The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1896-01-18
MAN IN THE MOON.

1t was the last day of the late great
frost, and. unmindful Of my 80 odd
years, / undertook to skate 90 miles OF
SO along the frozen Lea. When | re-
turned home was tired-so tired that
scarcely was | seated in my armchair
when found myself nodding, and I'M
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 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 l might as well learn something
about the history of our satellite and its
nhabitants-supposin there were any
Il proceeded as respectfully as might
be 10 question the old fellow.
Eyes; you are right, he exclaimed
in answer to my query as he placed this
load of fagots he was carrying on q
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,
don't know exactly. but it is some mil
lions of years ago since my first birth
day.
why, bless my heart, when l was 1
lad, this old dried up moon was as brigh
and fresh as your earth is now.
Seas sparkled in the sunlight, brook
cleaned and flashed through the valley
and forests clothed with verdure thu
mountains now dead and silent. Aye
these were glorious times. The bird
sang in the woods from early dawn t
nightfall, the fishes leaped and plasheI
and leaped and FLASHED again in ever.
eddy and pool of our prehistoric rivers
Great mammals, some uncouth ant
some beautiful, but mostly the latter
roamed at will amid the glades of on
mighty forests. Then, after a million
years or so, man came.
"Man?" l repeated incredulously.
Eyes, man." he reiterated rathe
testify. MAN, of course. Do you thin
your earth alone has been the homo Q
man? l tell you he lived and fiourishe
here while the earth was yet formles
and void, a vast white hot mass of semi
fluid granite. At first he was weak fo
lack Of knowledge, and fought-ofte
..ncr,nraccfrI1r~ la q
the forests for food and drink and RAJ
ment. Then as he grew older he gre'
wiser and carved for himself weapon
of flint and wood. just as the earth ma
did a million or two years afterwarC
Our lunar men were very clever, too
very clever. Not so large or so stron
as terrestrial man, perhaps, but quick'
to learn. Why. it did not take us mol
than 200. 900 years to perfect our civil
cation"
And what happened then?" was m
next query.
"Ah, there you have asked questic
hard TO answer" quoth the old ma
sadly. IAN l know is that one ye;
there came blight over all things
was not exactly plague. 1t was rath
want of vitality in the atmosphe
that reacted with terrible effect ON a
animate nature Man. being the mo
highly organized of all things Twin
was the first to feel its baneful effect
and he dwindled and pinned and final
persisted, and the places that had be-
won't to know him knew him no mo
forever.
Then as the sunny atmosphere gre
more and more attenuated the MAJ
mails first and afterward every form
animal life grew cold and dead. T.
lowest forms of plant life fingered for
few thousand years longer. until {
last drop Of water had evaporated in
space, in fact, and then they, too. va
ished, and the moon was left as you S
il today, a dead world, without hes