“If they can put together the material for a hen’s egg,” said I, “what’s the trouble with hatching a chicken out of it.”
“They can make all of the egg except the germ. That has been proved in this way. They take the germ out of a real hens egg, and put it into a shell filled with the artificial food, then apply the proper temperature and it is hatched in the usual time and all the food consumed. This is a common experiment.”
“That is good proof that their food is the right material for chicks at any rate.”
“Well there is plenty of scientific proof of the correctness of all the different modifications. Analyses have repeatedly been made of human bodies of different ages and their exact constituents with their proportions ascertained and thus it is known precisely what they require for food. And when this is taken with a sufficient quantity of distilled or electrically purified water there is no liability of being hungry and little of being sick. At any rate the general health and regularly increasing longevity of the people proves better than any theorizing the general correctness of their way of life. There is no longer any such thing as a patent medicine, a pill, or a powder, and there are no medical practitioners. There are surgeons; and there are scientific chemical professors, whose advice regarding the proper food is sometimes asked. But almost all distempers they are liable to, are rectified by self treatment; study of hygiene and the conditions of animal life being taught in the schools, not in a sciolous or smattering way but thoroughly and scientifically; for they say no knowledge is so essential to all people as this. It is by using scientifically adapted food that theyhave succeeded in extending the average duration of life, and they claim that they will yet raise it to a thousand years. They are right in saying that decay and death from old age are due to the clogging up of the system with foreign matter that can neither be assimilated and taken into the tissues, nor ejected from the system. Their remedy for this is the prevention of the introduction of such substances by keeping them entirely out of the food. This they have nearly succeeded in doing, since the body is no longer the tenement of a chemical works to so very large an extent, as it used to be. Manufacture of these deleterious residuums inside the body is nearly stopped. The intelligent selection of the food then, with cleanliness and protection from cold constitute the principles of their treatment. Epidemic diseases have long since been entirely abolished.
“The organic germs that caused these diseases depended on swamps, stagnant pools, and decaying animal and vegetable matter for nests in which to be cultivated, and from such places they were conveyed by the air or water and so reached the fluids of the human body in which their further cultivation went on, to the great grief of your race. Now there is not a swamp nor any such thing in all the world, and nothing whatever is allowed to decay. Everything that grows is either utilized or cremated. All refuse from the numerous chemical works is treated electrically and returned to the soil as a fertilizer. The water in their sewers is often not so very much worse than that which used to run in your water pipes, butit is all electrically treated and the precipitated sediment returned to the land while only the clear water is turned into the rivers.”
“I suppose they no longer keep domestic animals,” said I.
“They no longer keep them for use to any great extent, but they have preserved specimens of all the domestic animals, and some of those that were wild in your day as objects of curiosity. They also have some in the country as pets. There are a few wild animals in some of the large state parks that having never been disturbed have practically tamed themselves. Animal power passed out of use ages ago. The people are scrupulously nice in their ideas of cleanliness and so no animals of any sort, not even canary birds are allowed in the cities. In this respect they look back with unlimited disgust upon the people of your day with their filthy horses and dogs perambulating and befouling the streets, their stables, stores and meat shops full of the odors of decaying vegetable and animal matter, their accumulations of ashes and cinders and dust, and of filth and garbage in foul cess pools, barrels, gutters, vaults and sewers, their personal habits of eating and drinking with their sequelae and the necessary cooking and dishwashing, and their smoking and tobacco chewing and spitting. All this is done away with, and the people can hardly understand a mode of life in which it was included; much less necessary.
“The streets of the cities are as clean as a drawing room, and it is easy to keep them so since there is so little occasion for them being soiled.
“They use only electrically purified water or rain water, and far less than was consumed in your day. The houses are all fireproof and the fire departments have very little use for water, using chemical extinguishers. The factories for the manufacture of food stuffs, the mineral wood, furniture, vehicles, textile fabrics etc., are usually placed in suburbs at a little distance from the cities, and the working people pass back and forth by the cars or flyers. The usual day’s work is 4 to 6 hours and all sorts of work is paid by the hour. Manufactured goods are stored in the business quarters of the cities, and delivered where ordered as in your day, but by more exact and complete means.
