Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-12-01

years they may have kept some sort Of
dwindlng civilization. Probably the Eng
liRh language for n while continued In ever
more and moro corrupt forms. There may
have been some pretense Of maintaining the
school system. railroads. steamship lines,
ncwapa pers and churches, banks and all
the rest OF that wonderfully complex system
we once knew But after while"
"YesH what them
why the whole false shell crumbled,
that's all Il mus, havel History shows
IL IL didn't take a hundred years after
Touasaint L'Ouverture and pcssallnes, In
Haiti for tho blacks to shuck OF French
civilization and 20 back to grass huts and
human sacrinCc-to make another little
Central Africa out OF 1t, IN the bnclSwoods
districts, at any rate And we-have had n
thousand. Beatrice, since the white man
dicdg
she thought moment, and shook her
head
what a story" she murmured. what an
incredible horribly fascinating story that
would make II II could ever be known, or
written Think of the ebb.tide of every.
thing! Railroads abandoned and falling to
pieces. cities crumbling. ships no longer
sailing. language and arts and letters for
gotten. agriculture shrinking back to a few
patches OF corn and potatoes, and then to
nothing at all everything changing dying,
stoppInE-and the everincrcasing yet degen.
Grating people leaving tho city ruins which
they could not rcbuld--takng to the fields.
the forests, the mountains - going down,
down, back toward the primeval state. down
through barbarian, through savagery, to
what?"
ITO what we see!' answered the engineer
bitterly. ITO animals, retaining by Thast
ly mockery some use OF fire and tools. All
this, according to one theory"
rs there another?" she asked eagerly.
Yes, and wish we had the shade OF
Darwin, of Hneckel or OF Clodd here with US
to help us work II outl'
How do you imagine it?"
why, like this Maybe. after all, even
the entire black race was swept out along
with the others too. Perhaps you and
were really the only two human beings left
alive In the world"
''YeS, but In that case. how"
How came they here? Llstsn May
they not be the product of some entirely diff
fercnt process OF development? May not
some animal stock, under changed environ
ment, have easily evolved them7 May not
some other semihuman or near-human race
be now In process of arising, here on earth
eventually to conquer and subdue IL all
again?"
For moment she made no answer. Her
breath came little quickly as she tried
to grasp the full significance of this tre-
mendous concept.
I'm million years, or So" the engineer
continued may not the descendants OF these
things once more be men, or something very
like them? In other words. aren't we pos
sibly witnessing the recreation OF the human
type2 Aren't these the real pithecanthropi
erecti rather than the brown skinned, red
dish-haired creatures of the biological text
books? There's our probleml
She made no answer, but sudden over
mastering curiosity leaped into her eyes.
Let me see them for myself! l mustl
1 will !"
And before he could detain her, the girl
had started back into the room whence they
had come
mo, mol No. Beatrceg no whispered
but she paid no heed to him. Across tho
Uttered floor she made her way. And by
the time Stern could reach her side she had
set her face TO the long. crumbling crack
In tho wall and with burning eagerness
was Ieering out into the forest
CONTINUED TOMORROW