Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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■ jtmm Barnwell People-Sentinel, Barnwell. S. C. After Worlds Collldci By Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie Copyright, 1984, by Edwin Balmer* Philip YTyll* WNTJ Service. J: CHAPTER XI—Continiied —IB— “Tony, lt*B perfectly fascinating— and terrible, some of It I met Pro fessor Pbilbin when I was coming here. I never saw him so excited. He didn't know anything about what had Just happened; when I told him about Von Beit* be only stared at met he won dered why I’d mentioned It He was living in something far more exciting He’d found the record, Tony, of the Other People when they first discov ered the star of their doom approach ing. He was looking for you; he wants ’ report what happened here, Tony, a million years ago!"^. Tony found Philbln with Duquesne, to whom the linguist had brought his version of the records be had de coded. The French astronomer strode about the table in his excitement “We may picture now, with some confidence,” he proclaimed to Tony “the original situation of this planet— the place which it occupied In the uni verse when the people, who have pro vided these cities for us, lived. “It seems to have been about two hundred years before the end that the people on this planet began to appre ciate that a star was approaching which was to tear them away from their sun and cast them out Into utter darkness and cold. There appear to have been living on this world, at that time, about one billion people—about two-thirds of the population of our .. earth before onr destruction began. 'The thousand million of people were spread fairly evenly, in cities, towns, villages, over the best parts of this planet. It is perfectly plain that they had developed at least six different races of men, With some forty or fifty subdivisions distinguished By what we called ‘national’ characteristic^ I have not yet been able to make out the form of their government at the time f>rior to the approach of the destroying star; but it is clear that war either was very rare or had been completely aban doned. “They had come to provide for them selves a very high quality of life; they seemed to have established throughout their globe peace and comfort, when their scientists saw their fatal star approaching.**——■ - — -—-—•>*■- - “Go on,’’ said Tony, when Philbln halted. “Or can't you?" “Yes. I know a little more of what they did at that time—or at least how they felt. My source is an auto biography of a man called Lagon— Lagon Itol. Lagon was what we would consider his surname. He was an * artist and an architect of the time I speak of—the period of their discovery of, or their realization of, their threat ened extinction from the approach of the star. i “With this autobiograhpy of Lagon Itol I found a volume about him by . -one of his contemporarles-^ne Jerad Kan. Lagon was a genius; he was, I think, the Michelangelo of this planet; and with this enormous artistic and architectural ability he had an insati able curiosity and Interest in person alities. He kept a most care(pl diary, which Is like nothing so much as Sam uel Pepys’. Think of this remarkable man—Lagon Itol—as an amazingly vital, vigorous blending of our Michel angelo and Samuel Pepys. “He records on this page,”—Philbln spread it before Tony and Duquesne— “his first fear, If you will call it that, of the star. “This is how I translate his words: “ ‘Colk called today. He says the star Borak will certainly disturb us er rather the great grandchildren of our ^reat-grandchlldren. It- presents us. -a pretty problem for survival.' “Now the ipsplring, and the exciting thing,*’ exclaimed Philbln, “is to follow how this Lagou Itol Immediately set to work to plan a scheme of survival for these people—though the need for that scheme would not come until the time of his great-grandchildren’s great grandchildren.” v Duquesne, with Tony, was staring at the page, the words of which they cquld not read; but there was a sketch there which fascinated them. “It looks," cried Duquesne, “like a first Imagination of this ettyf* “That’s what||It\was,” said Philbln. Tt is perfectly clear that cities of this type were Wend, Strahl. Gorfulu, Danot and Khorlu. “None of these names appear any where in the records of the time of existed. Here Logon Itol first began to dream of them, and he and his friend Jerad Kan began to write, edu cating the people to plan for what lay ahead of their grandchildren’s grand children. r- — “For what happened to them—what, at that time, was threatened and had not yet occurred—was « widely differ ent doom from that of our earth. When we discovered our destroyers we knew that we ourselves must face the destruction* and that very soon.” 