“There has not for many ages been any sexual distinction in clothes, and the slavery of fashion was long ago abolished. The costumes show the individuality of their owners and are extremely various; a mixed company looking like a congress of the nations of your day.”
“How do they manage their political affairs?” I inquired.
“They can scarcely be said to have any local political affairs to be managed. They have very large and extensive business affairs, and they are managed as business and not as politics. All the employes in the several business departments of the state are first taken from the schools where they have been educated and prepared for the occupations they wished to be qualified to follow. All vacancies to responsible places are filled on civil service principles. The foremen receive alittle higher wages than the common hands, but nobody receives any profits except the tax or tariff the state puts on goods it makes and sells.
“The workers in each particular trade or occupation in any state form a society or guild, presided over by a board or commission elected by the members of the guild from a list of candidates who have passed examination for competency. There is another board elected by the whole people that has the general oversight of all business and the equalization of wages.
“The guild board receives from the state the raw material it consumes and is charged with it. It sees to its distribution among the shops of the guild, receives and turns over to the state the articles made by the guild, certifies to the pay rolls, and to the cost of the articles made. It determines the amount of material required and the number of men that shall be employed, basing its regulation on the requisition of the general board for the goods which in turn gets its data from the store keepers who make requisitions on the board according to the public demand for the goods. The guild board determines the number of men it can employ and if it has too many the fact is reported to the general board whose business it is to find work for the surplus men in another trade. The guild board naturally anxious to preserve the credit of its own guild, always selects the least competent of their men for transfer. The general board is constantly posted as to the demand for labor in the different guilds and can usually assign the men to places suited to their capacity,which commonly admits of more or less variety of employment, their school education being conducted with that view. If the trades are all full or if the men prove unfit to perform such skilled labor as is required, they are furnished laboring work not requiring skill of which there is always plenty in the procurement of raw materials for food, minerals, agricultural products, building materials etc. As most of the things produced including food can be kept an indefinite length of time, there is no objection to a considerable accumulation ahead. When this happens and it often does, the community is in a prosperous condition for it has more than enough. It is a sign that the workmen have saved their money instead of buying goods with it. They may knock off work and take holiday till the stocks are reduced. Sometimes the fashion changes, and the state has something on hand it cannot sell. Like any other manufacturer it must sell at a sacrifice for what it can get, and use better judgment next time. The general board looks out for that. This board also equalizes wages in the several trades, lowering the pay in those trades into which there is the greatest tendency to crowd and raising it in those that are deserted. Striking in a body is not allowed. But many or all the members of a guild may give notice of an intention to leave, and they are then allowed to do so, a small number at a time. The general board inquires into the cause of the dissatisfaction and rectifies it if possible. If the wages are high enough the fact will be proved by other workmen coming from other trades or other places to takethe job, in which case the disgruntled men must take such other work as the board can find for them or remain idle if they prefer to. If they are not high enough the vacancies will remain unfilled till the board raises them.
“When men are idle, by no fault of their own, but because all places are filled, the state is bound to feed and clothe them. This is the theory, but it is very rarely put into practice. Since they prefer to let them work at something rather than be idle even if the work is not in great demand.”
“They seem to have but little use for apothecaries and doctors, how about lawyers and courts?”
“There is no such thing now as the practice of law as formerly understood. In your day the lawyer was called an officer of the court. But in reality he was a partizan of one of the litigants bent on gaining a victory for his client regardless of the justice of his cause; and he often gained it when he knew it was unjust. Each town or district is supplied with a board of lawyers three, five or seven according to population, and these comprise the court. They are elected by the people from the law graduates of the state school, for a definite term. Any small case is heard by either one of the lawyers upon whom both litigants can agree, both sides being heard and witnesses examined by him. If either litigant is dissatisfied with his decision he may appeal to the full bench, whose decision by a majority is final on questions of fact. But if a minority dissents on points of law a further appeal as to the law is allowed to be made to the Supreme Court of thestate, the dissenting minority preparing the case for the higher court, and the majority preparing the counter case in defense of their decision. The defeated party pays the costs. These, however, are comparatively light, lawyers receiving no higher pay than mechanics. But as the position brings distinction there are always enough candidates for it. They are only paid as lawyers for the actual time spent by them, and often increase their income by other employment; for there is but a small amount of litigation.
