The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1914-01-02
FATE OF A WORLD
Its Course From Chaos to Its
Hopeless Death Struggle.
THREE ACTS IN THE TRAGEDY

The First 10 Shown by Jupiter, the
(seeond by the Earth and the Third
BY Mare, While the Moon Shows the
Empty Stage After the Play 10 Done.
No stage was ever set for such a
tragedy as the planet Mars presents.
It Is the last act In the drama OF q
worlds history! HtF&
The first act in such drama consists
of scenes from chaos. The huge plan
ct Jupiter offers us 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 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
! 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 rs 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 II exhibited upon the earth.
With them 1t 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 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. q
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 tho water needed for irri-
cation? The answer given is that they
get it 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 q 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 a single aim is con
ccived as having developed upon Mars
knowledge of the hidden forces ot
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 secre,
forces Enclosed in the atoms of matter
which our science has recently assured
: US exist without showing us how t.
utilize them.
Only by such suppositions can ths
"canals," hundreds of miles wide and
; thousands Of miles long, be accounted
for, If, as the Flagstaff observers in
sist. those objects are really Of arti
fetal origin. It should be said, how
ever, that in Mr.. Lowell's opinion the
J 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
q increases, is due to the growth of veg
citation. stimulated by the water.
After the world life drama close.
there is left an empty stage, and Thu
! Is represented by the moon. The lunal
world has lost all its water. It's trag
, edy is finished. The actors are all dead
Millions Of years ago there may hav'
been a battle for life there like tina
which now appears to be raging OF
: Mars. And millions Of years In tn,
future the stage Of the earth will prob
ably be set for similar tragedy. For