Evening star., 1935-12-01

MARVELS IN WEIRD STORY AGE
Juvenile Fiction of Seventies and Eighties Produced Lurd
Tales of Adventure in Flying Palaces and Craft
to Explore Regions Below Surface of Sea-

I'VE owe it to Russia" said Frank.
Didn't they offer their feet to Presi-
dent Lincoln II the British or the
French made war on US during the
Civil WARP"
60 THE craft was sailed to st.
- Petersburg and our hero strolled
nonchalantly around to the Winter
Palace to see the Car.
whats the price? inquired his
majesty.
ITO you, our old friend and ally
million dollars"
"Um-um,' went the Gar refiec-
lively. "a million dollars is a lot Of
money"
But 1t Is nothing compared with
being assured of an easy victory over
perfdious Albion"
After weighing a million against
bringing proud Albion to the dust and
gaining the riches Of India, the Car
agreed to buy the machine-but with
the mean-spirited stipulation that he
first be convinced it would work. Our
hero resented this imputation against
the honor Of an American, but he
swallowed his pride, and agreed to
demonstrate to the satisfaction Of the
Cars good friend, YaSsof, a naval
officer.
Yassoff had ideas Of his own. He
had heard of an island in the center
Of the SargaSso Sea, whose sands
were grains Of gold. A surface ship
could not approach 1t through the
dense meadows of seaweed. With
this craft it would be possible to sail
under it or fly over it. Somewhat re-
luctantly the heroic American agreed.
They sailed under the Sargasso Sea.
They arose in diving suits and cut
their way through S or 8 feet Of
matted vegetation to the beach Of this
island.
On the way, Yassoff was caught by
a sea serpent and was being crushed
to death when the American saved
him. Sure enough, the beaches were
Of gold-or at least of sandlike par
ticles that had the color of gold. They
also were strewn with human skele-
tons, the remains of the adventures
who had come there before and
couldn't get of again.
But our hero found. and convinced
Yassoff, that the pebbles. being hard
and brittle, were not gold after all.
They were too light. They were only
sand coated with a peculiar coral
deposit" From the Sargasso Sea they
sailed under the ocean to India, where
| the ship was to be delivered to the
/ Russian consul. YaSsoff was convinced
it would work, after the adventure Of
the golden island.
THERE was no war after all When
l. perfidious Albion learned the Rus
sian had bought the craft she made
haste to conciliate st. Petersburg.
The first lord of the admiralty had
known all the time that an American
would not and could not lie. He had
insulted the owner of the craft be-
cause he had been too mean to pay
a million tor 1t.
Far corners OF the earth apounoeo
with terrible and strange beasts, in
the naive imagination of the 90s.
The Iurid accounts of these. furnished
by correspondents, were provided to
its youthful readers by the Boys of
New York For example, wrote one
correspondent:
zone day, when I was up In the
mountains of Mexico on prospecting
trip, lay down in the shadow Of a
large rock to escape the heat. An
hour later I was awakened by a
peculiar sound, and looked up to
confront the most gruesome ami
NAL that ever existed on the earth.
1t appeared to be mixture Of man,
crocodile and black snake. 1t was
about six feet long and covered with
scales 1t tapered to very slender.
serpentlike tail and had two short
forelegs terminating in large red
hands with nails instead Of claws.
'The head was an exaggeration Of
the head of fullblooded Ethiopian,
but the skull was perfectly bald and
had a wrinkled. parchmentlike ap-
pearance I started back, and the
Continued on Tenth Page)