“The criminal procedure is almost as simple. A person accused of a petty crime is brought before a single lawyer who examines the witnesses for both sides and decides the case, if the accused is not satisfied he appeals to the full bench, and the minority of that bench may carry an appeal on questions of law to the Supreme Court. In important cases the legal bench may summon the bench of a neighboring town or district to sit with them in the case and share the responsibility. There is no criminal class and crime of any sort is very rare. It is regarded as an insanity and a family in which it is developed is at once prevented from going further in the hereditary transmission of it. There is no capital punishment.”
“Well,” said I, “they are an interesting people; they seem to have things about the way they want them and I reckon they ought to be happy.”
“Yes,” he said, “they ought to be, and they are; as much so as any intelligent creatures can be. You may know they are good natured, jolly and generous from the size of their mouths. Thesize of their heads is a guaranty that whatever is knowable on earth they are pretty sure to find out, if you give them time enough; and renders probable the inference that they know that they are well off, and know enough to be contented. And as a matter of fact they are; and while they congratulate themselves, they never fail to call up in grateful remembrance the ancestors through whose martyrdom they have attained peace. Well we must now take our leave of this large hearted and large headed posterity of yours and return to the nineteenth century.
“Ah! here we are!”
The Professor at this point turned about, took hold of the wire that anchored his car and slowly pulled it to the ground. I saw I was about to lose him, but felt that I ought not to try to detain him any longer.
I thanked him cordially for the invaluable visit he had given me and told him I hoped it might be repeated. He nodded his head in acquiescence, by which I understood, I might expect him some time again. I went on to congratulate him on the happy home he was returning to and the long agreeablerest that awaited him there after this fatiguing journey.
He smiled with his great eyes, and thanked me for my good wishes, but said he was destined to no such rest as I wished him.
“From the moment I reach home,” said he, “I shall be as busy as I can be for a week, preparing for my journey to Mars.”
“Your journey to Mars!” I exclaimed, “do you mean to say you go to Mars?”
“I have been there only three times myself; but our people have visited that planet for the last ten thousand years, and there is quite a colony of Lunarians permanently settled there looking after our interests.”
“So you have interests on Mars! Well now this is interesting. I wish I had known this before. I would give anything for information about Mars and the Martians.”
“Well it will take me a little time to arrange my car and I can talk to you while I am doing it. You see our folks first went there about 10,000 years ago. They found the planet inhabited by two bitterly hostile races that did little else than hunt each other.”
“They must be like our race then,” I observed.
“Yes,” he said, “in respect to their warlike instincts, but not as to their forms. They are not human nor even vertebrate, but they are built on the radiate plan. In short they are almost exactly like your star fishes, but enormously bigger. I have seen them as large as twelve feet across, though their more common size at maturity issix to eight feet. The difference between the two races is that in one there are six spokes or limbs radiating from the central body and in the other there are but five. These limbs may be called either legs or arms, for they serve as either and are sometimes one and sometimes the other. There is a fleshy disc that forms the extremity of each limb, around which like the petals of a flower are the fingers or toes, about like so many thumbs. There are six of these in the six legged race and five in the five legged. This disc with its thumbs forms the foot when the individual walks on land. Two of them are always on the ground when he is standing, while the other four are free to be used as hands, these thumbs being opposable and able to grasp tolerably well.
