Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-05-24

there was no struggle for existence There
was no necessity for the sowing of corn
or the slaughter of animals for the sup
port of human life. Their science, if be-
hind ours in some respects, was far i'll adj
vance of it in others. Food was almost
as free and plentiful among them as the
air which they breathed, because they had
learned to manufacture it from its cheml-
cal elements, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon
and nitrogen, which exist in abundance
on their planet as on ours. Though, how
ever, there was no absolute necessity for
the slaughter of animals, and though, as a
matter of fact, they did not kill any land
animals for food, yet they caught, killed
and ate fish. The boats which l had seen
issue from the harbor the morning of my
arrival were fishingboats.
Their mode of fishing was peculiar
They let down a large basket with bait
at the bottom. This basket had coil OF
wire in it, connecting with an electric
battery in the boat. Every fish that
touched the wire was instantaneOusly
killed AS many as 100 fish were often
thus caught by single boat in a few
minutes. AS l had suspected, both the
boats and street vehicles were impelled
by electricity.
I asked my host Kaflin if there were
any other cities on Mars besides Gren-
sum, the city in which we lived, and
which was the only one | had seen or
heard of yet, or any race of men besides
the Grensumin.
He replied that, as far as he knew,
there was no other city; but that there
was another race of men, whom he called
the Dergdunin, farther inland, of diff
ferent color, who wandered from place
to place, and lived by hunting. In past
years the Grensumin had suffered much
from the attacks of these hordeS, but ten
years ago (Marsian years, equal to eight
cen of our years. his people had inflicted
upon them such a crushing defeat that
the Dergdunin had left them unmolested
ever since. To my questions as to their
color and personal appearance he showed
me book of pictures which | had never
seen before, and in which, among other
things, there was picture of five Derg-
DUNN prisoners with their hands tied be-
hind their backs. These he explained
to me, were not prisoners taken in war,
but men who had ventured only a few
months ago into their town for the pur-
pose of plumber. Their color might be
described as a kind of dark-red, and
their features strongly reminded me of
the Indians of North America. Like the
Grensumin, they were clothed in a mail
lot-like costume, but of a rude kind of
patchwork, which my host told me was
made of the large tough leaves of tree,
which he called the lintar, and which
was very plentiful inland
When | asked my host where his Deo-
pie had come from originally, he went
to the open window and looked up at
the sky. Then saying, "Cha chi mi kay
Won sho" IL cannot see it from here), he
came back and requested me to go with
him to the house. / went with him at
once. When we arrived there he pointed
to bright star in the sky and said,
"Hennic shin Won sheet eve came from
there.
| had suspected as much The bright
star to which he pointed was my own
native earth on which was often won't
to fix my own wistful gaze at nights
when L told him that | had suspected
that his ancestors had come from there,
he seemed surprised, and asked me why.
| replied:
Because too have come from there
Il thought as much,' he said; "'but did
not like to ask you"
Surprised in my turn, asked him why
he had thought so.
lie pointed to the Shooting Star which
had been lying idle on the roof ever
since came, and said:
That's one reason. / saw it shoot
down like lightning from the sky. Your
quick, Jerky walk at first; that's another
reason. Your white color, now changed;
that's a third reason
l asked him why he had suspected so
from my jerky walk: His reply was:
"Voir traekly an Tahlav lastir nan
Gllntan' because the earth pulls more
strongly than Mars.)
Evidently the Marsians were acquaint-
ed with the law of gravitation, and were
not ignorant of astronomy
Besides" he added, cit is written in
the annals of my people that our fathers
were white when they were drawn on
Glintan MARS, and that, till they got
used to their new planet, they could not
properly walk on it.
Here was news indeed. But what Gid
he mean by when they We're drawn on
Glintan?" That phrase needed explana-
ton; SO | asked him what it meant
Then he told me of a strange event
which our astronomers have never sus-
pected, though it explains some perplex-
ing phenomena, the glacial period in the
earths history amongst them.
Many, many ages ago." he said. eff
tradition speaks truly, the fathers of my
people lived in another world, that bright
star yonder, which we call Tahlav How
came we then to leave it, to dwell upon
this sGlintan, as we call this world? I
will tell you. It was not so much that
we left Tahlav as that Tahlav, like an
unnatural mother, left us. You look sur
prised, and well you may; yet you will
find that the matter is not so utterly i'm
possible as at first sight it appears But
let lie relate TIE story from the DcS1n-
ming.
''Many years ago, as T. have said, our
fathers lived upon Tahlav. They were
much ruder and more ignorant in many
things than we are of the present day,
yet they were not wholly savage. They
lived in huts; they were clothed in the
skins of the wild beasts which they killed
for food Or in self-defense, and they cui-
tivated the ground. They gave much at
tention to the movements of the sun and
Of the stars, and also of another sun,
which sometimes shone with a much
paler light in their sky at night, and
which they called the Yelluch. In this
respect they were much more favored
than we are upon this Glintan, for we
have no light at night except what we
manufacture ourselves, the light afforded
by our *Leena being too feeble to be Of
any service to us"
I guessed at once that this night-sun
which my host spoke of was the moon;
but / felt intensely interested and would
not have interrupted him for the world.
*Leena is the larger and much the nearer
of GIintanS two small satellites.