The record-union., 1893-11-23
PEOPLE OF OTHER WORLDS.
II Jupiter is Inhabited the Men Thel
Are Sixty Feet Tall.

II Jupiter is Inhabited the Men There
Are Sixty Feet Tall.
A great deal has been said and much
speculation INDUCED in with reference to
the question whether the celestial worlds
are inhabited by intellectual beings SIM
liar to earth-inhabiting man. 1t scarcely
admits of doubt that this interesting
question will ever remain mere matter
of speculation: but let us suppose that
beings resembling man in stature were
dwelling on those glorious orbs we see in
the vast vault of the heavens, and let US
investigate what proportions they would
bear to us, provided the length of their
bodies were in the same ratio to the di-
ameter Of their respective globe as ours
to the diameter OF the earth. For this
reason we have chosen the largest orb of
our solar system, the central body of that
| system itself, and the most brilliant fixed
star in the sky.
| The average inhabitant of the planet
| Jupiter would stand about sixty feet in
his shoes. Were such Jovian to visit
our earth he would be able, without the
danger of dislocating his neck, to look
into the topmost stories of our metropoli-
| tan buildings. A Jovian infants cradle
would be considered by US very COM
Portable bed to rest in. The huge soldiers
Of Ariovstus, whose mere sight struck
|
die into very pigmies were they to be
compared with the Jovian soldier; nay,
! the latter would cooily pick up King
| AriovistuS himself, with three or four OF
| his body-guard, and put them into his
| knapsack to keep them as animated toys
| to play with during the hours of rest.
The solar inhabitant OF average size
would measure hight of over 600 feet, so
| that, were he to visit the earth, the most
| aafN a n
would be too small to offer him hospi-
tality. Three or four dozen fattened oxen
would form but meagre break fast for
| that capacious cavern-his stomach. On
the palm Of his hand a whole company of
| terrestrial soldiers would have sufficient
room to go through their military drill
and evolutions. What deafening sounds
would emerge from those enormous bel
! lows-a solar mans lungs-even if he
were to keep the pitch Of his voice within
the limits or ordinary speech, not to men
| ton the hurricane that would sweep over
/ the land were a solar Congressional SEN
ate to indulge in their favorite pastime OF
blowing off rhetorical gas. Would not
| the Speakers gavel calling an obstreper-
Gus member to order break the windows
within radius of considerable length?
The distance of the fixed stars from US
are so enormous that, as yet. no aDso-
1 lutely reliable means have been found of
ascertainlng The real magnitudes of those
| colossal orbs. Still it is to be presumed
that some of them, by dint OF frequent
observations and by applying to them
that powerful lever in the hands of the
astronomer, spectrum analysis, may be
with certainty considered as being at
least certain number of times as great
as our sun. To most of us the sun is the
very quintessence of what is large, but
compared with most fixed stars it be-
comes small, for were it removed to the
distance Of the nearest fixed star it would
shine with the brilliancy of only a star OF
the second magnitude.
Sirius, the king among the fixed stars
OF our armament, is at least SO large that,
if it were inhabited by beings similar to
men, one of average size would attain to
the dazzling hight of one and one-hal1
miles-that of respectable mountain
peak. Here we leave it to the imagina-
ton of the reader to picture to himself a
world peopled with such gigantic beings,
compared with whom we poor terrestrial
mortals sink into utter inSignificance.
Still there is one consoling thought, viz:
that in small body there may dwell a
large soul and vigorous mind, the one i'm
mortal and the other capable of grap-
pling with the abstrusest questions OF
| philosophy and science.-Baltimore Sun.