“When they move on land it is always in an upright position, and they roll along edgewise like a wheel destitute of felloes rolling on the ends of the spokes. The central piece or hub constitutes the body including the stomach, heart, lungs etc., as well as the sense organs, and brain. The shape of the body is like a short stout cylinder tapering to a rounded point at each end from one and a half to two feet in diameter, the legs radiating from the sides. At the center of one end of this body is the mouth, and the brain is located all round it in what we would call the cheeks. There is no neck. There are six eyes immediately around the mouth corresponding with the six legs, and just outside of the eyes are six ear holes with closable lips, but no outside flaps or shells. Outside of these are six breathing or blow holes leadinginto the lungs. The mouth is round and the lips pucker together when closing. There is no up or down to the Martian man, he stands equally well on any pair of his legs and handles equally well with any of his hands, and this is one of his greatest drawbacks. He has a thick horny skin which appears to have been the only skeleton possessed by his ancestors, but in addition, he has a light internal skeleton developed later by the practice of standing and running on his limbs, which consists of a lot of plates and hoop like ribs in the body, and what would pass for thigh and leg bones in each limb. These last are hung with ball and socket joints both at the articulation with the body and at the elbow and wrist. The limbs are thus remarkably supple and when the Martian has a mind to, he can walk extremely well sideways on two legs, that is, the head or mouth going forward. And this is the way he should walk as our people long ago pointed out to the Martians. He can walk on the same two feet continuously edgewise as the wheel goes, but to do this he must merely drag the rear foot up to the front one, and then throw the front one forward again, or else sling them around past each other alternately in an awkward manner as a cow does, for the reason that they are all on the same plane. They greatly prefer the rolling motion and roll off on their spokes with surprising speed, twenty miles an hour being a common gait on a good road while some of the gigantic twelve footers can if necessary reel off forty or more.
“They are so extremely fond of traveling offin this manner, that it is difficult for them to confine their attention to any sedentary employment. In order to attain a high civilization people must be settled, and occupy themselves in some definite and constant modes of employment. We pointed out to them long ago that they could never have well differentiated arms and hands, unless they set apart certain of their limbs to be used exclusively as arms, and never allow the hands thus set apart for handling, to be used as feet.
“They objected, that, to confine themselves to two legs for walking would reduce their gait to five or six miles an hour. This would be a great drawback in war, and give their undifferentiated enemies the advantage over them. This objection no longer has much weight, since war has entirely ceased among them, the five legged race having long since been defeated and practically exterminated, the few that are left being glad to accept the most obscure positions that will secure them a bare existence.”
“They must have been terrific warriors.”
“I saw a regiment of the six legged men drilling once. They were marshaled on a large plain in two ranks, and rolled backward and forward fast or slow according to command with great precision. They then were commanded to load and advance. Around the body in the spaces between the limbs they had artificial leathern pouches in which they carried their ammunition. When they received the command to load they took out of these pouches six stones one for each hand, and they advanced with them clasped betweentheir stumpy fingers. Then they were commanded to double quick and discharge, upon which they advanced at terrific speed and at a given signal let fly the stones one after another as the hand containing it came to the proper position for the most effective throw. The centrifugal force they acquired from the long revolving arms sent them with tremendous force, some going at least a mile. In real war they used cast iron bullets. They have plenty of iron on Mars and our folks taught them how to smelt and work it. The regiment then charged up to a hand to hand encounter with an imaginary enemy. In this charge they were armed with a heavy circular iron disc in each hand, the disc having a handle on the back side by which it was held. Then they charged with terrific fury the discs flying around like lightning, chopping into mince meat, (in imagination) any enemy that dared stand before them.
“The government is a despotism, the king having about the same authority as the emperor of Russia, although he has a council of state whose advice he listens to, and then does as he pleases. Since the subjugation of the five legged race this king is the supreme ruler of the whole planet. In some districts the people have made considerable advances in civilization, confining themselves to the use of two legs, and walking sidewise instead of rolling edgewise. But the king does not want all his subjects to adopt these innovations, for he is very proud of his soldiers and thinks them more efficient on six legs then two. Besides, for certainkinds of labor, especially drawing wagons and carriages, the old way is the best.”
“Why don’t they use horses,” I inquired, “or haven’t they any?”
“There are no such animals on Mars, nor in fact any other sort of animals except radiates. There are many genera of these, mostly living in the water and all small, except the dominant race, which I call the Martians.
“But there are great differences in the conditions of life amongst the people of this race, some being fairly civilized while others are only beasts of burden, and still others take the place of dumb machines. They are specially adapted to act as wheels for light carriages. The axles of the carriage are terminated at each end with a six pronged fork, the prongs arranged in a circle or cylinder so that when a man is to play the role of wheel, he is impaled on this fork one prong of it fitting snugly between each pair of his legs. A vehicle of this kind is specially adapted for soft roads as the broad disc like feet prevent sinking.
