The Connecticut labor news., 1921-05-06


 incidents connected with his expedi' he had concluded the chieftain ad- dressed me at some length.
 1 replied in our good old English tongue merely to convince him that neither of US could understand the other; but noticed that when I smiled slightly on concluding he did likewise. This fact and the similar occurrence during my first talk with Tars Tarkas convinced me that we had at least something in common; the ability to smile, therefore to laugh; denoting a sense of humor. But 1 was to learn that the Martian smile Is merely per functOry and that the Martian laugh is a thing to cause strong men to blanch with horror.
 The ideas of humOr among the green men of Mars are widely at variance with our conceptions of incitants to merriment. The death agOnies of fellow being are, to these strange crea- tures provocative of the widest hilar- ity, while their chief form of common est amusement is to inf1ict death on their prisoners of war in various in-
 
 The assembled warriors and chief- tains examined me closely, feeling my muscles and texture of my skin. The principal chieftain then evidently sig nified a desire to see me perform. and, motioning me to follow, he started with Tars Tarkas for the open plaza.
 Now, I had made no attempt to walk, since my first signal failure, ex- cept while tightly grasping and Hitting about among the desks and chairs like some mOnStrOuS graSshOpper. After bruising myself severely, much to the amusement of the Martians, I again had recourse to creeping, but this did not suit them and I was roughly jerked to my feet by a towering fel- low who had laughed most heartily at my misfortunes.
 AS he banged me down upon my feet his face was bent close to mine and I did the only thing a gentleman might do under the circumstances of brutality, bOorishneSs and lack of con- SideratfOn for a strangers rights; 1 swung my fist squarely to his jaw and he went down like a felled OK. As he sunk to the floor I wheeled around with my back toward the nearest desk, expecting to be overwhelmed by the vengeance of his fellows, but deter mined to give them as good a battle as the unequal odds would permit be- fore l gave up my life.
 My fears were groundless, however as the other Martians, at first struck dumb with wonderment, finally broke into wild peals of laughter and ap- plause. I did not recognize the ap- plause as such, but later when had become acquainted with their customs, I learned that I had won what they seldom accord, a manifestation of ap- probation.
 The fellow whom I had struck lay where he had fallen, nor. did any of his mates approach him. Tars Tarkas ad vanced toward me, holding out one of his arms, and we thus proceeded to the plaza without further mishap. 1 did not, of course, know the reason for which we had come to the open, but l was not long in being enlightened. They first repeated the word "sak" a number of times and then Tars Tar kas made several jumps, repeating the same word before each leap; then, turning to me, he said. "Sak!" I saw what they were after, and gathering myself together I "sakked" with such marvellous success that I cleared a good hundred and fifty feet; nor did I this time lose my equilibrium, but landed squarely upon my feet without falling. then returned b. easy jumps of twenty-five or thirty feet to the little group of warriors.
 My exhibition had been witnessed by several hundred lesser MartianS, and they immediately broke into de- mands for a repetition. But I was