The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-02-21

Martians on having such a large supply
of radium.
The weakened Martians careered on to
ruin at a rapid rate. xure was succeeded
by a king equally dissoute and he In
turn by another. Great orgies were held
In all the twelve cities in the land. Crime
and corruption became rampant The
Martians learned to murder and they be-
came subject to the worst of human pas
sions. The vile fumes left behind by
the Englanians seemed to vitate their
very blood. Never before in the history
of the universe had such a total ruin
been witnessed. In their Incidence the
Martians neglected to exert themselves
in warding off diseases. so that many
died before completing their allotted span
of life. As was natural under such con-
ditions suicide became frequent. Many
of the Martians failed to fortify their sys-
TENS by drinking the elixir at the end of
500 years and thus persisted before their
time to die.
Communication between the twelve
cities was now become rare. The inhabi-
tants of Hulpi cared little what the peo
pie In the other eleven cities were doing.
They were too engrossed in their own
designations to take heed of what was
going on about them, and had there been
a hostile race on the planet they could
have overwhelmed the Martians with
ease. In their frenzied routs the Marti-
ans destroyed their valuable scrolls con-
tanning the history of the race and
number of their greatest mechanical in
ventions were shattered in willful de-
struction.
To one observing Mars from the satel-
lite Phobos, 1t would have appeared a
dead world. The cold had become so in
tense that no one ever ventured out of
the doomed cities and a twilight dark
ness had also settled down upon the
planet This, however. caused the Mar
tians little inconvenience, since radium
lights made the cities shine like the day.
At intervals the freezing Englanians sent
a message flashing through space to
the freezing Martians who now gave
themselves up to dissipation more than
ever since they had become assured of
the fact that the sun would soon cease
to warm them and eternal death would
clutch everything In space.
In the twelve cities the people be-
stirred themselves sufficiently to keep
warm. They kept the radium furnaces
In good order and the illumination was
also carefully provided for, but aside
from this they did but little. AS they
were compelled to eats the Martians con-
tinued to operate their food laboratories
In each of the cities. Those furnished
employment to a number of men and
WOHeH, white OAueiS WIZ Nouid bS pei
suaded to work devoted their attention
to the furnaces but the majority of the
Martians did nothing at all
In the year 10000 P. A. occurred the
gree test crime that had ever been COM
mitted by the Martians. Before their
downfall the people had had no concep-
ton of murder and the person of the
king was held exceptionally sacred, but
in this year monarch was slain in the
royal audience chamber of his palace by
the Infatuated people. 1t seems that this
king, whose name was Xoco, had so far
forgotten himself as to attempt to OPP
press the Martians. There yet smoul-
dered in their breasts spark of their
former war-like spirit and they promptly
resented his presumption by taking his
life After this deplorable affair license
became more general than ever Murder
and assassination became quite frequent.
The successor of Xoco shared a similar
fate and civil war between the cities was
threatened This was averted, however,
by the diplomacy of the Marian king.
To venture out now except in airshps
would have been certain death. In course
of time the trouble passed away and res
idents in one city almost forgot that
there were any other people on Mars.
With all the human passions and emo
lions which had been awakened in them
by the Englanians the Martians con-
ceived a longing for amusement other
than that furnished about the banquet
board Life was not very bright FOR
these people in their artifcially lighted
cities when they allowed themselves to