“The king has a phaeton mounted on twelve foot specimens of these lively wheels, in which he dashes around at a thirty or forty mile gait when the fancy strikes him. He also has a royal barge propelled by the same sort of wheels, the legs acting as paddles.
“The king is imitated in his fads by the nobility and gentry as far as they are able, and so one may quite often see these live wheel phaetons, and live-paddle boats moving about.
“On the public roads, vehicles are used havingwheels such as you use, and drawn by these creatures, yoked together in pairs by the pronged shafts or axles like those I just described. From 5 to 10 pairs may sometimes be seen tugging at one of these heavy freight wagons. They are tremendously strong and their strength counts for vastly more on the planet Mars than it would on the earth, because Mars being so much smaller everything weighs very much less. I have seen some of those big fellows after rolling a few hundred yards with great speed give a leap from the ground and fly whirling through the air for two hundred feet before they lit.”
“They are a wonderful race,” said I, “but it seems difficult to connect intelligence with a tribe of star fishes or to imagine they could ever become highly developed. You know those we have on earth are very low in the scale of existence.”
“Intelligence,” said the Professor, “does not depend on the form. Any form on which it is possible for the forces of the environment such as light heat contact etc., to make an impression, already has intelligence; the ability to be impressed is intelligence. If any organism can be impressed, then if you give it time enough it can be impressed indefinitely, because each impression differentiates it and adds to its sensitiveness, that is, its ability to be further impressed. The reason why inferior races so generally remain inferior is the jealousy and hostility of the superior. The dominant race is always hostile to any other race that shows any intelligence, and proceeds to kill it off for fear it will become a rival. It is thusthat the race of man has no rivals that compare with him in intelligence, no “connecting links” between him and the monkeys. He was jealous of them and exterminated them.
“On the planet Mars there were never any forms of animal superior to the stars so they have received all the development. Their differentiation would have advanced further if the planet itself had not been so backward. It has a great deal more water on it in proportion to its size than the earth. It is destitute of high mountains, and very much of its surface is but little raised above the level of the sea. A great deal of it is marshy. It is only in recent geologic times that it has become well suited to life on land. When it became so, the star fishes crawled out, and by degrees became accustomed to that mode of life as well as their aquatic mode. If there had been any land animals there to attack them when they first ventured to leave the water, of course they would have been prevented from ever rising. But there were no enemies and they gradually developed lungs by which they were enabled to live continuously out of water. At first they crawled about like spiders with all their feet on the ground at once, but after awhile they learned to raise themselves up on edge and finally to roll from one foot to another, and so gradually adopted a new and wonderfully advanced mode of locomotion.
“They are still semiaquatic and amphibious, and they have both lungs and gills. They do not bring forth their young alive, but the female lays eggs in the water, the wealthy families having littletanks kept at a proper temperature. The females of the poor and rougher classes simply go to the nearest pond and deposit their eggs and leave them to their fate. Nine times out of ten, however, the warmth of the water is sufficient to hatch out the tiny stars which swim around in the water without any care or bother to their parents. They then use only their gills for breathing, but in a few weeks their lungs are developed enough to permit them to crawl out on land and remain awhile. They do this daily and finally are able to remain out continuously. Some of the lowest classes, the savages as the are called, never lose their gills, but continue to be amphibious all their lives. They spend their days on shore and mingle with the rest, but at night retire to the water in which they sleep and eat, feeding upon a tender and nutritious grass that grows in the water and in marshy places. This grass also constitutes a considerable part of the food of the better classes, but they generally cook it. In winter time these savages burrow in the mud at the bottom of the ponds and marshes and canals and go into a sort of torpid condition and remain there till spring. The more advanced classes cannot do this, they remain out of the water continuously after they are fairly weaned from it, and lose the use of their gills so that they cannot breathe under water at all. So there is almost as much difference between different varieties of these strange people so far as civilization is concerned as between men and some of their domestic animals.”