'i “Precisely r Duquesne nad to ex claim. Time for us was more merci ful l ..For them—for two hundred years, arieast, they must have looked at their-doom] Tell me, friend, how a mind like that of this Lagon Itol met it” “In the most inevasive way. It if plain from his diary that in bis time, there was doubt—^ at least the best scientists were divided—over the point as to whether the'approaching star would tear this planet completely away from its sun, or would merely alter its orbit so as to make the climate, for part of the year, very much colder. Lagon Itol considered both of those possibilities. He made 'a plan for sur vival under colder conditions; he also speculated on the possibilities of sur vival even In the dark and cold of space.” “But," said Tony r "you found no actual diagram of tbe engineering ar rangements under (he cities?” “At the time in which I now find myself,” said Philbln, ?these cities ex-’ isted only In Lagon Itol’s fancy. His diary either was missed by our friends the Mldlanites, when they tried to re move all diagrams that would have been useful ro us; or else they consid ered this book harmless.” • • r w -• ♦ • Steadily the sun diminished In size; blue shadows stole across the plains of the adopted planet as the long, late afternoons dwindled to dark, and in the night {he outer temperature dropped far below zero. Under the shield of the city, beat remained, and was rene.ved from the huge transformers fed from Impulses far away. By mercy of the Mldlanites! - By mercy, or by policy? CHAPTER XII Hourly they argued this, especially at night, when the needed lights burned bright, and the ventilators spun, circu lating the warmed currents of air to combat the bitter cold that settled on the shield. And machinery moved, be cause the power impulses sent from the station in control of the Mldlanites con tinued. The enemy made no attack. „iu* deed, only at a distance did they re appear at all; and then it was in the sky. Larks hovered, but far away— watching; that was all. And Tony told his pilots, who also were flying larks, not to molest them, or even appear to attack them. What if they sent down a few flyers from the sky? Attack upon the city with a few planes would be absurd; attack from the ground would be fan tastic. The defense, established in any of these great metal cities, must be im pregnable; the advantage of cover was overwhelming. The Mldlanites them selves appreciated this. After the pur suit off Von Beitz they made no move which‘even suggested an attack upon Hendron! To the contrary, they con tinued to send through the conduits under the ground the power-impulses which kept lighted and warm the city of Hendron, much as it had been when it was Khorlu, a million years ago. Khorlu, WencL 'Strahl. Qorfulu, and Danot—so the Other People had named the five cities they had built a million years ago in defiance of the destruction sfeullpg'upon them. Wend was the great shielded metrop olis which Tony and Eliot James first had visited; Strahl and Danot were the two similar cities.seen, and mapped, to the south. Gorfuhi .was the greatest; and not only that—it was the control-city of the group; for It dominated the under ground .works which generated yie power for the entire group of cities. It was Gorfulu that the Mldlanites had seized for themselves, and to which they had brought the survivors of the English Space Ship, as captives. Attack upon the city, with the weapons at hand and transportable, would be folly; every feature and ma terlal of construction of the cities gave ' overwhelming advantage to the de fense. No one offered any scheme of attack that suggested any chance of success. “The fact is,” said Eliot James once, putting frankly In. open words what they, all were feeling, “so far from being able to conquer them, we're at their mercy this minute; and they know it” “When areythey going to shut us off?” they asked each other; and when they did not utter the words, they wanted to. The waiting had become an obsession. The long rivers had turned to Ice; the lake became a sheet of ice which the sun at noonday scarcely affected. Floes filled the seas, the pilots of the larks reported. Frequently at noonday, when the small sun stood nearly, over-' head, surfaces thawed, but when the world began to turn away, and long before the darkness, it was bitterly cold again; and the night was arctic. It was at night that It came—at dinner time. The company under Tony's command were assembleddn the great hall where meals were served. A few of the men stood at salient posts, always on watch There was a watch at the top of the tallest towers, and at the eight gates. Guards were posted also at the pas sages to the chief channels below the city. . . . T'Hsa. liorli>a ra?An fr iliit * IIVT. tvgSTtO W'TJlAi,- Vkrv* realized that, simultaneously, the move ment of the currents of warmed alr~ ceased; but at first this was appre ciated only by those stationed-near the fans, which whirred to a stop in a humming diminuendo. Not only the great halls were black ened, but the streets became tombs. In the unbreathlng, Stygian oppres siveness of the dining hall Tony arose —an invisible figure. He felt blotted oat He wondered whether his voice, when be spoke, could be heard. "They've done It toy friends. This Is no accident no failure which they will repair. They have shut off our power source. So immediately we ffut into effect our plans for this emer gency ; we go under the power-losg or ders which you all already know.”. ^Matches were struck and applied to torches previously fixed on brackets about %ie ball Everybody pretended to like It; everybody sat down again. Dinner went on in a medieval gloom, “It’s begun,” said Dodson to James. "I won’t worry about putting It down In my book tonight” the diarist re plied. “I’ll not forget it before to morrow I” He was aware of an anger within him which hikd no parallel in his expe rience. 