The herald., 1898-02-06
Copyright, 1898, by Garrett P. serviss.

invasion of the earth by the Martial
should go without record, and circun
stances having placed the facts at m
disposal, 1 deem it a duty, both to poi
terity and to those who were witnesst
of and participants in the avengin
counterstroke that the earth dealt bac
at adts ruthless enemy in the heavens
to write down the story in a connecte
form.
The Martians had nearly all persisted
not Through our puny efforts, but i
consequence of disease, and the fey
survivors fled in one of their proJectil
cars, infiicting their cruelest blow il
the act of departure.
They possessed a mysterious eXplo
sive of unima ginable puissance, Will
whose aid they set their car in motion
for Mars from a point in Bergen coun
ty, N. j., just back of the Palisades.
The force of the explosion may bt
imagined when it is recollected thai
they had to give the car a velocity OF
more than seven miles per second III
order to overcome the attraction of the
earth and the resistance of the atmo-
sphere.
The shock destroyed all of New York
that had not already fallen a prey, and
all the buildings yet standing in the
surrounding towns and cities fell in one
far-circling ruin.
The Palisades tumbled in vast sheets,
starting a tidal wave in the Hudson
that drowned the opposite shore.
The victims of this ferocious ex-
ploslons were numbered by tens of
thousands. and the shock, transmitted
through the rocky frame of the globe,
was recorded by seisInographic pendu-
iums in England and on the Continent
of Europe
The terrible resufcs achieved by the
Invaders had produced everywhere a
mingled feeling of CONSERVATION and
hopelessness. The devastation was
widespread. The death-dealing en-
gines which the Ma,'tians had brought
with them had proved irresistible and
the inhabitants of the earth possessed
nothing capable of contending against
them. There had been no protection
for the great cities; no protection
even for the open country. Every thing
had gone down before the savage on
slaught of those merciless invaders
from space. Savage ruins covered the
sites of many formerly fourishng
towns and villages and the broken
walls of great cities stared at the
heavens like the exhumed skeleton
of Pompeii. The awful agencies had
extirpated pastures and meadows
and dried up the very springs of fer
tility in the earth where they had
touched it. In some parts of the de-
vastated lands pestilence broke out;
elsewhere there was famine. Despon-
IL io+1,+ Cd
some of the fairest portions of the
globe.
Yet all had not been destroyed, be-
cause all had not been reached by the
whitening hand of the destroyer. The
Martians had not had time to complete
their work before they themselves fell
a prey to diseases that carried them
off at the very elimination of their
triumph.
From those lands which had. fortun-
ately, escaped invasion. relief was sent
to the sufferers. The outburst of
pity and of charity exceeded anything
that the world had known. Differences
of race and of religion were swallowed
up in the universal sympathy which
was felt for those who had suffered so
terribly from an evil that was as un-
expected as it was unimaginable in it's
enornity.
But the worst was not yet. More
Dreadful that the actual suffering and
the scenes of death and devastation
which overspread the afflicted lands
was the profound mental and moral
depression that followed. This was
shared even by those who had not seen
the Martians and had not witnessed
the destructive effects of the f1ightful
engines of war that they had imported
for the conquest of the earth. All man
kind was sunk deep in this universal
despair, and it became tenfold blacker
when the astronomers announced from
their observatories that strange lights
were visible, moving and flashing upon
the red surface of the Planet of War
These mysterious appearances could
only be interpreted in the light of past
experience to mean that the Martans
were preparing for another invasion of
the earth, and who could doubt that
with the invincble powers of destruc-
tion at their command they would this
time make their work complete and
final?
This startling announcement was
the more pitiable in its effects because
DIT served to unnerve and discourage
those few of stouter hearts and more
hopeful temperaments who had already
begun the labor of restoration and re-
construction amid the embers of their
desolated homes. In New York this
feeling of hope and confidence, this de-
termination to rise against disaster
and to wipe out the evidences of its
dreadful presence as quickly as posi-
BILE, had especially manifested itself.
Already a company had been formed
and a large amount of capital sub
scribed for the reconstruction Of the
destroyed bridges over the East river
Already architects We're busily at work
planning new twenty-story hotels
and apartment houses; new churches
and new cathedrals on a grander scale
than before. Amid this stir of re-
newed life came the fatal news that
Mars was undoubtedly preparing to
deal us a death blow. The sudden
revulsion of feeling fitted like the
shadow of an eclipse over the EARTH
The scenes that followed We're indie
scribable. Men lost their reason. The
nt-hearted ended the suspense with
Uelf-destruction, tba Stout-hearted re-