Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1913-09-04
FATE OF A WORLD AN ESKIMO DINNER
Its Course From Chaos to Its
Hopeless Death Struggle.
THREE ACTS IN THE TRAGEDY
The First Is Shown by Jupiter, the
Second by the Earth and the Third
by Mars, While the Moon Shows the

by Mars, While the Moon Shows I'll
Empty Stage After the Play Is Donc
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 a drama consist
Of scenes from chaos. The huge plan
ct Jupiter offers us spectacle of tina
kind in its streaming belts Of thicl
clouds and its whirling vapOrs. glow
ing like steam above furnace.
The second act is represented by thu
earth. with its fertile crust. its cool. in
vigOruting atmosphere and its life sus
thinning seas that give birth to the
clouds which. cOndensing Oh the
mountains. furnish the rains and sci
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 ut 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 sell
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 artiticially stimulated
by gigantic system of irIi=ation. AZ !
without vegetation animal existence Is |
But whence can the inhabitants IF
Mars derive the water needed for irri |
cation? The answer given is that they |
get it periodically from the melting of |
the polar SHOWS. Being without ScHs |
and rivers they have no other source
Of supply.
On Mars the reign of universal pence
must have begun ages ago. introduced |
not by moral or sentimental cOnSid
arations, but by the necessity Of unit
ng all the engineering skill. all the in
ventive powers and all the phySica!
forces Of the entire population Of the
planet in a common battle for life
The only thought of their inventors
S of improved means for controlling
he slowly lessening supplies of mo:s
ure that once in about two of our
ears may be drawn away from one
If the poles while the summer sun.
hine is dissolving its thin SHOWS.
This universal concentration of men
al energy upon q single aim is con-
eived as having developed upon Mars
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
sc electricity in the mechanic arts.
ut they may have unlocked the secret
orces inclosed in the atoms of matter
Ihich our science has recently assured
S exist without showing us bow to
dlize them.
Only by such suggestions can the I
hundreds of miles wide and ;
thousands of miles long, be accounted
Or. If, as the Flagstaff observers in
st, those objects are really of arti- I
cial origin. 1t should be said. how
FER, that in Mr.. Lowell's opinion the
lnds called canals are. in fact. irri- {
lted belts.
The real canals within them are in {
sible, while the progressive darken-
e of these belts, as the polar melting {
creases. is due to the growth of veg L
alton, stimulated by the water. {
After the world life drama closes c
ere is left an empty stage, and this T
represented by the moon. The lunar c
orld has lost all its water Its trag- b
" is finished. The actors are all dead. c
illions of years ago there may have b
zen a battle for life there like that b
hich now appears to be raging on Il
airs. And millions OF years In the Il
ture the stage of the earth will prob a
'ly be set for a similar tragedy. For. q
the eyes of the overlooking gods Ito 81
ange little Shakespeare's figurel: 1t
the sky's a stage II
i'd all the worlds and suns are merely p
actors. n,
barrett p. Serviss in New York Jour 81
:. b,