OCR Text |
Show — : PILILILVLGRGGAAAAGLRLEGALEMAILLIELILIAIIALH BEWARE! END OF THE WORLD []|/ WHY PAY-DAY Was LATE|; ONLY 12,000,000 YEARS AWAY! : : . By IRVING WILLIAMS By G. FREDERICK WRIGHT, A. M., LL. D. Coy Then the Sun Will Shrink, Lose Its Heat and Inhabitants of the Earth Will Freeze .and Starwe to . Death. . . Time, But Vitimate Anothet bitable- qntety co Tree tl of and earth's May : Destruction Is Inevitable, Wise Ones Sash, 1 engul } Save Us for a A over it glanced over his to the 1 portion of {Πε torrent. anc © ' dripping and then grimly at from which e e at the id allace surface nates of that the one h¢ ad es ers, he gan wa Se ed low turned Ν ot iown ed ed the is way of stationed himself at e made, and soon his companion ~ strong bay mare, splashed peril, a} wearily line / NEXT | | pices | BELOW ee. ee THAT witt/ BE | | | ο” Τ᾽ 1 τινε | &NO | Four | with flame he ht would slept his senses sound, ' he was he wet. Be und be again tum Witt if he had exhibited flood it and rea showed its out shirt, completely for some o every wide en time when ispicious ake and listen Unmistaka the creak of cautious eps could be heard in the room His He caller listened, tense and staring made slow ] gress Cer their way through the undergrowth iin progress, though t was, and until they reached more open ground, toward the stairway leading to the when the man vaulted into the saddle lhall into which his room opened, Foland a brisk canter brought them to W any unusually insistent com the road by which they had been trav la on the part of the flooring, all eling until they reached the flood-swolcoynd would cease for a minute or len creek and their overthrow Then, reassured, it would begin | λ 12:000.000 YEARS L had yw. made anxiety under his He | pathy pair f socks and trous- window « noving his was still ‘ circling his body | ashore and joined her master with a’ | little “whicker” of recognition and sym Wet and mud-stained, the I the brink of the me bulky obje the gpot where the landing wou ere mp, g, however, ution sible to the banks which ο yellow turmoil, and ae man eK the show as pos-|nervous The fc boots, ng eameen-\e Tal tions his I the stream, keeping as close world.| foot ‘ . ae prepentieesWing Se Bee oe μμ O0 his coat and whirl όνος : i. re that happens I Να pu feet, TE a eee oe an through the brush and undergrowth of ¢ on that going On @'! with a sturdy disregard for atches. { gun car els Shor μά his λλωου pit al oe ae ee — 4 } caped Suddenly, witl ervous μμ chats Mca A. Warns Adherent of Nebular Hypothesis World's Center Giving Forth Warm by - consistin ing High Browed Scientists Have It All e . Worked Out—“Things Are in a Bad Way,” ie απ Bad igto Y οἱ as he ageec el cloth ; a) Accepting the impracticability of continuing his journey, the man turned aeain Phe his track | NS Stared Ithough darkness closed 1} τβρ]ᾶ- -ρρίῃρ, horse’s Peake head on 2s: ite the ; back sitting in ν before the bed, ee him, but ΠΝ without HUNDRED! | DEGREES j ly the horse jogged along with the | surety of a thorough knowledge of the perspiration stood beaded on his face anq hands. He was filled with fear | way. The man sat easily in the sad | dle. Miles had passed without change in the nature of the surroundings nor a word of commandto the horse when, natural to the defenseless and cornered quarry. But waiting was not to be tolerated by a man of his disposition to action. | "Ην warning, the animal gave 4/ Ἠἰβ whole sense was hearing. tie cautiously crawled from the bed | fierce snort of fright and sprang far| nq stood looking about the dimly | to the side of the road. The man, al-|);.nteq room, selet ting the most prom | most unseated, recovered his balance | j.in¢ weapon of defense. There was | immediately and without further ado| 5+ much to choose from—a light and | threw himself flat against the horse’s cane seated chair, a water pitcher ] | wash bowl, the washstand and his | | | | boots, besides the lamp. These ap peared to be all that was available— not very effective against firearms. Wait! Besides these there was one more object, small bottle however, Og ZN WHEN— the present rate, or, rate, well forever said, : As we know Kelvin that the has sun ( ΊΎτεκνιενν ἠὴ Te igideed, at any Lov¥d \ ἵ ‘ κ WETHER is Λ ιτι5 cooling off just as certainly as we should know that a hot stone which we encountered in a field was cooling he plainly desired to produce. placing the wash bowl upturned on the floor, taking the pitcher from the This amounts A to! its Business on, but it is doubtful if it have such cooling. Heat is not a permanent quality of any known object. The sun /2-.000-000 YEARS 7 stores of iron and coal as have blessed the present race of human beings enough to measure the rate of must be losing its heat, and hence in time will become a cold and lifeless There are two other sources of heat to which we maylook with much con- | fidence and hope. It was more than a dream of Ericsson to invent an engine which could be run by collecting the direct rays of the sun through immense sun-dials, thus generating the heat necessary to set in motion | the wheels of industry. But the successful carrying out of his plans would necessitate the transfer of our object. If things continue to go on as they now do, astronomers tell us, the sun will lose its life-giving heat long before 12,000,000 years have elapsed. Like all other cooling bodies, the sun must be diminishing in size. its diameter must be contracting Newcomb estimates Sy that in less than 5,000,000 years the sun’s diameter will conwact to one half its present length, so that the sun will occupy only one-eighth of the space it now occuples It is hardly great manufacturing centers to the rainless regions of the world where possible for it after that to