The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1910-06-11

of water, so feet high, roaring hungrily, upo
the long coasts of ASIA and swept inland acros
the plains of China. For a space the star, no
ter now and larger and brighter than the su
in its strength, showed with pitiless brilliane
the wide and populous country; towns and vi
lagos with their pagodas and trees, roads, wild
cultivated fields millions of sIeepless peopl
staring in helpless terror at the incandescer
sky; and then, low and growing came the mu
muir of the flood. And thus it was with million
of men that night-a breath fierce and scan
and the food like wall swift and white behinC
And then death.
China was lit glowing white, but over Japa
and Java and all the islands of eastern Asia tn
great star was ball of dull red fire because c
the steam and smoke and ashes the Volcanoe
were spouting forth to salute its coming Abov
were the lava hot gases and ash, and beloy
the seething floods and the whole earth swaye
and rumbled with the earthquake shocks.
Larger grew the star. and larger, hotter an
brighter with a terrible swiftness now. TIL
tropical ocean had lost its phosphorescence an
the whirling steam rose in ghostly wreaths from
the black waves that plunged necessarily
speckled with storm tossed ships.
And then came wonder It seemed tt
those who in Europe watched for the risiny
OF the star that the world must have ceased
its rotation. In thousand open spaces of dow
and upland the people who had fed thither from
the floods and the falling houses and slidinl
slopes of hill watched for that rising in vain
Hour followed hour through terrible suspens,
and the star rose not. Once again men set thei
eyes upon the old consultations they had count
ed lost to them forever. In England it was ho
and clear overhead. though the ground quiveret
perpetually; but in the tropics Sirius and Ca
pella and Aldebaran showed through a veil o.
steam.
Over Asia it was the star had begun to fall
behind the movement Of the sky and then sud
denly, as it hung over India, its light had beer
yelled. All the plain OF India from the mouth
OF the Indus to the moutns 6f the Ganges was
shallow waste Of shining water that night ont
of which rose temples and palaces, mounds and
hills black with people. Every minaret was
a clustering mass of people, who fell one by
one into the turbid waters as heat and terror
oVercame them. The whole land seemed
awaiting and suddenly there swept a shadow
across that furnace of despair and breath OF
cold wind and gathering of clouds out Of the
cooling air. Men looking up near blinded. at
the star, saw that black disk was creeping
across the light. 1t was the moon coming he,
tween the star and the earth. And even as
men cried to God at this respite, out of the
east with strange, inexplicable swiftness
sprang the sun. And then star sun and moon
rushed together across the heavens
So it was that presently, to the European
star and sun rose close upon each
other, drove headlong for space and then
slower, and at last came to rest, star and sun
merged into one glare of fame at the zenith
OF the sky The moon no longer eelipsed the
star, but was lost to sight in the brilliance of
the sky, And though those who were still alive
regarded 1t for the most part with that dull stu
pldlty that hunger, fatigue, heat and despair
npPD0er there Jvpr c+il
celYe the meaning of these signs. Star and
7arth had been at their nearest, had swung
ABOUT one another and the star had passed
ALREADY 1t was receding, swifter and swifter in
ne last stage OF its headlong journey downward
nto the sun
And then the clouds gathered, plotting out
he vision of the sky; the thunder and Iiehtnino
NoFe garment around the world: all over tho
9arth was such downpour of rain as men had
,eVer seen before; and where the volcanoes
iarea req against the cloud canopy there de-
cehueu torrents OF mud Everywhere the wa
ers were pouring off the land. leaving mud
lifted ruins and the earth Uttered lil,a q s+orr,
worm beach with all that had foated and tho
ead bodies OF the men and brutes its children
But the star had passed and men. hunger
flVen and gathering courage only SLOWLY. might
reep pack TO their ruined cities buried gran
Fles and sodden fields. Such few ships as had
scapeo the storms OF that time came stunned
nd shattered and sounding their way car.
lously through the new marks and shoals Of
nee familiar ports, And as the storms subsi.
ed men perceived that everywhere the DAYS
'ere hotter than of yore and the sun larger and
ne moon, shrunk to third of its former size
ooK fourscore days between its new and new
The Marian astronomers-for there are as.
ronomers On Mars. although they are different
elngs from men-Were naturally profoundly in
crested by these things. They saw them from
leir own standpoint of course. Considering
le mass and temperature of the missile that
as flung through our solar system into the
IN, one wrote, 1T is astonishing what little
amage the earth, which 1t missed so narrowly
as sustained All the familiar continental
ark1ngs and the masses of the seas remain
tact and indeed the only difference seems 10
shrlnkage OF the white discoloration (sun. |
osed to be frozen Water) round either n ts,f
'hich only shows how small the vastest of IN.
an eatastrophes may seem at distance ~ !
" million miles =
Copyright, 1915. by W. q. Chapman,
Copyright BY Doubleday Mcclure soupaaY