strong
enough to carry what would be load
for man. The lion and tiger of Asia
and Africa are represented on this side
of tho earth by little moro than big
cats.
but to arrive at the most marked
exhibition of this contrast you cannot
do better than consider the monkeys,
which arc most highly developed of all
beasts, approaching very nearly to
man. What is there to be found in tho
Americas to correspond with tho
anthropoid apes of the old world? The
gorilla, which uses club; the Chin
panzee, which is easily taught to wait
upon the table and perform other do
nestle duties, and tho ourang, which
presents SO many lil1cncsses to tho
human being, arc represented on this
side Of the world by miserable little
monkeys with tails.
'Thus it is that this part of the earth
is termed an inferior continent, because
it Is not able to produce or support such
high developments of animal life as
are found IN the other part. Civilized
man exists hero to-day, not as n natural
product, but as an importation.
ITO put it plainly, the so-called Amer
lean people have camped over this con-
tinent regardless of their future. They
have dclved into the soil, chopped into
the mountains and used up the land I'M
til there starcs them in the face the
almost immediate prospect of sta1va-
ton. AS for tho state of Nevada, wo
have not been there twenty-five years
and its resources have been exhausted.
In other words, it will almost immedi-
atcly be unable to support population.
The people who inhabit it arc obliged
to 60 because they can no longer mako
their living there, and 1t is simply
question of n short time when it will
become q dead state and SO lapse into
the condition of Il territory as impossi-
bic to revive into the living condition of
state Us If it were a district on the
moon.
"The painful reflection incident to
the subject is that other states, If not
all Ct them, are destined sooner or
later to follow Nevada's example. Tho
population on this continent cannot
necessarily survive the means of sub
sistencc afforded it by the country. If
what science says is true, the white
man has got to go. There has been
talk to the effect that the Chinese must
vanish, but it must be confessed that
they arc very much better adapted to
continue existence on this hemisphere
than ourselves, for the obvious reason
that they will survive us here, and
that they will continue in their own
!, manner the civilization which we have
made an attempt to start.
9 "but the Caucasian, if the scientific
men arc to be believed, will not be able
to support existence on this hemisphere
after the capital, in the way of agri-
cultural and mineral resources, has been
exhausted, as it must be soon. He will
disappear. The natural question is by
what process? 1t is very evident When
superior race becomes poor and there
by unable to maintain its superiority,
it lapses into the condition of poor
white If you will Journey through
the south and take notice of the man
ner in which such conditions as those
have become operative, you will per-
ceivc that the Caucasian does in this
way become thriftless, incapable of ex-
ertion, eventually approaching to the
savage. In other words, he loses his
status in the scale of creation.
Through the progressive exhaustion
of the resources of the country state
after state will necessarily become un-
inhabitablc, because it will be incap;l-
BILE of supporting population. Thus
will come about the depopulation Of
one state after another-of course by
slow process through many years-and
there will be presented the remarkable
phenomenon of the dropping from the
union of these states successfully, boz
cause they have come to be no longer
entitled to representation under tho