The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-08-30
Only One Man in the World.

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-air-
less, waterless, lifeless. But long,
long before that time man will be ex-
tinct: will have disappeared so utterly
that not so much as the bleached skel-
eton Of human being will be visible
on all the millions of square miles OF
the surface of this planet.
Unless by some huge and universal
cataclysm the whole race is swept at
once into eternity, it is but reasonable
to suppose that man, like any other
race Of animals, will disappear slowly,
and that eventually there will be but
single human being left-some old,
old man, gray-headed and bearded,
and left to wander alone in solitude
that may be imagined, but not de-
scribed.
How will he die, this last relic of
the teeming millions that once trans
formed the face of the globe and ruled
undisputed maseers Of every other
living thing? There are many fates
that may befall him. Hemay go mad
with the horror Of loneliness and him
self end his own miserable existence.
He may be eaten by the vast reptiles
or giant insects which will then prob
ably 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-in-
creasing volume Of carbonic acid gas.
Much Of this is taken up by plants,
but not all. 1t must increase and
eventually poison the breathabie air,
filing the valleys and mounting slow
ly to the hill tops, where the last re-
mains Of animal life are striving for
existence. The last man will climb
higher and higher, but eventually the
suffocating, invisible food will reach
and drown him.
Again, it is said that the earth as it
gets older is cracking like dry mud.
These cracks will increase until at last
they will let the waters Of the ocean
and rivers sink into the fiery centre Of
the globe. Then will occur an explo-
sion so terrible as may startle the in
habitants of neighboring worlds. The
last man in this case will probably be
some.Arctic explorer or Eskimo, whom
the vast plains Of ice around will save
from instant death and leave to grill a
few moments till the ice continents
are swallowed by red-hot gases and
steam.
Suppose these earth cracks develop
more slowly, they may suck away the
water without devastating explosions.
Then the last mans fate will be the
worst describable. He will die Of
thirst. The scene of his death will
probably be the great valley in the
bed Of the Atlantic Ocean off the Bra
zilian coast, halfway between Rio ia
neiro and the Cape, where now six
miles Of green water lie between the
steamers keel and the abyssmal slime
beneath. There, hopelessly digging
in the ever-drying mud, he must perish
and leave his bones to parch on Wa
terless planet.
The Antarctic polar ice cap has
been growing thicker and heavier for
uncounted ages. The distance from
the South Pole to the edge of this ice
cap is 1,40O miles. The ice rises
steadily from the edge to the centre.
At that centre it cannot be less than
twelve miles in thickness-twice as
thick as Mount Everest is high. Sup
pose it splits. Imagine the gigantic
mass Of water and ice that will come
sweeping up north over the oceans
and continents of the earth. Where,
then, will the last man breathe his
final gasp? High up in tho SHOWS Of
some great range he will perish miser-
ably of cold and starvation, looking
down on huge shallow sea, beneath
whose tossing waters will lie the
whole of the races of the world.
Or last, and perhaps dreariest fate
Of all, the human race may outlive
other animals and last until the sun,
as some day it must, grows dull and
cold and vegetation dies from the
chilled earth. The miserable remnant
of earth's people must then slowly die
out after ages of existence to which
that Of the Eskimo of to-day is par