Show J. o 7 CONDENSED CLASSICS H t JI THE WAR OF THE WORLDS f T By er H. H O O. WELLS Condensation ty rd Al S. S ont C Horbert Herbert Georgr George Georg e Wells Wella tho the m most mos st std t r d discussed i 18 a cussed livin living g n novelist was waa born bornat y y at Bromley Kent Tant on Sept 21 1866 the son of at a famous fa fa famous fa- fa 4 professional 3 41 cricket player His mother w was ws was s an Innkeepers Innkeeper's 1 n n k e o pers per's f daughter who had been beena a ladys lady's maid i before her mar mar- The boy had an Irregular r education but he was quick to learn and at the i age ago of ot 16 after working as se an at attendant attendant at- at x readout In n a a. store ho he se secured a position position i s tion as assistant att In a grammar gr-ammar school He obtained obtained ob ob- obtained ob- ob a 0 scholar scholar- ship at London London- London university was graduated graduated grauu- grauu with high honors and taught science In a private school In 1893 he began to write doing articles for and later becoming dramatic dramatic dra dra- matic critic of at the Pall Mall Gazette Ho He was already Interested In social conditions and an untiring student of at science These two Interest Interests he combined com corn i biped In the tho series of at romances romances' that opened with The Time Machine In novels and short stories he created startling fantasies of ot the future displaying displaying dis dis- playing his most abundant nt l Invention In The War of ot the Worlds He oftentimes oftentimes often otten- times discussed future ut ro wars in these stories and his forecasts were ere amazing amazing- ly If like what was seen on the battlefields battlefields battlefields battle battle- fields of or Europe In the meantime he had been een writing stories about contemporary cont life and books about social conditions These be he turned to more and more more with the years Of his later noVels bristling with wit and ideas those that have been most wide widely read and discussed Include KIpps Ipps Tono Bung y Ann AnnY Y Veronica The New Marriage arid and Joan Juan and ana Peter his latest novel Most popular of all was Mr Br Sees It Through generally gen gen- Generally generally regarded as the best war novel written In English HAT I marvel at now when WHAT I recall the days when hen the Martians were speeding earthward ard Is our unconcern The skies sIdes were peopled with J incredible evil e 14 with unimaginably blY repulsive monsters armed with superhuman w weapons weapon apons The The The- Catastrophic Things were ere hurtling on covetous of our greener and warmer planet and lovers lovers' wandered through English lanes with no thought of the s swift ft and scorchIng scorchIng scorching scorch- scorch Ing death above their heads beads Through a telescope I had wa watched matched hed one of the colossal coloss l squirts of flame flame tIame I on the rim of the tiny red plan planet t. t It did not occur to me that that these gaseous gaseous gase gase- ous ons Jets acco accompanied panl d the firing of a n mighty gun that had launched ten huge cylinders Into space spacer Learning to ride a bicycle Interested me more mor than eruptions ns on Mars l The i e planet seemed so remote Forty million n miles nilles away away away- I Ogilvy the astronomer found the first messenger He had seen it fallIng falling fall- fall Ing Sing and supposed It a wandering meteorite mete mete- but Its shape surprised him It was cylindrical fully 30 SO yards across the exposed face It was so hot that he could not get near It Then to his hIs' utter amazement the top began to un un- screw There was some something In It something alive I Not until then did be he link It with the flashes on Mars Late that afternoon I saw the Mar Mar- tinn tiara tian I was one one of ot a curious crowd In e front of the cylinder when the lid fell off oil I peered Into the black interior and fancied I saw shadows stirring Then something like a snake wriggled Into sight I 1 stood stricken with ter ter- ter- ter A round body about four f feet et across pulled Itself painfully to the opening I had e expected to see see something like a man fantastic perhaps but two legged This 0 thing was as just an oily leathery body legless and armless arm arm- less with a chinless and face Two great eyes dark and luminous were mirrors for an extraordinary brain The creature panted and heaved weighed down by the greater pull pun of gravity on earth An Intense e loathing came over me Suddenly the monster toppled over Into the pit Then I 1 ran madly From Prom a distance I watched the tation that went out und under r a white whit e flag I saw three flashes of greenish t light and darts of fire leaped from on one e to another of the little figures Even Ever as I J saw them touched with death I did not realize what was happening SU Suddenly I knew and again I ran People nearby slept unconcernedly unconcerned y that night although the Heat neat Rays Ray had set half halt a dozen villas aflame an and d pine tr trees es were red torches We were e sure that these dangerous Invaders invader were fatally fatany sluggish A Avell w vell well aimed alme d shell would finish them And n we slept th the Martians were method d 4 that rearing those mighty machines machine es theories were so soon to shatter our ne neat nea about their helplessness That s nIght another cylinder Under el eight ht fell an ant d more were driving on It was the next neat night that I saw th the ti striding Martians Boilers Boners on stilts stilt f I l heard them called later inter I saw the them ra p by flashes of of lightning and the glow gl ew countless fires clanking machines en feet high moving upon three gi gl gantic legs Jess like an exaggerated trl tn- pod driving on with an trains express speed smashing everything In their path At the tops crouched in metal hoods hood lay the Martians Looking out from my windows at dawn I beheld an abominable desola lion a blackened