The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-09-18
HENRY M. MELLEN.
MEN OF HIGHER INTELLECT
LIVE ON MARS, SAYS PASTOR
Enthusiastic amateur Astronomer ,subscribes to Theory That
Planet Is HabitabLe by Reason of Presence of
Water Vapor, Conducive to Life.
<fT FIRMLY believe that Mars is
inhabited. BY what sort or
o1ore af b,,,,,opa koio~. -. 40

q" inhabited. By what sort or ,r
class of human beings no one
can a at present. but / imagine by
a people of higher intellect than us of
the earth. And l believe that COM
munication between Mars and the
earth will be established some day.
I'm a book published in 1906 Profess
sor Simon. Newcomb, probably the
greatest mathematic astronomer that
ever lived, said the development of the
~aeroplane was an impossibility. Yet
before he died he saw it established as
a commercial possibility.
IF such changes have taken place
during the last few years, why not ex-
pect many and greater ones in the next
three, five or ter years."
The foregoing is what the Rev. DR..
Henry NJ. Mellen, of Christ Reformed
church. had to say today at his resi-
dence, 81 Delavan avenue, when asked
about the near approach of Mars to
the earth tonight. The Rev. DR.. Mel
len is an enthusiastic amateur astron-
omer, and nightly watches the stars
through his three-inch telescope. He Is
especially interested in the planet
Mars, which is right now the real OBJ
Ject of interest to all astronomers, and
ever since the eclipse of Mars by the
moon on September l has observed
that planet every night weather con-
ditions would permit.
1T Is rather a hard proposition for
the amateur astronomer to talk about
things in the celestial world continued
Or. Mellen, but even with my tele-
scope mighty small, as compared with
those of the big universities like the
Lick of the University of California
or the one now used by Professor
Lowell, of Harvard, at Flagstaff, Ariz.,
l have been able to distinctly. see the
icecaps of Mars I'M to distinguish the
blue-green. section that appears as the
ice melts away unde the influence of
the sun during the Marian summer.
1T Is this n thing that makes me
believe that Mars is habitable-that is
the fact that there is water vapor on
the planet Mars. That planet may
not have an atmosphere like ours. I'm
doubtedly 1t is not, but that there Is
an atmosphere there conducive to life,
plant or animal, is almost conclusive.
Where there is atmosphere there is life
va ochiS coits MATS iluSI nave dtInO-
sphere. otherwise there would moi be
the changes noticeable even to the
smallest kind of telescopes at different
seasons of the Marian year.
What causes the ice pack to de-
crease and the polar sea to increase in
size? 1t must be the effect of water
vapor. And water vapor can only be
produced by a condition of atmosphere
that Is somewhat the same as exists on
this earth. Somewhat the same is
rather a vague way of putting 1t, but
as yet no ope knows just what the ex-
act length of the seasons are on Mars,
n what other conditions prevail.
sit was back in 1877 Schiaperelli, the
italian astronomer, was the first to
discover the canals-called by him Can
nall. That was the italian word for
channel, a natural waterway, while
canal NEAR an artificial waterway.
1t was cas- to make the Italian
word Canal canal In the English lam
guage and so it has been ever since.
when Schiaperelli announced to the
world that Mars was lined with canals
running north and south from the