Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-03-22

near his greatest distance from the
SUM- We are looking at him across
the radius of his orbit plus our own,
and he is nearly 7OO,OOO,O00 miles
away. Venus is approaching very
close to us and will become brighter
until she reaches her greatest appar-
ent elongatiOn from the sun, when
One-haIf of her Illuminated surface
will be visible to us. With even
small telescope she appears now as
the new moon does in its first quar-
ter, with the crescent horns turned
IN the reverse direction. She will pass
within 100000 miles of us to
emerge on the opposite edge of the
sun. Note the difference in the color
of their light; Jupiter shines with
dull yellow hue compared to the cleo
trio brilliance of Venus.
Mars and Saturn In Eastern Sky.
Mars and Saturn can be easily
be found in the eastern sky at the
same moment They are now but
twenty degrees apart. Saturn is di-
rectly south about IL o'clock, and
Mars reaches that point an hour lat
er. The rudy light of Mars makes
him easily distinguishable.
Great discoveries have been made
in both Mars and Venus within the
last year. They are our nearest
neighbors and are worlds in which
we have a vital interest. The at
mosphere of Venus has been weighed
and measured. 1t is nearly one-half
greater in volume and weight than
ours, and is of identically the same
chemical constituency as our own.
There are no apparent reasons why
any of us could not live there as COM
fortably as we do here. Venus is
beautiful world only 25-10000th small
Ter than ours. She rOtates in less
than twenty-five hours, making the
days and nights the same as ours.
The inclination of her axis has been
determined to be nearly the same as
the earth, and her seasons are like
ours. Within the year some of her
mountains have been measured, and
have been found to soar to an alti-
tude of nearly twenty-five miles. But
with her heavier atmosphere you and
1 might be able to stand on the high
est SUBMITS without distress and
view the grandest scenery possible to
imagine. Venus is now enjoying the
very best physical conditions under
the planetary laws that govern her
destiny. She is glorying in her gold
en- age.
Mars An UnbrOken Plain.
But, ah, how different with Mars.
Mars is now undergoing the hardest
possible conditions that planetary
laws can bring about. The remnants
of her humanity, the left-overs, who
have refused to progress, are learn
ing their lessons under the hardest
conditions. Their world is an almost
unbroken plain, arid, frigid stretches
of yellow sand. Ages of time has
levelled the mountains and filled the
valleys Marian winds sweep with
unbroken force from the equator to
the poles. The long winter of eleven
months has just ended in the southern
hemisphere, and the Martians are be-
ginning to till the scant, irrigated
fields. Photographs made by the
great 60-inch reflector at the Flag
staff observatory show that the Mar
tians have added more than 1000
miles to their canal systems this year.
These canals are perfectly geometri-
cal figures, and if we could read them
Alright they might convey to us a
thrilling massage which the Martians
have been seeking for centuries to
send us. Perhaps when the great 100
inch reflector now being taken to the
top of Mount Wilson, in California, is
turned upon the ruddy planet we may
be able to read it.
Is Mars Inhabited?
1t cannot be doubted that living be-
ings existed on Mars before they did
on this planet. Do they still exist?
We have every reason to believe they
do. And if we were willing we might
know definitely. And what dazzling
wonder, what ecstacy will we feel
when we shall distinguish with GER
tainty the proofs of life of high in
telligence on our neighboring world!
When we shall answer their geomet
TlCdl figures ny tracing mere Will
electric lights geometrical figures
which they shall see and reproduce
before our eyes? First and sublim-
est communication between heaven
and earth. Search through the whole
history of our humanity for an event
half so amazing! Search for facts
that reach but to the ankle of this
Colossus in scientific interest and
philosophical consequences, and you
will find but pygmies crawling at the
feet OF a giant.
Civilized Europe is spending tens
of billions to kill and MAIN her peO-
pie. But to lay millions of mangled
dead bodies on the earth, to MAIN
and mar millions of others, to tear
from the face of civilization the dial
of progress, to thrust back, beat
down and strangle spiritual and in
tellectual evolution, is the sport of
military marnlOtS Strutting in the