'They’re doing this," he said, scarce ly more to the surgeon than to himself. “They’re doing this deliberately to freeze us put to them—to take their terms.” “What terms exactly, d’you suppose ?” some one inquired calmly. Eliot turned, and In the flickering glow v of a flare he faced Peter Van derbilt - v“We’ll hear soon enough, I’d say.” But no terms came! no communica tion at all arrived from those in con trol of the capital city—and in control, therefore, of the five shielded cities. Gorfulu maintained its illumination, as Eliot James and Ransdell ascer tained by flying at dawn and sighting the great glopring dome of the ancient capital Light pervaded that city as before; and beyond question, heat was there. ^ Other pilots Inspected the three other cities—Wend, Strahl and Danot, the shields of which, like the dome of the capital, remained aglow; and those ‘‘pilots flew back also to Hendron-Kbor- lu, which alone of the five cities lay lightless and cold in the winter morning. In the great Hall of the Council these pilots reported to James and Ransdell: “They’ve cut us off—and us alone.” “Why not, then,” some one said, “move to another city? To Wend?” “Then wouldn’t they cut us off therp?” -countered Ransdell practical ly. “The only reason those dtifes aren’t cut off is because we aren’t there.” “Then how about some other cities— elsewhere?” - “Where else?’ questioned Ransdell; for he had done much observation flying. “On sonje other continent—perhaps In the other hemisphere.” “There are no other cities suitable.” “Nowhere else in this world?” “None. The old globes which we found do not show them; and we have never found any others.” “But we have been told that the old population of the planet was one bil lion people!" “Not at the end. however!” "What happened?” Dave Ransdell, for reply, turned about to Tony. “We can give today at least a par-, tial answer xrtrThat” Tony said, look ing about the little group of his Coun cil. “And I think It can be considered pertinent to our discussiop of our own emergency, for we are dealing with a mechanism of living—or of dying- created not by oursplvea but by the original people of this planet It cer tainly can only be of help to us to understand -what they did. Professor Philbln,” he said, “please tell us.” ‘ Peter Vanderbilt arose quietly; and suggested, “Should hot every one hear this?” “Certainly," said Tony. “Open the doors.” And into the great room hundreds came in and stood. For the halls without had been crowded. Nearly everybody was there, except men on watch or detailed to definite errands. “I can assume,” the little linguist began, "that you all have learned what we, who have been Interpreting the books, learned and reported some days ago of the time of Lagon Itol, which was approximately two hundred years before this planet was torn from its sun.. “Lagon Itol, who was certainly a very great man, one of enormous percep tions and Imagination, considers in his diary the fate faclbg one' billion peo ple: so we may put that as a rough figure for the population of this planet in his time. But he astutely observes that there would be nothing like that number finally to face their fate; and he was right. From his time, the peo ple of this planet rapidly reduced themselves in number by diminishing births: — —- ^ “Probably there were barely ten mil lions of people of all ages when the disturbing star—which they called Bo rak—came its closest and cast them off into space. “The best of the energies of the dwindling millions had been put, for two generations, into these five cities which were planned, located and cre ated and equipped fdr the final de- fljkncc of extinction. They abandoned all older habitations and adopted these." ^ “But where dldUhay go, in the end?” A dozen demanded It, together: “Of that mystery^ we have not yet," Philbln confessed, “a trace. They had reduced themselves, we know, from a billion In number at the time of Lagon Itol two hundred years before, tea-mHlIon*. - Barely on»~per~ — cent of them, therefore, were spared up to the time of the catastrophe to attempt the tremendous task of further survival. ‘Throughout at least the last five thousand years of their history, crema tion of the dead was universal among "Now, did (he last ten million also die, and as they went, were they also cremated by their survivors, so that we will find, at the end, only the bones of some small group, who, en during to the last, had disposed of those Immediately before them? Or somehow, did some of them—escape.” It was Tony, presiding, and having the advantage of having heard most Of these facts before, who first found words: “Returning to our,, present prob lem,” be recalled hl^ companions to that which had gathered them to gether, “it is clear that we can find no other cities of the shielded type, and equipped to combat the cold, except the five we know; for no others ever were built We know, also that there is no other generating station provid ing light and heat and power, except that close to Gorfulu; for no other ever was planned or built” Jack Taylor’a post when oh watch, was the northern gate. “The