The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-09-06

a. him from boards This incomplete bulletin was
the most poignant note i'll the whole discord of 81
lence. The very letters, with their pa!idly white
background kept repeating the question with hi
deous intensity he crawled about, forcing himself
to examine each bit of paper that lay dead before the
yawning doors. AS he persisted the tumult of his
nearly destroyed faculties quoted and The insane
rushing hher and thither of his thoughts longer
seembed to fill the entire city with their clamor.
For several minutes he sought in the remnants of
the newspapers for some clue to the cause of his
astounding isolation; but he could lind nothing that
gave him any help except the perusal of their
columns strengthened him in self-control. Then he
upon a bit of copy, blown from
window else dropped by some newswriter in his
fight from the building Like the bulletin it reflected
dazed increduty, the cropping of an astounded mind
attempting grapplc with the incomprehensible. 1t
began; Are believe that the millions of hur-
ryng, toing, Respondent, triumphant lives-actuated
by all-encompassng, all-pervading spirit of self
ishness-have engendered awful physical
force, personality in the very mountains of steel
and stone they have created, and does this Thing
feed upon that which created it,"
In the next few pages the writer waowed in
of words evidently writing in frenzied search
for some expression that would convey intelligence;
but finally, in despair at finding adequate voca-
bulary, he had crossed them Near the end the
copy more ineligible, yet did not presume to
fact Instead, it asked, Are there undreamed
of forces in the atmosphere enveloping the city?
Have the passionate endeavors for selfpreservation
for gain for lustful triumphs-exhaed for years-at
1,st ed sulf md has he final
total sodifed into physical, tangible Thing, the
like Of which before existed? Why not?
Whence came the first awful forms of life that
rar the world in the begnning?'
All this gave answer to the staring bulletin but
it allowed the reader to sanely pursue a useless
endeavor hit upon solution Whatever had
caused New York to become a solitude it
thing entirely undreamed of before in the history of
the world. 1t not pestilcnee, it was not
physical menace that could be met by mans cunning
resstance-it something infinite in potentiality;
something that great people had fed before, had
been eliminated by, in single night Then he
membered the widowed papers in Madison Square
and wondered if he had slept longer than a night
On another piece of copy" he foud scrawled
More in heaven and earth than ever dreamed Of in
thy philosophy"
And again; in some reporters story of the hrs:
appearance of the phenomenon Thng-writ.en
doubtfuly-he read in part, follows: "The report
of wrath-like vaporous shape that extirpates all
forms of life passes over has been persistently
telephoned into the various precinct stations that it
longer be ignored and quiet investigation
is foot. 1t is said that whole families have
disappeared from the crowded foreign quarters;
while many reports have been made of strange dis
appearances from the hotel and Office sections. 1t is
also rumored that in several theatres only small
per cent. of the patrons forth yesterday and
that the greater portion of the audiences simply
melted away as if they lad never been. This is so
preposterous that could be written if it were
no. for the mysterious disappearance last night Of
twenty theatre managers. who gathered in Sixth
Avenue cafe for the purpose of conference.
and who came ont Nor have they been seen
by their friends or families.
while speculation is flying from one ridiculous
extreme to another the fact remains the people
silently apprehensive of something they eanno,
NAME and leaving the city by thousands hourly"
This was probably of the fist limitations in
print he decided of the strange visitation. Besides
this he read but other items. both telegraphie
bulletins, dated from Washington The first said:
Professor Muehlanrk announced he has discovered
that new force exists IN certain atmospheric belts
where huge numbers of people are gathered within
a small radius, which, under certain conditions, Il
instantaneously fatal to all forms of life and even
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