world that had been g cen and fair fall I 1 struck out for London London London Lon Lon- don and for fOI miles mUes saw not a living be be- I ing lug I had reached the Thames when I saw the Things coming five of them I ran f for r the water Straight toward mo sped one but I 1 might have been an nn ant In a mans man's path It strode through the river and towered above Shepperton Then Ihen six hidden guns b belched together One shell struck the hood and there was a horrible co confusion of flesh tIesh and bl blood od and me me- tal Something drove the uncontrolled machine o on on crashing through the vii vil village 11 lage toppling over the tower church collapsing In the river The others rt rushed sh d to the spot and the tho air was filled tIlled with hissing of Heat Beat Rays Hays and crackling of fires Shepperton leaped Into flame tIame I staggered to the shore and when I 1 looked up the Things were bearing away the smashed ma ma- chine I I stumbled on stricken panic dazed The world was doomed These monsters monsters mon- mon could slay with Heat na Bays s 's beyond beyond beyond be be- yond the range of our biggest guns Not again could we kill kUl one of them by surprise Terror stalked through London To the horror of Heat Rays nays Rayshad had been added added the Black Smoke a cloud of poison polson that blighted all living liv lIv- f ing Ilag g things hl gs So Lond London n streamed In flight people roaring out along the highways until they were rivers in flood I fell Into a n doze under trader a hedge and there thE the curate joined me He was mad half-mad with fright and clung to me We plodded on to a suburb where we sought refuge in a deserted house At midnight came a blinding flash When day broke e we peered through hole hol and In the garden was a Martian Embedded In the earth arth was another glowing cylinder For fifteen days I was penned there so I saw aw more of of- the monsters than any other man now living I watched their intricate machines the machines the automatic automatic automatic auto auto- matic digger the sensitive handling handling- machine like a metallic so spider spider so flexible and so swiftly sure that they seemed centuries in advance of our rigid machinery I could study too the Martian habits I 1 learned that evolution had made them all brain cold re remorseless un un- swayed by emotion They neither I sl slept ept nor ate they were sexless and ana t their heir young were budded off like the young oung y of corals Most horrible to me was the fact that they injected mens men's b blood lood into their veins for nourishment It was this that drove me to actris act ris as as I did when the curate went raving m mad ad 1 I knew v that his shouts would warn w arn the Martians of our presence and I tried to sl silence ence him He broko broke a away way and and I I caught him in n the like kitchen w where here I f felled him with a meat meat clop chop chopper per He dropped stunned and then I saw two dark eyes at the window I tIed fled to the coal coal cellar cenar and above m mI me meI I heard n n a tapping tapping and then the noise of a a 1 heavy body being dragged dragged drag drag- ged g ed across th the floor I piled plIed wood and coal over me when I heard that tapping at the cellar- cellar d door Through crevices I could see seethe seethe the t terrible e arm of a handling ma chine ma-chine o 0 waving feeling examining O Once nce it ran across the heel of my b boot oot and I nearly screamed Then it w went ent away A week passed before I dared look o out ut About the peep hole was massed quantities of the red weed that the Martians M had brought brought evidently evidently vegetation vegetation vegetation vege vege- tation on Mars biers is red I pushed it a aside side and gazed out The he garden was deserted I crept into a de desolate world Ab About ut me was a smashed village I struggled In through the outskirts of London and not until I reached Wimbledon Common Com Corn mon men on did I meet a man He had food and drink and plans for the future v visions of a people living In the great d drains rains until they had science enough to conquer their conquerors I stayed w with ith him until I had regained m my y s strength and then walked into dead L London ondon The metropolis was was stilled of all it Its s h humming life Here a and d there were war d h heaps eaps of dead withered by Black S Smoke moke here and t there ere were signs o of ot f d destruction but It was was little changed change d except e for the horrible quiet I was wn s n near ear South Kensington when I heard hear d t the he mournful howling ulla ulIa Not until the next day did I see th tho o i ho hood d of the giant that was making t this his sobbing wall wail He did not move nor did three others that I saw standing stand stand- ing ins strangely still Driven by fear I resolved resoled to end It all I walked toward the Thing nearest me and saw birds bird s c circling about the hood tearing at a t s something within I scrambled hastily up a great rampart ram ram- part and below me was the Martian l n camp They Tiley were all aU dead nearly 5 50 U of them some In their machines an and d others prone upon the ground The They 3 y could uld conquer man man but they had fallen faller n before borore mans man's most relentless foe fit tho ilia e disease bacteria of earth Whatever destruction was don done done e the he hand of the destroyer estro er was sta stayed ed All the gaunt wrecks the blacken blackened ed skeletons of houses that stared staled so S wally mally at the sunlit grass of the lull hill would presently be hammers echoing with tit th the e of the restorers and with the ringing g the tapping of the trowels At thought I extended my hands hand toward s the sky and began I thanking God g In a year thought gr I In I-In In it a yes year r Copyright 1919 by the Post The Boston Publishing C Co o. o atop slon of at and Post Printed by perm Bros authorized arrangement d publishers with Harper rDO |