Porte de Gorfulu," Duquesne had dubbed It, recalling the fashion in Paris of naming the gate after the city to which, and from which, its road ran. Eliot gazed out the gate along the road where the shadow of a post placed by the Ancient People lay long and faint upon the ground. “There goes the sun,” he said. “And gosh, it’s cold already! But we can burn things to keep warm. It’s humili ating; but we can burn old wood or grain, or a thousand things, and keep warm for a while, anyway. Physically, we’re not forced to go to them; but can we be men—and stay away?" “Exactly. How can we? How in the world—how on Bronson Beta, Jack, are we going to be able to get at them?" “Tony’d like to know; but It’s got to be without too great « risk. He won’t have us killed—not too many, any- way.” • , “Well how many of us would he think worth while to lose, if we took Gorfulu?” “Do you think you know how to do It . . . Whew, that chill certainly comes on.” “Sun’s gone-; and d—n little of It there rtas to go. We simply weren’t made to be this far away from the sun.” “Half a year from now, you’ll be say ing we weren’t made to be as near the sun as we’ll.be.” “If we live till then.” “Yes. . . . Hello, here's our relief.” And Jack hailed the pair who ap peared in the twilight of the street; he passed them his report “Every thing quiet," and started up the street with Eliot toward his quarters. “What’s the hurry, soldiers?” some one softly hailed from the darkness of a hooded doorway. It was a girl’s voice, teasing, provocative. Both men halted. "Who are you?” “Please, soldiers, we’re only friends caught out in the dark and needing protection.” Jack laughed, and knew her before he turned on his flashlight, “Marian,” he demanded, “what are* you doing here, i»nd‘who’s withr yoor ~ ~ Then her companion, Shirley Cot ton, made herself known. “We were hoping,” Marian Jackson said, as the two girls walked along with the two young men, “for some body to come by who knows how to turn on the heat again, not to speak of the lights." “Were you in that building?” Eliot asked her. “We.were; and I tell you. It’s hard to open doors now that the power’s off. They stick terribly.” “What were you doing, Marian?” “Shall we tell them, Shirley?" “Why not?” “Well," said Marian, speaking care fully as though she might be over heard, “we decided we’d see what we could ‘do” as baits.” "Balts??. .. “Balts. The chunks of meat trap pers used to put in traps, and like minnows on hooks—baits, you know. My idea.” “Then,” said Jack generously, “it must have been a pippin. Baits. I’ve got the general underlying- scheme of you girls now;'go on.” “But there’s nothing' to go on to; nothing happened.” ‘The fish didn’t come?" “No nibble. No. But give us time, boy. There’s some way, we know, by which somebody stlH gets In and out of this city. The idea Is we hope he —or they. lf they’re rw^ of ’em—wlU try to grab us. We’ll go along.” “Sabine-women stuff, Eliot,” Shirley put in. “What?” asked Marian Jackson. “I’ll tell you later, dear,” Shirley offered. “Oh," sniffed Marian. “Deep stuff! Well, anything they didn’t teach In the first six grades of the St. Louis gram mar school is lost on me. Still, you got me curious. What did the Sabine women do, Shirley?” “They went along," Shirley told hpry “with the men from the other city, who grabbed them.” “And then what did they do, dar ling?” TO BB CONTINUED: them. We will find no cemeteries or entombments, except perhaps a very few archiac barrows from a very early ago. The people throughout their civ ilized period dispoaed of th'lr dead In a systematic, orderly way. How Nomo Got Its Name Aurllpaf x uv vuz up by United States government car tographers didn’t have names for all the bays, cipes and inlets. Among the spots that were nameless was a cape which jutted far out into the Bering sea. Some early official, who disliked to sen a map without the proper la bels,- penciled ncross this cape the query, "Name?” A copyist, transcrib ing this map a little later, mlaread It and labeled the cape Nome. Nome It baa been ever since, and when a city sprang up there it, too, became M i Simple Explanation of JHHHHof Giant Myths >. A recent dispatch from India re porting that natlvea have found bones of a giant’s skeleton no less than 31 feet high haa torn up nil records of this particular myth. Not even the Imaginative Doctor Ma- surfer, who fabricated In 1613 the circumstantial tale of a brick tomb not only containing his giant, but provided with equally gigantic swords and other weapons, and even labeled, with the name and titles which 'the giant had home, dared to make his Imagined relic more than 28 feet tall The famous Giant af Lucerne, who involved scores of Swiss and German scientists In acri- ably originated the tala of the fast moving seven-leagna boots. Still an* other possible origin of giant myths la garbled tales of men standing on towers or platforms, like the me* hble siege towers used In undent warfare. And perhaps some giant myths date from days when relative* ly abort races, such aa the Oita, were In conflict Swlth relatively tall ones, like the Danes or Saxons. But not even folklore has' recorded giants 31 feet high.