The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-12-29
END OF THE WORLD.

END OF THE WORLD.
The Bible in numerous places fore
tells the destruction of the earth by
fire, but we are not told the time nor
manner. Certain religious fanatics
so-called-have set the date, place
and time, but SO far have proved
false prophets, and held up to ridi-
cule.
However, 1t is the accepted theory,
that If our world is destroyed by fire,
1t will be coming in contact with some
other body moving in space, such as a
comet, the sun or some planet much
larger and powerful than the earth.
The coming of Halley's comet, ap-
preaching the earth at the rate of a
I million miles or more a day, and
which science has demonstrated can
do us no possible harm, as it will
swing away toward the sun before it
reaches within danger zone of the
earth, makes the subject of comets,
and the possibility of the earth strik-
ing wanderer of the sky of interest
Some day this earth will come to an
end and If there are people in other
| plants they will see its finish through
their telescopes.
Prof. Lowell and other astrono-
mers, on or about May 18 next will
look through the refractor of the big
telescope at Flagstaff, Arizona, and
see Halley's comet do just what the
| world will do the day before it comes
to an end. Halley's comet then will
cross the face of the sun. Accord
ing to Prof. Lowell's startling theo-
ries, the earth will cross the face of
the sun, sometime, and not only will
cross it, but will dive, like a base
ball from bat, right into the sun
itself. Somewhere back of the feeble
little space we call our universe there
are the ghosts of worlds like our own
moving about as ghosts do, with no
fixed time of appearance. Every
once in while one of our big plan
cts will start suddenly from its path,
tremble little, and then start on
again. During the time it trembled
one of these ghost-like worlds was
passing it, far out of the range of the
strongest telescope. Nobody knows
how fast these big worlds move and
nobody knows whittier they are
bound. They are-black and cold
tremendous cold and dead.
Some day one of these dead worlds
will wander into the light of the sun,
and with an ever-increasing speed
will hurl itself into the suns mass.
The earth, like Halley's comet will
soon feel the attraction of this dead
planet hurting through the air with
such terrific speed. Slowly at first,
but surely under the inflexible law of
gravity, our globe will turn from its
own path in the great universe, and
swinging in behind the stranger, will
dart straight for the sun. But unlike
the case of the comet we all will be
shot like giants cannon ball into
the molten mass, and perhaps clear
through it. If the latter, we will
come out on the other side, black
and dead, like the other ghosts of
worlds that once teemed with life
and now threaten us.
This, in brief, is Prof. Lowells the
ory on the end of life. He is not a
yellow" astronomer, and he has sci
ence to back him in this new and
startling view. We cannot tell the
time of our planets end, he de-
clares, but we have an idea of what |
will happen just before the earth
hurtles into the sun. 1t will come,
as the Bible foretells, "in a moment;
in the twinkling of an eye." But If
our planet-ghost, which finally en-
tices us to our death is as large as
the ghosts make other planets trem-
BILE, men like Lowell will be able to
see it 27 years away!
Twenty-seven years of terror will
ensue between its discovery and the
end of time. Children will be born
into the maddened world who will
be grown men and women with the
day of their fate sealed to the hour,
the minute, and almost to the Sec
ond! Divine promise will be man
kinds only consolation. This end
may not come in this cycle, or in
100, 900 years from now, but it's COM
ing some time. Prof. Lowell and
many other star students are sure of
this. Death will be painless, though
there will be a sight in the sky like
that of hundred suns at midnight.
The moon will fade away, and this
great light, the treacherous, burning
ghost-planet, will lead the earth on,
by means of gravity, into the sun
with it.
So far there is no direct disturb
ance in the realm of space to cause
men like Prof. Lowell to believe our
end is coming soon, but the knowl-
edge of how it is going to come will
prove an unusual and picturesque
revelation.