The herald., 1898-02-13

a line between the earth and Mara
which latter was dn opposition to the
sun. and consequently as favorably slt-
mated as possible for the purposes of
th, vovage. What would be, then, for
ninety-nine of the hundred ships Of the
squadron. a trial trip would at the
same time be a step of a quarter of a
million of miles gained In the direction
of our Journey, and so no time would
i be wasted.
The departure from the earth was ar
ranged to occur precisely at midnight
The moon near the full was hanging
high over head, and a marvellous spec
tacle was presented to the eyes of those
below as the great squadron of floating
ships, with their signal lights aIblaze,
cast loose and began slowly to move
away on their adventurous and tin-
precedented expedition into the great
unknown. A tremendous cheer, bi1low-
Ding up from THE throaJts of millions of
excited men and women, seemed 10 rend
the curtain of the night. and made the
air-ships tremble with the atmospheric
vibrations that were set in motion
| Instantly magnificent fireworks were
displayed in honor of our departure.
Rockets by hundreds of thousands Shot
heavenward and then burst in con-
stellations of fiery drops. The sudden
illumination thus produced overspread-
ing hundreds of square miles of the
surface of the earth with a light almost
| like that of day. must certainly have
been visible to the inhabitants of Mars.
| II they were watching us at the time.
They might, or might not, correctly in
| terpret its significance: but, at any
rate, we did not care. We were off, and
were confident that We could meet our
enemy on his own ground before he
could attack us again.
| And now, as we slowly rose higher. a
marvellous scene was disclosed. At
| first the earth beneath us, buried as 1t
was in night, resembed the hollow of
a vast cup of ebony blackness. in the
center of which, like the molten lava
run together at the bottom of vol
canic crater, shone the light of the IL
! lumina tions around New York. But
when we got beyond the atmosphere,
and the earth still continued to
recede below us. it's aspect changed.
The cup-shaped appearance was
| gone. and 1T began to round out
beneath our eyes in the form
Of vast globe--,an enormous ball mys-
teriously suspended under us, glimmer-
| ing over most of its surface with the
faint illumination of the moon, and
showing toward the eastern edge the
oncoming light of the rising sun.
When we were still further away.
having slightly varied our course SC
that the sun was once more entirely
hidden behind the centre of the earth,
we saw it's atmosphere completely IL
Illuminated all around it with prismat-
/ l., yic Il, y-oiy, In ha
form of a ring.
| Another shift in our course rapidly
carried us out of the shadow OF the
earth and into the all pervading sun
shine. Then the great planet beneath
us hung unspeakable in it's beauty. The
+. outlines of several of the continents
were clearly discernible on Its surface.
streaked and spotted with the delicate
shades OF varying color, and the SUM-
light flashed and glowed in long lanes
across the convex surface of the oceans.
/ Parallel with the Equator and along
the regions of the ever blowing trade
winds were vast belts of clouds. gor-
geous with crimson and purple as the
sunlight fell upon them. Immense ex-
panses of snow and ice lay Nike gilt
tering garment upon both land and sea
around the North Pole.
| AS we gazed upon this magnificent
spectacle, our hearts bounded within
US. This was our earth,-this was the
planet we were going to defend-our
home in the trackless wilderness OF
space. And it seemed to us indeed
home for which We might gladly ex-
pend our last breath. A new deter
mination to conquer or die sprung up
in our hearts, and I saw Lord Kelvin,
after gazing at the beauteous scene
which the earth presented through his
eyeglass, turn about and peer in the
direction in which we knew that Mars
lay, with a sudden frown that caused
the glass to lose it's grip and fall dang
ling from it's string upon his breast
Even Mr.. Edison seemed moved.
IT am glad 1 thought OF the disinte-
orator." he said. II shouldn't like to
see that world down there laid waste
again"
And it won't be-" said Professor Syi-
vanus P. Thompson, gripping the han
die of am electric machine; mot II we
can help It,"