The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1913-08-29
fate OF A WORLD
Its Course From Chaos to Its
Hopeless Death Struggle.
THREE ACTS IN THE TRAGEDY

Second by the Earth and the Third
by Mars, While the Moon Shows the
Empty Stage After the Play Is Done.
No stage was ever set for such q
tragedy as the planet Mars presents.
1t Is the last act In the drama of a
worlds history!
The hrst 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
Ing like steam above furnace.
The second act Is represented by the
earth. with it's fertile crust. its cool, in
MIGRATING atmosphere and its life sus-
taining 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
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-
have developed a command over natu-
raj forces which would seem miracu-
Ious II exhibited upon the earth.
With them 1t has become simply u
question of brain power against the
fnanimate 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 bong. 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 situation no vegetation can
flourish unless artifcially 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 II 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 INIT
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 mois-
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
which our science has recently assured
MS exist without showing us how to
utilize them.
Only by such suggestions can the
canals" hundreds of miles wide and
thousands of miles long, be accounted
for, II, as the Flagstaff observers in
slst. those objects are really Of arti-
fetal origin 1t should be said, how
ever, that-la Mr.. Lowell's 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. ia 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 moon. The lunar
world has lost all its water. Its trag-
edy Is finished The actors are all dead.
Millions Of years ago there may have
been battle for life there like that
which now 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.
actors
Garrett p. serviss in New York Jour-
pnl.