The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1907-05-19
GLOOMY PREDICTIONS


Those who are familiar with the old
English poets will doubtless call to
mind The Last Man." of Thomas
Campbell--one of his finest poems, by
the way. The second stanza reads in
this way:
The Suns eye had a sickly glare.
The Earth with age was wan,
The skeletons of nations were
Around that lonely man;
Some had expired in fight--the brands
Still rusted in their bony hands:
In plague and famine some.
Earth's cities had no sound or tread,
And ships were drifting with the dead
To shores where all was dumb!
These lines were forcibly brought to
mind by reading some recent disserta-
lions by eminent astronomers and SCI
entlsts. Not that there is anything
new in the efforts of great scholars to
peer into the unknown and form theo-
ries and predictions of what has been
and what is to be. They go back
thousands or millions of years-for
they are not particular-and tell US
how long the earth has existed and
what changes have taken place, and
also give us descriptions and pictures
of the infinite varieties of animal life
that have followed each~other since
animal or human life first made it's
appearance on our globe. Then they
look forward some more millions of
years and tell US with more or less
cocksureness what will happen in the
future.
One of the recent writers on these
subjects is Professor Garrett P. Ser
viss, who writes to show that the sun
is gradually cooling, and that in time
things on this planet will be some
what as depicted by Campbell. The
Professor has been making study of
the sun-spots and other astronomical
phenomena, as we'll as of some of the
recent happenings on the earth, and
one result of his latest explorations
into the vast realms of space is thus
set forth by him:
One of the most significant and far
reaching of recent astronomical dis
coVeries is that the light of the great
star Arcturus Is characterized by the
same spectral lines that are FOUND IN
instead of being periodically specified
with black spots, like the sun, is con-
tinually. and over the greater part of
its surface, covered with the relatives
ly dark and cool Vapors that cause
the appearance of spots on the sun.
These tell-tale lines. detected in a
new observatory on Mount Wilson.
California, show that Arcturus is a
cooling body larger than our sun. II
is true. but nevertheless farther ad-
In, of ri
Such a fact assumes tenfold inter
est when We recognize that 1t is an
oracle foretelling the fate of our own
sun. The identity of the substances
existing in Arcturus with those exist
ing in the sun Is. in Itself, convincing
evidence of the close relationship Of
the two bodies in their nature and
constitution.
Prof. Serviss goes on at consider
able length to describe the results of
his observations on Arcturus and 9TH
er heavenly bodies. and arrives at the
conclusion, evidently satisfactory to
himself that those great luminaries
are gradually but surely playing out,
and that the final and unavoidable re-
suit is to be the end Of all things,
both celestial and terrestrial.
But Prof Serviss is not alone in his
gloomy outlook, for Camille Flam-
marion, one of the most eminent of
present-day astronomers. mas some
what to say along the same lines as
Serviss. He, also, has been studying
the sun-spots and other planetary
happenings, and he, also. arrives at
the conclusion that the whole plane
tary system is going towards its end.
The spots, he says, will gradually
spread themselves on each side the
suns equator, and will slowly move
towards the poles and the end will
come to that luminary as well as To
all others. Here are some of his
reasonings;
The days shall he turned into nights,
and there will be no longer either
spring or summer, The worlds. dark
and heavy, Will revolve like black
balls around another black ball.
The heavens will have become I'M
recognizable. The earth decrepit,
dried up, disintegrated, will have
fallen into fragments which. spread
ing themselves along her orbit. will
continue to revolve around the dead.
sun.