The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1899-08-04
WORLDS LAST MAN.
Speculation As to the Awful Final Fate of
the Human Race.

Speculation As to the Awful Final Fate of
the Human Race.
Astronomers tell us that the day
must come when the earth will, like
the moon, wheel through the
heavens dead and barren ball of
matter-airless, waterless, lifeless.
But long, long before that time man
will be extinct, and will have disap-
peared 50 utterly that not so much
rs the bleached skeleton of a human
being will be visible on all the mil
lions of square miles of the surface
of this planet.
Unless by some huge and univer-
sal cataclysm the whole race is
reasonable to suppose that man, like
any other race of animals, will dis
appear slowly, and that eventually
there will be but a single human be
ing left-some old, old man, gray
haired and bearded, and left to wan
der alone III II solitude that may be
imagined but not described.
How will he die, this last relic of
the teeming millions that once
transformed the face of the globe
and ruled undisputed masters of
every other living thing? There are
many fates that may befall him. He
may go mad with the horror of lone
Illness and himself end his own mis-.
cradle existence. He may be eaten
by the vast reptiles or giant insects
which will then probably infest the
solitudes.
But his fate may be far weirder
and more dreadful. Scientists say
that as we burn the coal and timber
we are still so richly supplied with
we let loose into the atmosphere an
ever increasing volume of carbonic
acid gas. Much of this is taken up by
plants, but not all. 1t must increase
and eventually poison the breath
able air, filling the valleys and
mounting slowly 10 the hllltops,
where the last remains of animal
life are striving for existence. The
last man will climb higher and
higher, but eventually the suffoca-
ting invisible flood will reach and
| drown him.
Again, it is said that the earth a.
it gets older is cracking like dry
mud. These cracks Will increase
until at last they will let the water.
of the ocean and rivers sink into the
fiery center of the GLOBE. Then will
occur an explosion so terrible a.
may startle the inhabitants of neigh
boring worlds. The last man in thi.
case will probably be some Arctic
explorer or Eskimo, whom the vas
plains of ice around will save frod
instant death and leave to grill
few moments till the ice continent:
are swallowed by redhot gases anC
steam.
Suppose these earth cracks de
velop more slowly; they may sucl
away the water without devastating
explosions. Then the last man
fate will be the worst describable
He will die Of thirst. The scene o
his death will prob ably be the grea
valley in the bed of the Atlanti
ocean off the Brazilian coast, hal
way between Rio Janeiro and tn
cape, where now six miles of gree
water lie between the steamers kee
: and the aoyssmal slime beneath
There, hopelsssly digging in tn
ever-drying mud, he must peris
and leave his bones to parch on
watterIess planet.
The Antarctic polar ice cap ha
, been growing thicker and heavie
for uncounted ages. The distanc
! from the South Pote to the edge ,
this ice apis l,4O0 miles. The iC
. rises steadily from the edge to tn
: center. At that center it cannot b
less than twelve miles in thickness
twice "a thick as Mount Everset
high. suppose it splits. Imagin
the gigantic mass of water and iC
that will come sweeping north ov,
the oceans and continents of Il
A earth. Where, then, will the la
4 man breathe his final gasp? His
a up in the SHOWS of some great ran,
n he will perish miserably of cold al
n starvation, looking down on a hu,
a shallow sea beneath whose fossil
4 waters will lie the whole ofthe rae
!. of the world.
; Or last, and perhaps dreariest IA
: of all, the human race may outli,
other animals and last until q
a sun, as some day II must, grows dU
4 and cold and vegetation dies fro
) the chilled earth. The miserab
! remnant Of earth's people mu
, then slowly die out after ages OF
= existence TO which that Of q
- Eskimo Of to-day Is a paradise
Answer.