The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1895-05-28
MAN IN THE MOON.


Scarcely had recovered my breath
when an aged man of venerable aspect,
whom at once recognized as the man
In the moon, approached me and in
quired my business / explained that
was an involuntary trespasser on his
hospitality, and then, thinking as was
there / might as we'll learn something
about the history of our satellite and its
inhabitants supposing there were any
II proceeded as respectfully as might
be to question the old fellow.
Eyes; you are right, he exclaimed
in answer to my query as he placed the
load Of fagots he was carrying on a
projecting mass of granite and rested
his back against the cone of an extinct
volcano ST have seen lot of changes
in my time. How old am /? Well,
don't know exactly. but it is some mill
lions of years ago since my first birth
day.
why, bless my heart, when was a
lad, this old dried up moon was as bright
and fresh as your earth is now.
"Seas sparkled in the sunlight, brooks
cleaned and flashed through the valleys
and forests clothed with verdure the
mountains now dead and silent. Aye,
these were glorious times The birds
sang in the woods from early dawn to
nightfall, the fishes leaped and FLASHED
and leaped and FLASHED again in every
eddy and pool Of our prehistoric rivers.
Great mammals, some uncouth and
some beautiful, but mostly the latter,
roamed at will amid the glades of our
mighty forests. Then, after million
years or so, man came
MANI repeated incredulously.
/ Eyes, man, he reiterated rather
testify. MAN, of course. Do you think
your earth alone has been the home Of
man? tell you he lived and fiourished
here while the earth was yet fornless
and void, vast white hot mass of semi
fluid granite. At first he was weak for
lack of knowledge, and fought-often
unsuccessfully-with the wild beasts of
the forests for food and drink and raj
ment. Then as he grew older he grew
wiser and carved for himself weapons
of flint and wood, just as the earth man
did million or two years afterward.
Our lunar men were very clever, too
very clever. Not SO large or so strong
as terrestrial man, perhaps, but quicker
to learn. Why, 1t did not take us more
than 200. 900 years to perfect our civili-
Eatien."
"And what happened then?'' was my
next query
"Ah, there You have asked question
hard to answer, quoth the old man
sadly. "All l know is that one year
there came blight over all things It
was not exactly plague. 1t was rather
want of vitality in the atmosphere
that reacted with terrible effect on all
animate nature. Man, being the most
highly organized of all things living,
was the first to feel its baneful effects,
and he dwindled and pined and finally
persisted, and the places that had been
wont to know him knew him no more
forever.
''Then as the sunny atmosphere grew
more and more attenuated the man.
mails first and afterward every form Of
animal life grew cold and dead. The
lowest forms Of plant life fingered for a
few thousand years longer, until the
last drop of water had evaporated into
space, In fact. and then they, too, van
ished, and the moon was left as you see
it today. a dead world, without heat,
atmosphere or moisture.
"a sad fate surely, but You must
have become resigned, said soothing
ly. for the old man was signing heavily
and gazing tixedly into space as though
he saw again the lost visions of lone
liyers he had been describing.
mo, l am not resigned and he
shook his head slowly from side to side.
both myself and my sister look for
ward to better times to come"
Your sister," ] exclaimed wonder
ingly. II was not aware
THAT had sister," he interrupted.
"Oh, yes, have, but forgotl OF course
you have never seen her. She lives on
the side Of the moon opp, the
earth, amid mountains and valleys, up
on whose bold outlines no earthly eye
has ever gazed. tits by far the best side
of the moon, too, but she is getting
rather tired of living there and talks
about changing places with me. ex-
pect you would be rather surprised down
below there If some fine day-or night,
rather-you found woman in the moon
instead Of man. Ha, ha, ha p and for
getful of his recent fit of the blues the
old chap gave vent to hearty guffaw.
1--WE should indeed" / replied,
laughing in my turn, although fancy,
unless your sisters appearance differs in
marked degree from your own, that
we should scarcely be able to distin-
guish the difference. You must admit
yourself that one must possess good eye
sight to tell man from woman 240,-
900 miles away"
"Oh, but" answered the old man,
with touch of family pride, "she is a
fine womanl Not bent and bowed with
age like me. Indeed she is really 6, 00O,-
900 years younger than am L Then, of
course, she dresses in-in"-
1.-THE habiliments suitable to her
sex, ventured to say.
Precisely, and, like all the women
here, is fond Of dress. Why, when last
visited her, some 90, 900 years ago, al
most her first question was How do the
women dress now on the earth2 OF
course there wasn't much to tell her be-
cause-well, the women of that day
didn't trouble themselves much about
dress. but / am thinking Of paying her
another visit soon, and then shall have
a different budget of news for her.
'But tell me, !" l interrupted, for I
was not much interested in the old fell
lows sister, something about the
earth. You must have seen almost as
great changes in the earth as in the
moon"
almost, - was the answer, ''but not
quite. My world is cold and dead
Yours is still alive, as was mine once,
but your turn will come some day, and
then we shall both go circling through
space, cold, silent and lifeless But
that" he continued, will be many
millions of years from now, almost as
many millions as it is since / first set
eyes on your planet Then, as / said be-
fore, it was mere mass of molten mat
ter--a vast white hot ball whirling
round the sun and carrying me with it.
] remember as though it were yesterday
the first beginning of earthly life. At