New-York tribune., 1908-08-02
AS OTHERS SEE US
Being Notes by a Lady from the
Planet Mars.

am going back to Mars It is clear that
1 shall understand you Earth people; and
my husband says that that is because L wasn't
born to your ways. and will persist in looking
at everything topside down So we are making
an airshp in garden. and tomorrow we are
going back home.
At present my husband and l live in quite
small house although he works at his business
for about ten hours every day. In Mars he would
not be allowed to work thing so long, be-
cause he would be producing more wealth than
was necessary and he would either have to waste
it himself In order to balance things up. or give
1t to somebody else to waste for him.
There are lot of people near US living in nuch
bigger houses; and day this week when was
out walking 1 stopped lady coming out OF
very large house and asked her If she would
come and take tea with me. The lady asked
where lived and when told her. she said some
thing which implied that she didn't mix with
people of my class. And she wasn't good
looking lady either although she employs six
foot three footman, who looks down on the nVe-
foot-two swells who visit his mistress.
When 1 told my husband about It, he said
reallv must not do that sort of thing, because
people who lived in bigger house than our own
were our social superiors L don't know What thls
means but as I could see 1 had done something
wrong again | didn't bother much about the de-
tails 7 concluded that it meant that the lady was
too good for me- which, of course, is your silly
Earth way of looking at things, because so long
as we are all doing the best with sucn 1aculues
Is
each other
bave sincA found out from my husband that the
husband of the lady 1 spoke to is paid great oeal
more money than are because he is cleVerer
than my husband. I thought that was very runny'
because in Mars 1t is principle that the more
man is endowed by nature the less he needs to
take from the common store of human wealth He
can't very well help being clever. If he was born
like it. can he? 1 expect soon TO md tnat people
with longer noses than the majority have TO be
+ba%a tall J1ra0 Yn
money than short
made some INQUIRIES about this clever man. and
have learned that there are a lot of people like
him on earth. His business is to direct number
Of other people in their work. He tells them what
TO do and when do it. and. being clever. he
sometimes shows them how to do OF 1t
is no harder him do this than it is for man
of no brains to learn how to lay bricks straight
But because he happens to be there to point the
way for the others he lives in big house and has
lot of carriages and horses, while the other men
only just manage TO exist.
When my husband had explained that TO me
said l understood it. 1 told him l had seen man
en- the railway lines in a little box He was there
to pull signals. which showed engine drivers when
to go on and when to STOP and said supposed
a man like that must get fearful lot Of money.
But my husband said that not the case. and
that 1 had failed. usual to grasp the obvious
facts
He said he would make it clear to me by taking
the army common soldier gets say, shilling
! a day. sergeant two shillings. lieutenant four
and so on, the money getting bigger the rank
grows higher. My husband said that if that wasn't
clear to sensible and rational thing moth
ing would ever be clear to me In this world. And
as / do want to see things clearly again before
Gle, 1 going back to Mars
see, manage business in just the
opposite way. We say that if has honors
that raise him up beyond the ordinary men, he,
obviously doesn't need so much wealth The COM
| aDdar in chi Of he ru1V I'm he arf Of
where l live has only small house to live
in. and his clothes not nearly good those
worn by of the common soldiers. But he has
all the honors attached his post.
If he wants to the roads when people
out driving. every one must stop for him. If there
Is a crowd the corner of the street everybody
makes way for him. and If he wants go some
where in a hurry he stops the first carriage
the and that-unless. of course the per
son who is driving it is an invalid or in really
great hurry to get AS a rule, however people
are very glad to be with the commander in
chief in their carriages because it shows every
body else that they are really keeping the
pact they made with him when they agreed
honor him.
We find in Mars that the higher a man gets as
a type of humanity the less need he has for per-
sonal wealth. OF course We have nothing like
your money" in Mars, I'm not even going
to try to understand that part of your business
now that my trip is coming to a close But 1t
seems that directly you give honors you
think he ought to have money as we'll and it
doesn't fair to me that he should have II
both ways. And really. as far as l can see, the
money is of no use to him beyond a certain point
He can't sleep beds at once. eat more
than one meal at a time. live in several houses
simultaneously.
Besides when has got lot of money
he really hasn't got it. Ny husband told me that
he has got a hundred pounds. when [ asked
him to show them he pointed TO figures
In a book | said the figures weren't money but
he replied that those figures meant he could have
the money when he wanted IL He told there
were men on this earth who had millions OF
pounds and most OF their money represented
by figures in a book.
So | gave 1t al up Nobody on earth counts
Tor anything unless hs has money, and the people