Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-06-29
MAN IN THE MOON.

II WAS Gno laSG Gay OF Gno late great
frost, and. unmindful of my 80 odd
years, l undertook to skate 20 miles or
so along tho frozen Lea. When l re-
turned homo, l was tired-so tired that
scarcely was l seated in my armchair
when l found myself nodding, and un-
doubtedly should have fallen asleep
had not an exceedingly strange circum-
stance happened.
To be brief, then, l was lifted from
my chair in my homo in north London,
whirled through space for couple of
hours and then deposited gently but
firmly OH tho moon.
Scarcely had | recovered my breath
when an aged man of venerable aspect,
whom l at once recognized as the max
in the moon, approached me and in
quired my business. explained that I
was an involuntary trespasser OH his
hospitality, and then, thinking as was
there | might as we'll learn something
about the history of our satellite and its
nhabitants-supposing there were any
Il 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
projecting mass of granite and rested
his back against the cone of an extinct
volcano II have seen lot of changes
in my time. How old am 1? Well, 1
don't know exactly, but it is some mil
lions of years ago since my first birth
day.
"Why, bless my heart, when was
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 i'll 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"
ICpSdtCu
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 fourished
here while the earth was yet formless
and void, vast white hot mass of semi
fluid granite. AT first he was weak for
lack of knowledge, and fought-often
f11l III af
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-
cation. "
"And what happened them" 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. 1t
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
perished, 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. 3"
IA 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
livers he had been describing.
mo, / am not resigned" and he
shook his head slowly from side to side.