The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-23
ONLY ONE MAN IN THE WORLD.
Scientific Speculation as 20 what
May BE Fate of That Last Man.

FROM London Answers.
Astronomers tell us, that the day must
come when the earth will. like the moon.
wheel through the heavens a dead and
barren bail Of matter-airless, waterless.
life,ess. But long, long before that time
man viii be extinct viii have disappeared
so utterly that not so much as the bleach
ed skeleton Of a human being will be vsi-
be on an the millions OF square miles OF
the surface Of this planet
Unless by some huge and universal cata-
clysm The whole race is swept at once into
eternity. it is but reasonable 10 suppose
that man, ike any other race Of animals,
will disappear slowly. and that eventually
there will be but a single human being left
some Old, Old man, gray-headed and
beared and left 10 wander alone I'm a soil
tude that may be imagined but not de-
scribed.
How viii ne 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 loneliness
and himself end his own miserable exist
ence He may be eaten by the vast rep
tiles or giant insects which win then prob
ably infest the solitudes.
But his fate may be far weirder and
more QlCdOIui. ScleHtislS says tndt as we
burn the coal and timber we are sim 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 pants, but not all 1t must Increase and
eventually poison the breathabe air, filing
the valleys and mounting slowly 10 the
hilltopa where the last remains Of animal
life are striving for existence The last
man viii climb higher and higher, but
avautraIU no authorizing Invisible doo1
viii reach and drown him.
Again IL is said that the earth as II
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 explosion so terrible
as may startle the inhabitants of neigh
boring worlds. The last man IN this case
win probably be some Arctic explorer or
Eskimo whom the vast plains Of Ice
around will save from instant death ana
;aaVe 10 grill q few moments til 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 man fate viii be the worst describ-
able. He will die of thirst The scene OF
his death viii probably be the great va
lev in the bed Of the Atlantic ocean. of
the Brazilian coast half way between
Rio Janeiro and the Cape, where now siN
miles Of green water lie between the
steamers keel and the aoysmal slime be-
Meath There. hopeessly digging in the
ever-dryug mud, he must perish and
leave his bones 10 parch on a waterless
planet
The Antarctic polar ice cap has been
growing thicker and heavier for uncount-
cd ages. The distance from the South
Pole to the edge OF this ice cap is / 400
miles The ice rises steadily from the
edge 20 the center. At that center 1t can
not be less than twelve miles in thickness
twice as thick as Mount Everes. Is high.
Suppose It splits. Imagine that gigantic
mass of water and Ice that viii come
sweeping up North over the oceans and
continents of the earth. Where, then. win
the last man breathe his final gasp? High
Up IN the SHOWS Of some great range he
win perish miserably Of cold and starva-