Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-07-10
FATE OF A WORLD
Its Course From Chaos to Its
Hopeless Death Struggle.


tragedy as the planet Mars presents.
1t is the last act in the drama Of
worlds history!
The first act in such drama consists
OF scenes from chaos. The huge plan
ct Jupiter offers us a spectacle of that
kind in its streaming belts of thick
clouds and its whirIing vapors. glow.
ing like steam above q furnace.
The second act is represented by tho
earth, with its fertile crust. its cool. in
MIGRATING atmosphere and its life sus-
tanning seas that give birth to the
clouds which. condensing on the
mountains, furnish the rains and set
the rivers flowing.
The closing act is the role of Mars.
where the seas have vanished. the at
mosphere has thinned out, the rivers
have disappeared, the continents have
turned into deserts, and life, driven into
corner, is battling against final ex-
tinction.
That there is yet intelligent life on
Mars is the universal belief Of all the
observers whom Mr. Lowell has gath
cred about him at his Flagstaff OBJ
serVatory, where the extraordinary phe-
nomena of that wonderful planet are
studied as nowhere else in the world.
More than that, they tell US with
ever increasing emphasis that the peo-
pie Of Mars. compelled by necessity,
have developed a command over natu-
raj forces which would seem miracu-
lous If exhibited upon the earth.
With them it has become simply q
question Of brain power against the
| inanimate powers of nature.
They have nights and days Of the
| same length as ours. They have sea-
! sons almost precisely corresponding
with ours. except that they are each
| twice as long. But their oceans are
dried up. no rains fall Though there
may be dewsl, and nearly all the at
mospheric moisture is alternately lock,
! ed up in one or the other of the polar
snowcaps.
In such situation no vegetation car
flourish unless artifcially stimulated
by a gigantic system of irrigation. And
without vegetation animal existence is
impossible.
But whence can the Inhabitants Of
Mars derive the water needed for irTi
| cation? The answer given is that they
get it periodically from the melting o.
the polar SHOWS. Being without sea:
and rivers they have no other source
of supply.
On iiars the reign of universal peace
must have begun ages ago, introduced
not by moral or sentimental consid
erations, but by the necessity of unit
ing all the engineering skill. all the in
ventive powers and all the physica
forces of the entire population Of tn
planet in a common battle for life.
The only thought of their inventor
is of improved means for controlling
the slowly Iessening supplies Of mois
ture that once in about two Of on
years may be drawIE away from on
of the poles while the summer SUI
shine is dSsoIving its thin SHOWS.
This universal concentration of meI
tai energy upon a single aim is cor
> ceived as having developed upon Mar
knowledge of the hidden forces G
nature such as has up to the preser
merely been dreamed of on the earth.
We have just begun to learn how
use electricity in the mechanic art
but they may have unlocked the secre
forces Enclosed in the atoms of matte
which our science has recently assure
us exist without showing US how
utilize them.
Only by such suppositions can til
canals" hundreds of miles wide an
thousands of miles long. be accounte
for. If. as the Flagstaff observers IL
sist. those objects are really of art
fetal origin. 1t should be said. how
ever. that in Sir. LowelFs opinion IL
bands called canals are, in fact, frr
gated belts.
The real canals within them are Il
visible. while the progressive darker
ing of these belts. as the polar meltir
increases, is due to the growth of We
citation. stimulated by the water.
| After the world life drama clos,
| there is left an empty stage. and til
/ is represented by the moon. The lun;
| world has lost all its water Its ira
| edy is finished. The actors are all dea
| Millions Of years ago there may ha'
| been battle for life there like tn
| which now appears 10 be raging {
Mars. And millions of years in Il
future the stage Of the earth will pro
| ably be set for similar tragedy. Fo
to the eyes of the overlooking gods
change a little ShaKespeare's fgure)
All the sky's a stage.
And all the worlds and suns are mere
4 actors.
Garrett P. Serviss in New York Jou
] nal