Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1904-07-28
Man In the Moon


1t was the last day of the late
great frost, and, unmlndful of my
fifty odd years, l undertook to skate
twenty miles or SO along the frozen
Lea. When ! returned home | was
tired, so tired that scarcely was l
seated in my armchair when found
myself nodding, and undoubtedly l
should have fallen asleep had not an
exceedingly strange circumstance
happened.
TO be brief, then, 1 was lifted
from my chair in my home in north
London, whirled through space for
a couple of hours and then deposit
ed, gently, but firmly, on the moon.
Scarcely had l recovered my
breath when an aged man of ven-
cradle aspect, whom 1 at once recog-
nized as the man in the moon, ap-
preached me and inquired my bust
ness. l explained that l was an
involuntary trespasser on his hos
pitality, and then, thinking as |
was there l might as well learn
something about the history OF our
satellite and its inhabitants-sup-
posing there were ANY, proceeded
as respectfully as might be to ques-
ton the old fellow.
eyes, you are right" he exclaim-
ed in answer to my query as he
placed the load of fagots he was car
rying on a projecting mass of gran
tie and rested his back against the
cone of an extinct volcano. Il have
seen a lot of changes in my time.
How old am /? Well, | don't know
exactly, but it is some millions Of
years ago since my first birthday.
"Why, bless my heart, when l
was lad this old, dried up moon
was as bright and fresh as your
earth is now.
"Seas sparkled in the sunlight,
brooks cleaned and dashed through
the valleys, and forests clothed with
verdure the mountains now dead
and silent. Aye, these were glorious
times. The birds sang in the woods
from early dawn to nightfall, the
fishes leaped and FLASHED and leaped
and FLASHED again in every eddy and
pool of our prehistoric rivers. Great
mammals, some uncouth and some
beautiful, but mostly the latter,
roamed at will amid the glades of
our mighty forests. Then, after a
million years or so, man came"
MAN." repeated incredulously.
eyes, man," he reiterated rather
testify. "Nlan, Of course. DO you
think your earth alone has been the
home of man? | tell you he lived
and fourished here while the earth
was vet formless and void, a vast
white hot mass of semifuid granite.
At first lie yas weak for lack of
knowledge, and fought-often un-
successfully-with the wild beasts
of the forests for food and drink
and raiment. Then as he grew older
he grew wiser and carved for him.
self weapons of flint and wood, just
as the earth man did a million or
two years afterward. Our lunar
men were very clever, too, very
clever; not so large or so strong
as terrestrial man, perhaps, but
quicker to learn. Why, it did not
take us more than 100000 years to
perfect our civilization"
"And what happened them" was
my next query.
"Ah, there you have asked a
question hard to answer" quoth
( the old man sadly. "All l know
is that one year there came blight
over all things. 1t was not exactly
a plague. 1t was rather a want of
vitality in the atmosphere that re-
acted with terrible effect on all ami
mate nature. Man, being the most
highly organized of all things liv-
ing, was the first to feel its baneful
effects, and he dwindled and pined
and finally persisted, and the places
that had been wont to know him
knew him no more forever.
"Then as the sunny atmosphere
grew more and more attenuated the
mammals first and afterward every
form of animal life grew cold and
dead. The lowest forms Of plant
life fingered for a few thousand
years longer, until the last drop of
water had evaporated into space, n
fact, and then they, too, vanished.
md tho n,oop uoc loft ac voi, 500 =.