Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-07-30
FATE Of A WORLD
Its Course From Chaos to It's
Hopeless Death Struggle.
THREE ACTS IN THE TRAGEDY

THE First 10 Shown BY Jupiter. thu
Second BY the Earth and the Third
BY Mars, While the Moon Shows thu
Empty Stage After the Play 10 Done
No stage was ever set for such q
tragedy as the planet Mars presents
1t Is the last. act in the drama of 9
worlds history!
The first act in such a drama consists
Of scenes from chaos. The huge plan
ct Jupiter offers us a spectacle of that
kind In it's streaming belts OF thick
clouds and its whirling vapors. glow
ling like steam above a furnace.
The second act Is represented by the
earth. with its fertile crust. it's 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.
Iwhere the sens have vanished. the at.
mosphere has thinned out. the rivers
have disappeared. the continents have
turned into deserts. and life. driven into
Ia corner, is battling against 1nal ex-
function.
That there Is yet Intelligent life on
Mars Is the universal belief Of all the
observers whom MI. Lowell has gath
cred about him ut his Flagstaff OBJ
servatory, where the extraordinary phe.
nomena Of that wonderful planet are
studied MS 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 q command over nat,-
raj forces which would miracu.
lous If exhibited upon the earth:
With them It has become simply u
question Of brain power against the
inanimate powers Of nature.
They have nights and days of the
same length as our 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 dews). and nearly all the at
mospheric moisture is alternately lock-
ed up in one or the other Of the polar
snowcaps.
In such a situation no vegetation can
flourish unless af%tifcially 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 irri.
CATION? The answer given is that they
get 1t periodically from the melting Of
the polar SHOWS Being without seas
and rivers they havesno other source
Of supply. !
On Mars 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 physical
forces Of the entire population Of the
planet in q common battle for life.
The only thought Of their inventors
is Of improved means for controlling
the slowly lessening supplies Of mois-
ture that once in about two Of our
years may be drawn away from n
of the. poles while the summer sun
shine is dissolving Its thin SHOWS.
This universal concentration Of men.
tai energy upon a single aim 10 con-
ceived as having developed upon Mars
a knowledge Of the hidden forces Of
nature such as has up to the present
merely been dreamed Of on the earth.
We have Just begun to learn how to
use electricity in the mechanic arts.
but they may have unlocked the secret
forces inclosed ID the atoms Of matter
which our science has recently assured
us exist without showing us how to
utilize them.
Only By such suppositions can the
canals" hundreds of miles wide and
thousands Of miles long. be accounted
for. II. as the Flagstaff observers In
sist those objects are really of arti-
icial origin. 1t should be said. how
ever, that in Mr.. Lowelrs opinion the
bands. called canals are. In fact, irri-
gated belts.
The real canals within them are in
visible. while the progressive darken-
ing Of these belts. as the polar melting
increases, is due to the growth OF veg
citation. stimulated BY the water.
After the world life drama closes
there is left an empty stage, and this
Is represented by the o The lunar
world has lost all its water. It's ,trag-
edy is finished. The actors are all dead.
Millions Of years ago there may have
been a battle for life there like that
which 10Y appears to be raging on
Mars. And millions Of years in the
future the stage Of the earth will prob
ably be set for a similar tragedy. For.
to the eyes Of the overlooking gods Ito
change a little Shakespeare's 6gure):
All the sky''s a stage.
And all the worlds and suns are merely
actors.
Garrett P. serviss In New York Jour-
nal.