South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-10-03
Suppose You Were a Fly
Unless You Left Your Human Nature Behind GU Would be
World of Fearful Monsters in Which You
Would Find Yourself.
BY GARRETT z. SERVISS

head and wings. the haunting hu-
man element would make you trem-
bic with terror over your narrow
escape.
But in a moment a new wonder
would Danish the old fear Enter
ing, with fiy-impudence and curios-
lily. to the up-hung straw hat Of a
customer eating his pie, about as
far below you as from the apex Of
the Woolworth building to the
Broadway pavement, you would find
yourself in a round, perfumed hall
as capacious as a theater. But
when the owner of the hat arose to
claim his property and free il from
interlopers. you would flee in AFFECT
fright. even though you had the
courage of a thousand flies. for the
giant on two legs that suddenly
reached after you would be a thou
sand feet tall
Before the imperturable philoso-
| ply of your fly nature had restored
your upset human reason you might
have fed across Broadway and into
the inviting seclusiOn of st. PauIs
| chapel, but here again the old habit
Of comparative judgment would
lead you into fresh establishment.
The eXpanse of pews around you
would be as vast as an ordinary
hilly landscape, and the great cell
ing would span your world of peace
! full refuge at a height equivalent
to that Of the white clouds that
send cooling shadows over the earth
on a summer day.
But the same magnification
would produce yet another set of
marvels. a grain Of sand would be
TO you like granite boulder. The
surface Of a piece Of brown paper
would resemble "a rough ploughed
| field. In short, you would feel as
if you had dropped down through
| the tube of a powerful microscope
and come out among the mOnstrOsi-
! ties on it's stage. When YOU met
another fly it would be uncanny 10
find it as tall as yourself.
! The facets of It's big compound
eyes would glare at you like the
lenses of barber beacon. All
around YOU the details of the micro
scopic world would stare you i'm the
, face You would see the mosquito
unsheath a lance as large as a two
/ handed sword A flea would be a
carapaced monster Of incredible
ugliness. as big as dog. and capa-
Bile Of jumping over a church
steeple.
Your new eyes might be adjusted
TO the perception OF colors unknown
to human vision. They would, per-
I haps. see by means of the short
| ultra violet rays. thereby perceiv-
ing hues of a beauty of which the
, human mind has no conception. and
penetrating into secrets unSuessed
by science. On the other hand, the
| sounds of the fly world cannot be
the same as those of ours. Il may
have a music pitched on scales far
beyond the reach of our ears. a
tmusic ethereal and microscopic in
fineness and delicacy of tone. whose
lowest octave is far above the limit
OF the highest Of ours. With what
exquisite harmonies you might woo
a winged mate. But sound is not
all music in any world Of being.
To the roar OF the lion may cor
respond the ravenous cry OF the
spider. inaudible to Us. Caught IN
his web at last, that awful voice
would paralyze your limbs before
his terrible lassoes had entangle6
them and his eight spiked legs
each 10 feet long, had rushed his
monstrous poisOn-fangs TO YOU
side