The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-06-22
MAN IN H MOON.

1t was the last day of the late great
frost, and. unmindful of my so odd
years, / undertook to skate 20 miles or
SO along the frozen Lea. When l re.
turned home, l was tired-so tired that
scarcely was I seated in my armchair
when I found myself nodding, and un-
doubtedly l should have fallen asleep
had not an exceedingly strange circum-
stance happened.
To be brief, then, l was lifted from
my chair in my home in north London,
whirled through space for q 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 I at once recognized as the man
in the moon, approached me and in
quired my business. I explained that I
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
Il 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 zone Of an extinct
volcano. Il have seen a lot of changes
in my time. How old am I? Well, I
don't know exactly. but it is some mil
lions of years ago since my first birth
day.
why, bless my heart. when I 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 nj 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?" l repeated incredulously.
Eyes, man," he reiterated rather
testify. Man, of course. Do you think
your earth alone has been the home of
, man? l tell you he lived and flourished
here while the earth was yet formless
and void, a 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 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, 600 years. to perfect our civil
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 l know is that one year
there came a blight over all things. 1t
was not exactly a 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. pinned 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 nam.
mails first and afterward every form o.
animal life grew cold and dead. TIL,
lowest forms of plant life fingered for
few thousand years longer, until tn,
last drop of water had e~vaporated int,
space, in fact, and then they, too, van
ished, and the noon was left as you SO,
it today, q dead world, without heat
atmosphere or moisture"
"A sad fate surely. but you mus
have become resigned" l said soothing
~. for the old man was signing heavil
and gazing ixedly into space as thong
he saw again the lost visions of lon
livers he had been describing.
mo, ! Am not resigned" and b
shook his head slowly from side to side
Both myself and my sister look 70,
ward to better times to come"
Your sister," l exclaimed wonde,
ingly. II was not aware
THAT ! had a sister, he interrupted
"Oh, yes, / have. but l forgoti OF courf
you have never seen her. She lives O
.l. - -.~-S