The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-07


AS l receded faster and faster from
the strange white sun in the black
heavens and from the broad and shin
ing earth upon which my being had be-
gun, seemed to grow, in some incredi-
BILE manner, vast, vast as regards the
world / had left, vast as regards the
moments and periods or a human life.
Very soon / saw the full circle OF the
earth, slightly gibbous, like the moon
when she appears near her full, but
very great; and the silvery shape of
America was now in the MONDAY blaze
where but a few moments ago Gas IL
seemed) little England had been bask-
ing. At first the earth was large and
shone i'm the heavens, filling a great
part OF them, but every moment she
grew smaller and more distant. As she
shrank the little moon in It's third quar-
ter crept into view over the rim of her
/ disk. I saw the consultations. Only
that part of Aries directly behind the
| sun was hidden. 1 recognized the tor
/ tuous tattered band of the Milky Way.
and Vega, very bright between sun
and earth. and Sirius and Orion shone
splendid against the unfathoma BILE
black in the opposite quarter Of the
+ heavens.
| And away beneath and beyond the
shining corona of the sun were strange
groupings of stars had never seen in
life, and notably a dagger-shaped
group that / knew for the Southern
Cross. All these stars were no larger
than when they had shone on earth,
but the little stars that one scarcely
sees behind shone as bright as the first
magnitudes had done here, while these
were now points of indescribable glory
and color. Aldebaran was a spot of
blood-red fire and Sirius condensed to
one point the light of a world of sap
phires. And presently when / looked
again the spinning little earth seemed
no bigger than the sun, and it dwindled
as looked, until in the space of a Sec
ond, as IL seemed to me, it was halved,
and so IL went on swiftly dwindling.
Far away, in the opposite direction, a
little pinkish pins head of light was the
planet Mars. l swan motionless in
space. and without a vestige of terror
or establishment saw the speck of dust
we call the world, that mote of matter,
fall entirely away.
Presently 1t dawned upon me that my
sense of divination had changed that
in reality my mind was not moving
faster, but indefinitely slower; that be-
tween each impression there interviewed
many days. The moon spun once more
round the earth as 1 noticed this and
/ perceived clearly the motion of Mars
in his orbit. And. moreover, it ap-
peared to me as IL the time between
thought and thought grew steadily
greater throughout my vision until at
last thousand years was not a mo-
ment in my perception. At first the
constellation had glittered motionless
against the black background of inf
mite space, but presently it seemed as
through the groups of stars about Her.
cules and the Scorpion were contract
ing, and Orion and Aldebaran and
those about them spreading apart.
Flashing suddenly out of the darkness
there came flying multitude of parti-
cles of rock. glittering like dust specks
in a sunbeam and encompassed in a
family luminous haze. They flew all
about me and vanished again in a mo-
ment far behind.
And then / saw that bright spot of
light that shone a little to one side of
my path was growing very rapidly
larger, and perceived that IL was the
planet Saturn rushing towards me.
Larger and larger IL grew, swallowing
up the heavens behind IL and hiding
every moment a fresh multitude of
stars L perceived it's fiattened, whirl-
ing body and the dish-like belt about
IL, and seven of its little satellites.
Larger 1t grew, towering above me. and
then was plunged amid a streaming
multitude of clashing stones and dane
ing dust particles and gas eddies, and
saw for a moment the mighty triple
belt like three concentric arches of
moonlight above me, and its shadow
black on the tumultuous boiling sur
face below.
These things happened in one-tenth
of the time II takes to tell of them. In
a moment the planet was past me, pass
ing like a flash of lightning; for a few
seconds Ii blotted out the sun, and in
continently IL became a mere black
dwindling sun. The earth / could no
longer see.
So with a stately swiftness, in the
nrOf0undQGt GilanQa the solar
passed away from me, fell from me
like a garment discarded, until the sun
was a mere star amid the multitude of
stars, and it's eddy of planet specks |
were lost in the confused glittering of
the remoter light. l was no longer a
citizen of the world, a denizen of the |
solar system; had come to the outer |
universe; l seemed to grasp and COM
prehend the whole world of matter.
Ever more rapidly the stars rushed to- |
gether about the spot where Antares |
and Vega had vanished in a luminous |
haze. until that part of the sky had the |
appearance of a whirling band of ne |
bulas. and vast and ever vaster gaps |
of the vacant blackness yawned be- |
tween the approaching stars. / moved |
towards a point between Orion's belt |
and sword, and the empty space about |
that region opened vaster and vaster |
every second an incredible gulf of moth |
ter and faster the universe rushed at |
last, hurrying by me silently into the |
void. Stars with their circling planets |
catching the light in a ghostly fashion |
as / neared and vanishing again into |
inexistence, hazy comets. clusters of |
nebulac, whirling wisps of |
gas. whizZed by, some |
perhaps a hundred millions of miles or |
so from me at most, few ever nearer. |
with incredible rapidity swift, |
fiery darts, shooting consultations. |
Broader and wider and deeper grew the |
gap in the meshwork to which / was |
hurrying. and at last quarter OF the |
heavens was black and the whole head |
long rush of starry universe. closed in |
behind me like veil of light that is |
gathered together. 1t rushed away |
from me like a jack-o'-lantern driven |
by the wind.
/ was passing out of the stellar uni |
verse into the gulf beyond. / had come |