continue to furnish as much heat as it does now, rapidity but it must then cool off with great based on the the sun is not yet a solid body, supposition ‘hat but is so hot tl its mass is still in a gaseous state. But the fore: of gravity upon the sun is so great that the gas is compressed into a much st er proportionate con pass than it is on the ea The force of gravit on the surface of the sun is 27 times that om the earth, so that a man weighing 150 pounds on the earth would weigh nearly two tons on the sun. So great is this pressure of gravity on the gases of the sun that are they reduced to one-quarter the density of the solid nucleus of the earth But s« long as the nucleus of the sun continues to be gaseous it will continue to grow hotter as it dimin ishes in size So soon, however, as it loses suf ficient heat to allow the material to take on the solid form, a crust will be formed and the radiat ing heat will The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works therein shall This reasoning is rapidly diminish. Probably, also the heat radiated will diminish long before that time, even though the sun is growing hotter, because of the diminishing size of the globe. The only way that the astronomers can see to avoid this slow paralysis of the sun, and so of the whole solar system, is that lately proposed by Prof Langley in a ser sational art cle depicting what would happen if a dark world moving at an incred ible speed in space st i come so near our sun that the two would collide. 77 W/L IN\ 07 AL WAYS GE THOS]! In this case the ori nal heat of the sun might be restored, but the <atastrophe would practically produce such an expansion ( f its volume and such an increase of its radiating power that everything or the earth would be burned up, prox lucing about such phenomena as are described by the Apostle Peter. Indeed, the re semblance between the words of the apostle and the theory of the Washington astronomer Was as striking as it was unexpected, so much so that some readers may not know from which source the following quotation is taken But be burned up.’ the suggestion of the astronomer was pure speculation. There are no apparent signs of any such approaching catastrophe as Dr. Langley sug gests as possible At any rate, we may settle down to the conclusion that so far as astronomical forces are concerned the present order of things will not be disturbed for three or four million years But an equally gloomy prospect is before the world in the distant future from another cause which is in slow operation The length of the earth's day is slowly increasing through the retarding influence of the tides produced by the moon. To be sure, this effect is so slight that it has not been directly perceptible since accurate methods of measuring the time of the earth’s revolution on its axis have been observed. But that it must be taking place is as sure as that friction will stop a railroad train when the steam is turned off The tides raised by the moon's attraction are distributed by the continents so as to present many anomalies, but when considered in themselves they act the same as a wave three feet high constantly running in an opposite direction to the revolution of the earth, and so by friction retarding its motion. Astronomers are agreed that similar tides produced on the moon have reduced her revolution on her axis to a period of 28 days. Eventually the revolution of the earth will be reduced so that our day will be several times longer than now. When that time comes the nights will be so cold that nothing can stand it, and if they could the days will be so hot that what was left by the cold would be destroyed by the heat. But that time, also, is so far in the future that the present generation may put it out of their minds. This catastrophe will not arrive for many million -* Indeed, before that time arrives the perpetual not be last, with al tom of the ocean. period, as it did at the end of the coal period, there will be dry land to live a This and, 3,000 years and deposited at the bot-| en portion shall rise at the end of that | off, though we had not seen it long his eye to the general appearanceof disarray As the main elevation of North America is 748 feet, and that of Europe 671 feet, it follows that by the operation forces of present Europe will be washed into the sea in 2.000,000 years, and America in 3,000,000 years. What providence has in store for us after that, no man knows. If the sunk- ON ae \ NNW insignificant—a ink the earth's surface is, on the average,| washed away by the streams every| more than 300 feet in a million years. | REPORTER — HAVE BEEN RE QUESTEO caught so red most a trace of amusement in expres sion, he quickly pulled a fat money belt from about his waist beneath his shirt, rumpled up the bed clothing and thrust the belt under the mattress. He next made his way carefully and quietly to the stand and secured the ink bottle, on the way noiselessly turning the chair on its side and pulling the curtain back as he passed the window, exposing the half-open sash. | Fg UWANOWN but of sunshine prevails. impossible that It, the therefore, will desert of Sahara and the sandy wastes of Central Asia shall n the future usurp the place now assumed by \ the localities in proximity to the great coal fields of the world, while the latter become overgrown briars and brambles like the mounds of many an ancient center of civilization Still another possible source from which we may draw infinite quantities of heat and power | is to be found in the heated center of the earth. | 4s we descend below the surface of the earth, | the temperature rises on an average of one degree At a depth of two miles, therefore, | in 60 feet. the temperature of boiling water would be