Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-07-03
ROCK ISLAND


a life after death he would doubtless
have felt assured that the earthquake
had killed him and that he was now
wandering through the heavenly vale.
But men Of Nus age had not yet con
ceived any sort OF religion other than
a vague fear OF certain natural phe-
nomena. such as storms and earth
quskes, the movements Of the sun and
moon and those familiar happenings
which first awake the questionings OF
the primitive.
He saw the sun, but TO him # WAS .
different sun from the great. swollen
orb that had shone through the thick.
humid atmosphere OF the Neocene.
From Oo's lair only the day before he
had been able TO see In the distance the
shimmering surface of the restless sea.
but now so far as eye could reach there
stretched an interninab BILE jungle of
gently waving tree tops, except for the
rolling plain at his feet where yester-
day the black jungle Of the ape people
had reared its lofty fronds.
M shook his head It was all quite
beyond him. but there were certain
things which he could comprehend:
and so. after the manner of the self
reliant. he set about TO wrest his i've
ihood from nature under the new con
ditions which had been imposed upon
him while he slept
First Of all, his spear must be at
tended to. It would never do to trust
to that crude patch longer than #
would take him % find and At q new
haft His meat must wait until that
thing was accomplished.
In the meantime he might pick up
what fruit was available in the forest
in search OF q long. straight shoot Of
the hard wood which alone would meet
his requirements.
In the days that had been NUS there
had grown in isolated patches a few
lone c1umps Of very straight hardwood
trees. The smaller of these the men
Of the tribe would cut down and split
lengthwise with stone wedges until
from q single tree they might have
produced material for score or more
spear shafts, but now M must seek
the very smallest OF sapIings, for he
had no time TO waste IN splitting a lar
ger tree, even bad DE had the necessary
wedges and hammers.
Into the forest the youth crept. for.
though 100000 years had elapsed since
his birth, he was still to all intent and
saw strange and wonderful trees, the
Ike OF which had never been in the
forests OF yesterday.
The growths were not 30 luxurfant
or prodfgious. but for the most part the
tees offered suggestions of allurtng
possibilities to the semaarbcreal Nh, for
the branches were nnuch heavier and
more soi&d than those of The great tree
ferns of his own epoch and com menced
much nearer the ground. Catlfke he
leaDed into the lower branches OF them.
reveaing IL the ease with which be
could travel from tree 20 tree.
Gey coiored birds Of strange appear.
ance screamed and scolded at him. LIT
tie monkeys hurried, chattering, from
hts path. NJ laughed. What quaint,
diminutfve world IL was indeed. No
where had he yet seen q tree or crea-
talre that might compare in size to the
monsters among which he had Travelled
the preceding day.
The fruits. too, were small and
strange. He scarcely dared venture
to eat Of them lest they be poisonous.
II the lesser ape folk would only let
him come close enough TO speak with
them he might ascertain from them
which were safe. but for some unae-
eountable reason they seemed to fear
and mistrust him. This, above all
other considerations, argued 10 M that
ne had come in some mysterious way
into another world.
Presently the troglodyte discovered
slender. straight young sapling. He
came to the ground and tested its
strength By bending 1t back and forth.
Apparently it met the requirements of
q new shaft
With his stone Ratchet he bowed it
on close 10 the ground. stripped 1t OF
branches. and climbing to the safety
OF the trees again, where he need fear
no interruption from the huge mon
ats1s OF the world he knew. set to work