The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-07-15
FATE or A WORLD
Its Course From Chaos to Its
Hopeless Death Struggle.
THREE ACTS IN THE TRAGEDY
The First IL Shown by Jupiter, the
Second by the Earth and the Third
by Mare, While the Moon Shows the
Empty Stage After the Play 10 Done.

Empty Stage After the Play 10 Done.
No stage was ever set for such
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 whirling vapors, glow
l ing like steam above a furnace
The second act is represented by the
earth. with its fertile crust, Its cool, in
|vigorating 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
seryatory, 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 command over natu-
raj forces which would seem miracu-
Ious II exhibited upon the earth.
With them 1t has become simply
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 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 artiHcially stimulated
by 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 have no 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 a common battle for life.
The only thought of their inventors
is of improved means for controlling
the slowly lessening supplies Of mols-
ture that once In about two OF our
years may be drawn away from one
Of the poles while the summer sun
shine is dissolving Its thin SHOWS.
This universal concentration OF men
tai energy upon single aim is 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 in the atoms OF matter