reached, and at a depth of five miles a temperature of more than 400 degrees. It would, there tore, not 5 se by any means impossible to bore into the earth deep endugh to make aportion of its heat available for All ordinary purposes The worldj however, is concerned with impending catastrophes nearer at hand. The prosperity of the present time is largely due to the rapidity with which we are using up the reserved stores of nature upon or near the surface of the earth. | Thus geology, while it opens up to mankind tte stores of good that are buried for safekeeping in broken pane of glass luckily added After stand, disarranging the towel that had been spread neatly across it, he took one further satisfied glance about the room Carefully then he stretched himself in the middle of the floor, opened the bottle of ink and poured some of its |crimson contents on his breast and Ly vy throat and acro his forehead just a, — below the hair. The rest he poured on The Animal Gave a Fierce Snort and | jj, floor ne: ie is head and neck and Sprang Far to the Side of the Road. er icke bottle under his shirt vhere it would not be seen. He neck and dug in the spurs. At a bound umpled his underclothing to makeit the steed regained the road and took by ppear to have been pulled aside the course at full speed e tearing away of the money belt, Two riders emerged from the forest and finally lay with head thrown back into the road. Each carried a rifle and eyes fixed on the ceiling, and waitand as they came into the half-light ed. It was a bold bit of acting. Would of the path’s clearing one threwhis it work? piece to his shoulder, aiming at the He did not have long to wait, for fast disappearing rider. although he had made his preparations “Don’t shoot, you fool!” growled the as rapidly as possible, consistent with other. “It may be someone else.” silence, he had hardly completed the “What's the difference?” snapped | tableau setting before he heard mufthe man, with his cheek to the gun- fled whispers at the door re Was, stock, but he lowered the weapon as then, more than one caller. They were he spoke. deciding on the mode of entrance. The After a brief conference they turned door was a light one, offering but their horses to follow the single rider slight obstruction to a strong man. at a leisurely pace Though aware of this they apparently At a late hour a hatless and be- hesitated before taking so noisy a draggled horseman guided a winded | method Carefully the knob was mount as quietly as possible through| turned, but only to confirm what they the muddy streets of a straggling Ar- must have expected—that the door kansas railroad village There was was locked caution in his every movement. When Another interval of silence and then he reached a certain stable door he vielding to a quick pressure from 8 opened it slowly to keep the hinges broad shoulder, the lock snapped with from complaining. When he emerged a sharp report and a man sprang into a few moments later, having cared the room, holding a revolver. He did for his horse, he was as regardfuil of not stop until his feet almost touched the hinges. He tiptoed as noiselessly the prostrate body on the floor. In the as heavy, water-soaked boots would dim light he made it out and shrank permit, across the back porch of the back to the door with an oath house that occupied the same lot with “What is it, Al?’ came in a whisper the barn. With the same caution he from the dark of the hall unlocked the door and let himself into the house. He passed through the rooms, peering about intently, seemingly to make sure that he was the only person under that roof. Completing his careful inspection, he set his lamp on a little cupboard washstand in the only bedroom the house afforded and began to prepare the depths of theearth, pointsto their limited quan- for bed. tity, and calls upon men to use them economically “I'd give a pretty penny to know for and leave as much as possible for future genera| sure what it was Dolly shied at. Must tions. Wastefulness of these limited stores is a have been a hog,” he soliloquized. “If sin. At the same time it gives the philosophical it had been any of the Reed gang student of history a scbering view of the destiny they'd ’a’ sure shot of man. Nothing is more certain than that man “Just so nobody knows I was drivhas not been always on the earth, and that he is en back I’m safe enough here for the not always to stay here. The world is like a night, but I'd hate be caught in transcontinental railroad train and the human ; this corner without a gun.” He put] race like a passenger who gets on at one end and | his hand mechanically to his hip| has to get off at the other. Out of mystery man | pocket as he had done a hundred | came and into mystery he goes. +» The visible world times since his escape from the | is a passing show. All that is unchangeable lies stream; but the was gone bein the world of the unseen. yond al] chance of doubt. (Copyright, 1908, by Joseph B. Bowles.) “Someone has been here before us,” was the answer, as another man joined him in the doorway. For a moment the two stood staring in disappointed rage at the red-splotched object on the floor. They took in the signs of strug gle and the open window through which a murderer and robber might have entered and made his escape “Ain't that hell?” and the other as sented that it was “We've got no business hanging around here, and the quicker we cut out the better. The other fellow got the ten thousand, but we stand a good chance to get the rope.” This was sound reasoning, and a few moments later the callers were riding away more hurriedly than they had come And that is how pay-day with Landers’ Milling Company happened to be one day late im the month of March, 1903, |