The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1913-11-27
FATE OF A WORLD
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
Empty Stage After the Play Is Done.

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 a
tragedy as the planet Mars presents.
1t is the last act in the drama OF a
worlds history!
! The first act in such a 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 a furnace.
The second act is represented by the
earth. with its fertile crust, its cool, in
MIGRATING 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
a 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-
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 Il
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 situation no vegetation can
flourish unless artificially 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 it periodically from the melting of
the polar SHOWS. Being without seas
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 mois-
ture that once in about two Of our |
years may be drawn away from one
Of the poles while the summer SUM- |
shine is dissolving its thin SHOWS.
This universal concentration of men,
tai energy upon a 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.
% ho dns 30 hnx t,~l
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
us exist without showing US how to
utilize them.
Only by such suppositions can the
Canals" hundreds of miles wide and
thousands of miles long, be accounted
for, IL, as the Flagstaff observers In
sist those objects are really Of arti-
fetal origin. 1t should be said, how
ever. that In Mr.. Lowell's opinion the
bands called canals are. in fact. fri
gated belts.
The real canals within them are in
visible, while the progressive darken-
Ing Of these belts, as the polar melting
Increases, is 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 similar tragedy. For.
to the eyes Of the overlooking gods ito
change little Shakespeare's fgure):
All the sky's a stage,
And all the worlds and suns are merely
actors
Garrett p. Serviss in New York Jour-
nal.