The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1899-08-25
LAST MAN ON EARTH.
PRCBLEMATICAL FATE OF MAN
KINDS SOLE SURVIVOR.
low Will He Come to His Denth?-
Science Points Out Several Ways in
Which 1t Is Possible He May Meet
His Fate.

His Fate.
Astronomers tell us that the day must
come when the earth will, like the
moon, wheel through the heavens a
less, waterless, lifeless. But long, long
before that time man will be extinct.
will have disappeared so utterly that
not SO much as the bleached skeleton
of a human being will be visible on all
the millions Of square miles of the sur
face Of this planet Unless by some
huge and universal cntaclysm the whole
race is swept at once into eternity it is
but reasonable to suppose that man,
like any other race of animals, will dis
appear 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
q 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 master Of every
other living thing? There are many
go mad with the horror of loneliness
and himself end his own miserable
existence. He may be eaten by the
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 breathabe air, filling the valleys
and mounting slowly to the hilltops,
where the last remains of animal life
are striving for existence. The last
man will climb higher and higher, but
eventually the suffocating invisible
auid will reach and drown him.
Again, it is said thnt 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 center of
the globe. Then will occur an explo-
sion so terrible as may startle the in
habftants 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
few moments till the ice continents are
swallowed by redhot 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 describabie. 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 Brazilian
coast, halfway between Rio Janeiro
and the cape, where now six miles of
green water lie between the steamers
keel and the abysmal slime beneath.
There, hopelessly digging in the ever
drying mud, he must perish and leave
his bones to parch on q waterless
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 1,400 miles. The ice rises steadily
AAoA1A e1C SSCS W tuS SCuleT. AZ
center 1T cannot be less than twelve
miles in thickness-twice as thick as
Mount Everest is high. Suppose it
splits. Imagine the gigantic mass OF
water and ice that will ceme sweep
ing up north over the oceans and con-
tinents of the earth Where, then. will
the last man breathe his final gasp?
High up in the SHOWS Of some great
range he will perish miserably of cold
and starvation. looking down on n huge
shallow sea beneath whose tossing
waters will lie. the whole of the races of
the world. Or, last, and perhaps drear-
lest fate of all, the human race may
outlive other mammals and last until
the sun, as some day it must, grows
dull and cold and vegetation dies from
the chilled earth. The miserable REM
nant Of earth's people must then slow
ly die out after ages of an existence TO
which that of the Eskimo Of to-day is
a paradise.-London Answers.