The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-12-15


| on. Now l must run around the Pole
| fifty times i'm the other direction. for !
| am falling into a state of ridiculous ju-
| veniity"
/ saw Colonel Fitch at a little dis
| lance, and / thought / would ask him
who put up the Pole; but he cut me OIL
with, How do you like our lights?'
Wonderful" responded. DID
understand you to say that your light
and heat are obtained without fuol!'
Great Scott, / SHOULD hope So" he
exclaimed. Fuel is antiquated We draw
our electricity from the inorganic uni
verse direct, releasing it without the aid
of combustion. This planet Is an I'M
mense storage battery, and the Aurora
Rorealis is all the while being emptied
into it through the magnetic pole. IN
tercept this electric torrent by simple
contrivance, and get all the power we
want for light. heat, transportation ana
other dynamics' -,
"sir." said / gasping for breath, Il
suppose YOU gear the Arctic Circle 10
the inner flange of the armament by
cogs, You are making fun OF me- rms
tapping the Aurora Borealis is ridiculous
and impossible. A.,
certainly" he calmly observed, that's
what il is All great inventions are riol-
culous and impossible. That's the pecu-
Iiarity of them. Look at Edison'S phono-
graph. for instance, and the kaleidoscope
"Who put up that Pole?' / asked
breaking, away from his theme in des-
perauon.
30, yes" he said, IL meant to tell you.
The old Norwegian put it up. Come ana
look at it,
The pole was about two feet through,
and we approached and inspected 1t.
The electric lamps made 1t look like
a colossal candelabrum.
Letters on it," | said. What a lot
of queer characters cut in the bark.
every old wood" he explained. 1t does
look like bark II is undoubtedly many
thousand years old, and stands nearly I'm
the middle of the ship-it is the mizZen
mast
what ship are you talking about
Colonel?"
"The Om-Slaga. an old Norwegian bark
that drifted here at the beginning OF
the great northern ice age
How do you know" / said, looking
at him incredulously.
.crhis writing here is the song Of An
initiation" he replied. Il will give you
the substance of ii after dinner
Dinner" | echoed. What on earth
or rather. what on ice-do you eat here?'
Anything we prefer We make all
sorts of food containing the chemical
elements, salts, etc, around the arma-
tire of the dynamo. We can turn out
ortolans, terrapin and champagne, at the
same price as water and cabbage.
I was surprised into long whistle:
but he hurried me away-"to see our old
friends" as he phrased It, He led me
two or three hundred feet, ! should think
tnen at bis command some wcrkmen VINO
addressed him as General SID away a
huge block of ice disclosing the end OF
a tunnel. At the end of the passage we
came upon what looked like a section OF
a ship; and i'm its deck sure enough the
mast was firmly fastened
"This" he said. leading me around the
mast to the other side. "is the galley:
and here. on digging around, we found
the crew"
"Alive. General l asked
20. no" he said: frozen solid We
have them yet. DO you want 10 see
them? These little drawers here were
the cooks-where he kept his pepper
salt. and other seasonirgs. We Keep the
crew in them now.
Refore | could express my amazement
he drew out one of the tiny drawers and
set in on a rude slab that had served as
a table. 1t contained what first thought
was a doll, dressed i'm the eiderdown hood
and long fawn-skin skirts OF Norwegian
baby.
AS he took 1t up in his hands and laid
Il upon my arms, ] saw that IL actually
was a baby-or had been. But II was
an unpleasant sight; its wizeneu lace
drawn with suffering.
Eyes" said Captain Fitch, as If read
ing nv thoughts, "they had hard time
of IL. Twenty Of 'em we have III the
drawers around this galley. We know
bv this little iron chain which clasps the
mantle that this was the captain; but
this" he continued, opening another
drawer and exhibiting another midget
face. was the last survivor. lie was an
ancient Viking Of some learning, ana ne
it was who wrote upon the mast IN kunlc
characters the story of their voyage, their
distress, and their extinction. lie says
that he was about seventy when the snip
drifted into these parts and began TO go
round in the Whirlpool while the rest
were much younger; and, of course, they
grew smaller and smaller. and persisted
first There seems to have been no sOlld
ice here at that time: but there was a
great maelstrom here. directly at the pole
fillcd with loatins ice. and the snip was
drawn into il and couldn't get out. The
paople never knew what was the matter
with them AS they had to float round
the poe constantly with the sun, they
could not try any experiments. such as
we tried on the solid ice before we had
been here q week They swung helpless
" round and round, and kept getting
Younger and younger. but knew not why
Jim Rui. as this man called himself he
gan TO suspect when the rest became lii
tie children what the matter was, ana
v1ote on the mast in his strange letters
Doomed, We IRE running down the sun"
He records that he kept mis- companions
alive by feeding them long after they
became perfectly helpless from extreme
infancy. But he added, I, too, am fall
ing into the green and tender leaf AZ
to his end we are left 10 inference, but
assume that he also became too young 10
feed himself and died of hamilton"
"a strange looking child" / said. hand
ing back the little old man, whose eyes
followed me as IL he were alive.
eyes; the ladies have taken a great
interest in him." said Fitch. when we
made this discovery, which was not I'M
til after So-Kuok and / had been back
TO the States a couple of times they used |
to take him out every day and run around |
the pole against the sun trying TO make |
him grow older. But IL was no use. They |
grew older themselves, but he did not |
recover the vital spark. He was a goner."
"What do you suppose the little folks |
lived on? Is 1t known
80. yes" he said Jim Ru wrote out |
the story on the mast. Wild animals |
from the whole Arctic region were at |
tracted upon the broken ice by the Gu |
rious whirling with the sun. They, too. |
kept growing younger and younger and |
when they were young and tender the |
craw caught them and used them for |