The daily Alaskan., 1913-09-22
FATE OF 4 WORLD
Its Course From Chaos to Its
 Hopeless Death Struggle.
THREE ACTS IN THE TRAGEDY


 by mars, While tho Moon Shove Che
 Empty Stage After the Play 10 Done.
 No stage was ever set for such a tragedy as the planet Mars presents Jt is Che Inst act m the d'oma of a worlds history!
 The 1rat act in such a drama consists or scenes from chaos. The huge plan ct Jupiter offers us a spectacle Of that kind In lts streaming belts Of thick clouds and Its whlrling vapors, glow. ing like steam above a furnace.
 The second net Is represented by the earth. with lgs fertile crust, lts cool, in- yIgomIug atmosphere md its life sus. mm.ug sens that give birth tO Che .clouds which, condensIug on thc mountains, furnish the rains and set thr rivers flowing.
 The closing act is the role of Mars. where tbc sens have vanished, the at. mospncrc has thuned out ghe rivers have disappeared, the continents have turned into deserts, and life, driven into a corner, is battling against Gnal OK. uuntIou
 That there is yet intelligent IIle on Mars is lhc universal belief of an thc observers whom Mr. Lowell has gath cred about him at his FIagstaT ob- scrvuD0ry. where Che ceXra0rdmary phc. .u0mcu1 0f that wonderful planet arc studied 0s nowhere else lu thc world.
 More than that they tell us with lever increasing emphasis that the pco. .pIu of Mars, compelled by necessity, .hgve developed a command over uatu- .rl forces which would seem mirucu. .Ious lf exhibited upon che earth
 With chem lt has become simply a question Of bmiu power against the u0uimUtc powers 0f nUtUrc
 They have nights and days of the same length as ours They have sca- sons almost precisely corresponding with ours. except that they are each twice 0s long. But their oceans are dried up, mo ralns fan Uhough there .may be dcwg. and nearly aIl Che at .mosnhorIc moisture ls alternately lock- ed uD in one or Che other Of the polar su0wclus
 lu such situation u0 vegetation cam flourish unless UrudcialIy stimulated .bya gigantic system of irrigation. And without vegetation animal existence is Impossible
 Eut whence can thc inhabitants of Mars derive tho water needed for irri rau0ns The answer given Is thut they get It periodically from the melting Of che polar suows Being without seas land rivers they have no other source Of supply
 On Mars Che reign Of universal peace must have begun ages ago, Introduced not by moral or sentimental cons.d. craunns. but by Che necessity Of unit ling arI the engineering skin. 1I the in. vouuye powers and an the physical forces of the entire population of the .Daunt lu common battle for life.
 The only thought of their inventors .Is og improved means for controlling che slowly IosspnIng supplies Of moOs .mrc that once m about two of our vcarl may bc drawn away from one , of g.nr poles while the summer sun. shine is dIssoIvIug lts thIu snows.
 This universal concentration of men. taI energy upon a single aim Is con ccIycd us having developed upon Mars a kn0wIcdrc of the hidden forces of nature such as has up t0 che present merely been dreamed of on Che earth
 We have just begun lo learn how Go ! use electricity in Che mechanic, arts. but they may have unlocked the secret p. forces mcIosud In the atoms of matter ! which our science has recently assured ,. us exist without showing us how to utilize them.
 Only by such supposIuons cau the "canaIs," hundreds of miles wide and thousands of miles long, be accounted for lf. as Che Flagstaff observers in- .g0st those objects are really Of arti. HclaI origin. It should be said, how. ever. that In Mir. Lowclrs opinion the bands called canals are, in fact, irrl- gated belts.
 The rcal canals within them are In. visible. while the progressive darkcn Ing Of these belts, as the polar melting Increases, Ig due to tho growth of veg ctat0n. stimulated by the w0ter , After Che world lie drama closes there Is left an empty stage, and this r is represented by the moon The lunar world has lost an lts water Its trag. cdy Is finished. The actors are all dead -|Mmlous Of years ago there may have e been a battle for lie there Ilkl that ? which now 0ppcars to be raging on Mars And millions of years in the r future the stage Of Che earth win prob 8 HbIy be set for a similar tragedy. For. r Go the eyes Of the overlooking gods lto |, change a little Shakcspe0re's Ggurc): lu Che aky'H a a.are.
 And au Che worlds and suns are merely
 actors.
 -. Garrett p. Servlss In New York Jour. nal