The Washington times., 1922-08-27

LIZ Dfs w ~ DuesUsSs
-HE reports of the leading astrono-
mers show that the conditions of
= life on the planet Mars at the pres
ent moment are becoming increasingly
hard and that if the planet is inhabited,
as appears probable, its people must now
be seeking some way of escape from their
miseries. @...
We are therefore confronted by the
possibility that has often been discussed
Nv imaginative scientists and others-a
descent upon the earth by the inhabitants
of Mars. Professor Lowell, Professor
Pickering, Camille Flammarion and other
scientists, as we'll as II. G. Wells, have
pointed out that if the means Of life were
failing on any planet it was logical to
expect the inhabitants would try to move
to some other planet. The only .-
question is how they would
move, and Mr.. Wells may have
solved that problem.
Mars at the present moment
offers unusual opportunities for
observation to the astronomer, as
i. is nearer to the earth than it
mas been for many years. 1t is
now only 42,350,000 miles away,
~,ereas at this time last year it
was 200, 900 900 miles away. T..
Two years from now Mars will
he only 34,9OO,000 miles away.
If they cannot attack US
this year, the Martans,
having suffered unbear-
able miseries, will, per-
haps, have perfected their
arrangements in the two
year period and may then -
descend upon the earth in
devastating myriads.
Summer on Mars has now passed. and
even ordinary telescopes show that the
ice and snow cap around the poles of
Mars have spread further than ever, add
ing to the hardships of life on an ordi-
narily cold and arid planet.
There is ample scientific evidence for
conjecturing that life on Mars has now
become a long agony which no earthly
creature could endure, and which even the
Martians, who have undergone ages of
adaptation, are finding unbearable.
necessarily swept by terrible dust
storms, unable to find sufficient nourish-
ment on an arid, frozen globe, gasping
for breath in an exhausted atmosphere,
unable to find even water, the Martians
are living in an inferno that only the pen
of Dante could describe.
All the evidence indicates that the Mar
tians must soon make wholesale migra-
ton to the earth or some other favorable
planet in the manner that imaginative
writer's have suggested. Unless they do
so, they are faced with speedy annihila-
ton.
This tragic situation lends great inter-
est to the new illustrations made by
brilliant European artist, Alvin Correa,
for French edition of H. G. Wells "War
of the Worlds" 1t will be remembered
that in this famous work the Martians,
being threatened with extinction, began
shooting themselves to the earth in vast
numbers.
They were all brain and no bones and
shaped much like giant octopuses. To
compensate for the lack of skeleton, their
bodies were enclosed in circular metal
cases and moved on enormous metal stills
They nourished themselves on Mars by
tfansfusing blood from the bodies of man
like creatures. When they reached earth
they used men for food purposes and
we're rapidly destroying the helpless popu-
lation. They rapidly conquered London
and other important regions.
But on Mars the Martians had lived
entirely without disease germs and con-
sequently possessed no acquired immunity
to them. With the blood of human beings
they drew in the germs of death and
rapidly succumbed without struggle.
They had command of a burning ray,
which instantly shrivelled up any object
which IL touched.
When the Martian invaders needed
food they picked up human beings in their
long tentacles, transferred their blood to
themselves and threw their empty car
casses away.