The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-11-22
taken with the annual consumption,

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been used. The supply in 1885 wa.
100000 million tons, while the con
sumption in that year was 4l5 million
tons. This estimate would extend the
limit to 800 years, but it included al
the coal within 1000 feet of the sur
face and much of this could not be
worked in paying quantities. The
consumption has also increased and
will continue to increase, so that 800
or 400 years is a very reasonable
limit. 1t is true, that will give us
and all those so nearly related to us
that we need care about them, time
to get out of the way of the final coal
famine, but it is legitimate field of
thought to contemplate the destruction
Of such important necessaries Of life
and to reflect on what will be the con-
dition Of the people when they shall
be taken and destroyed. I once said
to an eminent scientist Mother Earth
won't be worth much when you fel.
lows get through with her; those who
hold mortgage on her would better
foreclose pretty soon If they want to
realize anything" Nonsense" said
he, why in fifty years they will be
heating houses and running machinery
by the suns heat" With all due re-
gard for his eminence as a scientist
he was simply of in his enthusiasm,
and so has all the scientific world
gone daft on achievement. 1t is true,
electricity has taken the place of gas
and largely of petroleum, but cleo
tricity itself requires a generative
power and, except the small proportion
Of water used, that power is coal.
Every invention of the kind increases
rather than diminishes it's consump-
ton, and nothing is likely to take its
place except the remote probability of
the SUMS heat.
The effect likely to follow the par
tial exhaustion of Natures storehouses
may be fairly estimated by examina-
ton Of the work already going on in
the older countries of the world. In
the early history of the orient much of
the land is spoken Of as a wilderness;
the literature abounds in metaphors
of 1.-THE tall cedar, the forest pine"
and the splendid kingdoms were
synonyms of luxurious wealth.
High on his throne of royal state
which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of
Ind;
Or where the gorgeous East with rich
est hand
Showered on her kings barbaric pearl
and gold"
But now the storehouses Of Nature
have been exhausted, their forests
have been destroyed; their streams are
dried up. 1t taxes the charity of the
entire world to fight famine in those
very regions. In many districts Of In
dia and Egypt the only fuel the poor
have is the offal of animals dried in
cakes which furnish Il smouldering
fire over which they cook their mis-
cradle food ut low temperatures and
in some localities hover for warmth
over the low heat, n fitting likeness
to the condition of life into which the
once proud people Of the orient have
degcneratcd.
If a primitive people have under
gone such change from the fuctua-
tons Of Natures supplies what is like
" to happen to highly civilized races
whose very life spirit is in the con-
sumption of a motor power, that
| which drives the ocean steamers, the
thousands of railroad trains, the street
cars, the elevators, the lighting Of
cities, and the thousands of factories
and smelling furnaces? Sit down in q
great city and listen to the confused
sounds that mingle into sulen roar
ing. 1t is the very life Of our civilian
ton, but it is awfully destructive.
What will become Of this life when the
high price Of fuel has made it imprac-
teal? Will it reach low ebb like
life has reached in the orient? I'm
less some generative power now I'M
fOrseen comes to the rescue it will.
Naturally the most expensive ma
chinery will cease first. The cities of
the north will diminish and centers Of
population will tend again toward the
warm countries of the south where
human life will degenerate. 1t may
never reach the conception of the poet !:
But two
II an enormous city did survive
And they were enemies. They met
beside
The dying embers of an altar place
Where had been heaped a mass Of
holy things
For an unholy usage. They raked up
And, shivering, scraped with their
cold, skeleton hands
The feeble ashes and they made a
fame
Which was mockery. Then they
lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter and be-
held