Connecticut western news., 1895-08-22
MAN IN THE MOON.


 years, I undertook to skate 90 miles or so along the frozen Lea. When I re- turned home, was tired-so tired that scarcely was I seated in my armchair when I found myself nodding. and un- doubtedly shonld have fallen asleep had not an exceedingly strange oircum- stance happened.
 To be brief, then, was lifted from my chair in my home in north London, whirled through space for a couple of hours and then deposited gently but firmly on the moon.
 Scarcely had l 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. l 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 nhabitants-supposin there were any II proceeded as respectfully as might be to question the old fellow.
 ''Yes; 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. 1T have seen a lot of changes in my time. How old am I? We'll. 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 gleamed 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 plashed and leaped and plashed 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 a million years or so man came"
 "Man?'' repeated incredulously.
 "Yes, man," he reiterated rather testily. Man, of course. Do you think your earth alone has been the home of man? I tell you he lived and fourished here while the earth was yet formless and void, vast white hot mass of semi auid 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 a 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. it did not take us more than 200, 900 years to perfect our civili- zation."
 'And what happened then" was my next query.
 "Ah, there you have asked a question hard to answer" quoth the old man | sadly. "All I know is that one year there came blight over all things. It was not exactly plague. It was rather | a 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 it's baneful effects, and he dwindled and pined and finally perished, and the places that had been wont to know him knew him no more fl forever.
 ssThen as the sunny atmosphere grew more and more attenuated the man. malls first and afterward every form of animal life grew cold and dead. The lowest forms of plant life fingered for 6 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 Fit today. a dead world, without heat, | atmosphere or moisture.
 l "A sad fate surely but you must have become resigned, said soothing. ly. for the old man was signing heavily and gazing fixedly into space as though he saw again the lost visions of lone flyers he had been describing. I No, I 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. "I was not aware'-
 "That had sister," he interrupted "Oh, yes, have, but forgotl Of cours. you have never seen her. She lives or
 the side of the moon opposite to tt earth, amid mountains and valleys, ul on whose bold outlines no earthly ey ' has ever gazed. It is by far the best sic
 of the moon, too, but she is gettin
 rather tired of living there and tall
 about changing places with me. l g. pect you would be rather surprised dow
 below there if some fine day-or nigh
 rather-you found woman in the moo , instead of man. Ha, ha, hap and fo getful of his recent fit of the blues tl
 old chap gave vent to hearty guffaw
 "We shOuld indeed ,, | renlie