—New York Ha* aid Tribune. - ~ Big Australian Eatats ^ ^ What is the world’s biggest _ monlous controversies from 1677 un- tate? The queatteii la prompted ty til after 1600, was credited with only 19 feet England’s Giant of Thorne- way, In Cumberland, said to have been found In armor which haa con veniently disappeared, measured but 14 feet, by contemporary accounts. No doubt the new 81-foot marvel of Calcutta belongs with these oth ers among the long list of confusions between human bones and those of fossil animals, mostly elephants. A few thousand years ago several types of elephants, such as the mam moths and mastodons, were much more numerous and widespread than any kind of elephant Is today. Be ing comparatively recent In geologic history, their bones He close to the ground and frequently are found by diggers or plowed up by fannera, something which Is not true of bones of still larger animals of earlier ages, such aa the gigantic dinosaurs. Some elephants' leg bones look su perficially not unlike human bones. It Is small wonder that they and ha- man giants have been confused, al though even In 1620 the famous William Harvey remarked of the supposed Giant of Gloucester that his bones evidently belonged in real ity to “some exceedingly great beast, such as an elephant.” There la less excuse for Doctor Mazurier’s manu facture out of whole cloth of the brick tomb, weapons and Inscrip tions which said he found with the 26-foot previous holder of the giant record. To students of folklore these mis conceptions about elephant bones supply one posslbla^mcplanatlon of the virtually worldwide'bellef that giants once existed, but not the only one. Another suggestion Is the recollection by primitive people of other human beings able to walk on stilts, as fen dwellers still do In eastern England or dune dwellers In southwestern France. Thus prob- the news that the Zamolskl estate la Polapd* haa been reduced by the family having handed roughly over 60 per cent of the landa to the nation. Before thUrwaa done, the estate was 260,000 acres In extent, Even now, It is bigger than any e* tate In Britain. But the largeat es tate In the world la not In Europe at all Yon have to go to Australia If you want to see It There yoe will find the holding of Sir Sidney Kidman, famous aa the AoetraHaa cattle king. It la over 39,000 square miles In extent, larger than Ireland, Austria, Hungary, or Portugal—Lon don Answers. WISE IS HE WHO PICKS HIS STEPS ON LIFE’S PATH From bis place at the aide of the road the Philosopher sees the world go by. One man, with strained face and clenched hands, (lashes on, with out regard to the rights of others on the road, trying vainly to over take the happiness that will always elude him. ., Another, plodding wearily, stopped wKh the burden of his possessions, looks neither to the right nor the left, seeks only for firm ground un der his feet. He la unable to see that the way Is pleasant; that the sky is blue overhead; and that from the side of the road friendly liands -are outstretched toward him. .His Journey la a lonely one. The Philosopher, In his resting place, sighs that so many persons, In their blind search t for the Holy Grail of ’ happiness. In their frantic struggle for the great joy that they foolishly Imagine Is to be .found In the great things, fall to grasp the happinesa that la to ba found all along the way. Some, heedless and careless, dance and sing along tha road, and the flowers they pick from the roadside fade and die. In their friendships la little of friendliness. When night comes they have no place to lay their heads and no one to comfort them. And finally the wise man passes. He neither hurries nor loiters, bat In leisurely fashion makes sure pas sage; finding time for work, play, and true friendships among those who line the highway. Ha finds warmth in the sun and coolness In the rain; the flowers and the songs of birds assuage his thirst for*beau ty. His hardships, being shared by others, become less burdensome, hla joys greater because others may find part In them, and the Holy Grail of happiness la always at hla hand. The old Philosopher sighs with re gret that It la late, and that ha may not Join this wise man in hla Jour ney.—Detroit News. Week's Supply of Poshun Free Read the offer made by the Poston Company In another part of this p*» per. They will send a full week’s sup ply of health giving Poston free tt anyone who writes for It—Adv. Safety Provision A course in pooklng should be given to everyono at college. You never know when yon may have te ba well Informed about It Will., do tin job? M .n YOU ML LWhat’s the snsworl BEST BY ~ 10.000 TESTS Demaai a FLY-TOXj , KILLS FLIES SPIDERS S MOSQUITOES Watch Youk Kidneys/ Be Sura They Properly _ Cleanse the Blood VOUR kidnays era contUndy filtar- ■ ing wnta matter from tha blood stream. But kidneys sometimes lag fas their work-do not act as nature h* tended—(ail to remove impurities that v poison the system when retained. Then you may suffer nagging bad* ache, dizziness, scanty or too frequant urination, getting up et night, swdlen limbe; (eel nervous, misereble""* eH upset. Don't dalayl Usa Ddaa's PHk» Doaa's are especially (or poorly Func tioning kidneys. iMy era re com inmdftd bv oratoful mail tha countn# •••weeeoweo wry g^uwvuwo eewem oaew ovar. 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