The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-04-28


It may well be doubted if ever be-
fore in its countless hundreds OF gen
erations this gray old world became SO
agog as it did on the morning of the
twenty-frst Of August, the day sue
ceeding the passing of the scudding
visitor from the depths Of space.
From Maine TO the Philippines, from
the Yukon to Chile, from England to
Japan, from Norway to South Africa,
from mid-ocean liner to mid-ocean
liner. from creeping jungle streams to
roaring glacial torrents, from desert
city TO forest town in a score of diff
ferent languages news urchins wildly
shrieked or softly Hsped their sex
tras,'' in many cases the first and last
edition extraordinary the populace
ever heard of during their lives. The
earth had been brushed by another
celestial body which had passed it so
closely that it's roar had deafened and
it's breath overwhelmed even to the
death scores Of human beings way up
on the back bone of the North Ameri-
can continent Buildings had been
crushed like trampled eggs, trees torn
up by their roots as dentists pull
teeth from their sockets, while dust
whisked from the visitor as by a
mammoth broom had fallen and carr
peted a large section of the earth
with coyerlet as thick and soft as
a feather bed. The earth had shud-
dered like horse dashed with whip.
tidal waves had run riot and total
humiliation had only been prevented
by mere chance, good luck, miscaIcu-
lation, Divine mercy, or as one Italian
paper naively put it, by the foresight
and prompt action of Signor Desmond,
the discoverer." Not a telegraph, tel
ephone, cable or wireless upon the
world but buzzed and cracked with
the tremendous news, and every OBJ.
servatory in the world where the at.
mosphere was clear or the view un.
DISTRACTED had its great telescope
trained like a hostile cannon upon the
supposed path of the departed body
Yet not trace Of it did they find, and
more astonishing still, the microre1ec.
toscope did not register it. Where it
had gone was as great a mystery as
wise sayants Of the long tubes could
do was wag their heads and form
their own opirsi"22Is. Some came bold
ly,-fort(T with explanations closely CO.
inciding with Professor Desmond's,
others held Numerically opposite
opinions, while still others-and per
haps these gentlemen were the wisest
of all-withdrew themselves clam
like into their shells of reserve and
refused to be cajoled forth by the
most tempting Of batteries or the most
exasperating of proddings. But great
day as it was for the press and the
wire, it was still greater for certain
Of the Adyentists. To them the fail
ure of the world to be destroyed was
but a temporary encouragement, fully
Offset by the certainty that the first
small body had been but a herald to
warn the earth of the larger and close
following one which was to destroy
it. Great day, also, it was for the
dead and injured, for their names
were bIazoned in great type the world
around; in fact it was a great day for
almost everybody.
And then close following the first
announcement of the passing of the
worlds in the night came a second
scarcely less startling or spectacular.
The earth had at large upon it a new
and marvellous being, in fact a former
inhabitant of the other sphere who
had been blown OF, fallen off, jumped
off or in some other manner dislodged
from his native habitat. and who was
now stalking abroad in the land of the
free seeking whom he might devour.
He was seven feet tall, reddish
brown in color, monkeyish of limbs
and had pinions that spread over
thirty feet He had been seen by at