“Professor,” said I, “a moment ago you mentionedthe canals. Our astronomers have seen these and puzzled themselves greatly in regard to them, now you can tell me all about them I am sure.”
“Yes, I intended to tell you about them, I understand their history well. That’s where we sunk our money, or at least a great part of it.”
“What, in the canals?”
“Yes—that is, in their construction.”
“Do you mean that the Lunarians went and dug those canals on Mars?”
“I will explain. As I said awhile ago when our folks first visited Mars the people were in a very barbarous state, but still seemed to have some idea of bettering their condition. They were much impressed by the superiority of the Lunarians and were anxious to get their advice as to the best way of improving their own situation. The inhabitants then all lived along the shores of the seas while the interior of the continents were uninhabited and for the most part unexplored. The Lunarians by the help of their wings and their repulsio-gravitation cars were in a position to make the exploration and in a short time gained a general knowledge of the topography of the planet. They found high land over both the poles, but all the middle parts are low. There were numerous ponds and lakes of fresh water, with marshy outlets to the seas, which are very salty. There were no rivers except a few small ones in the high lands. As the Martians were amphibious and had always been accustomed to salt water, the Lunarians doubted whether they could live inthe interior where the water was fresh. But they saw that it would be necessary to scatter the people away from the sea shore, divert their thoughts from war by finding peaceful occupations for them, and to create artificial wants for them since their very few natural wants were all bountifully supplied with little or no effort on their part. The climate of Mars is much like that of the temperate parts of the earth, but its polar regions are never so cold nor its equatorial regions so hot.
“In summer time these people had no use for clothes, for it was warm enough without them. In winter they had always gone into winter quarters under water remaining in a torpid inactive condition till spring. When they found the Lunarians never did so, they were anxious to imitate them. But they could not stand the cold without clothes and houses artificially heated. So some rude clothing was made of grass, and some huts built under instructions from the Lunarians and the king and some of the better classes undertook to keep alive, as they called it, all winter. They were quick to perceive that they could thus add much time to their lives, for the winters of Mars last some 300 days out of the 687 that constitute his year. At first it was hard to work into the new way, but after one or two generations had been kept from hibernating from childhood, it came to be a second nature to their descendants, and now all the better classes have outgrown it, only the savages, who are merely beasts of burden continue to go into the torpid state and not all of these. This change of nature in these people, made it essential to havehouses and clothes and also to secure food to be kept through the winter thus creating the wants that would compel the people to employ their muscles and brains, and so insure their cultivation and development. The chief food of the people consisted of the grass I have mentioned which grows only in water and at that time only in salt water. It grows in thick pulpy stems and is very rich in sugar oil and gelatine. This vegetable product was obtainable only along the sea shore in shallow water and in salt-water marshes formed by the sea. The new way of life demanded at least one half more food than the old for each person, and it also led to a rapid increase in the population. These causes made it essential to devise some way of increasing the production of food, the most obvious way being the increase of the area of shallow salt water. This the king undertook to do, but made small progress, for neither he nor his council knew anything about engineering, or the management of such works.
“The Lunarians who had been observing matters and things, and studying the situation very closely and shrewdly, now came forward with a proposition for a very comprehensive scheme of public works—or rather several schemes in one.”
“First was a plan for increasing the salt water area by means of a system of broad channels or canals reaching inland from the oceans with a view of extending them from ocean to ocean as soon as practicable so as to enable the tidal currents to flow entirely through, thus insuring sea water in the very interior. It was proposed to make these narrow at first, but to widen them as the population increased and greater area became necessary for cultivation. After the main canals should have become well advanced it was designed to build branches and intersecting lines in such directions as might be deemed most advantageous.
“The Lunarians proposed to the king to have this work done by a great stock company, one-half the stock to be owned by the king and the other half by them. They were to make the surveys and direct the work and handle the funds of the corporation making use of their mechanical and executive ability and great experience in finance and engineering. The government was to pay a bonus to this company of 100 kiks[4]per acre for every acre made available for cultivation. The capitalstock was fixed at 200 kiks per acre to be issued to the stockholders as fast as the work was completed, the king to receive 100 kiks as his share and the Lunarians the other 100. As fast as the canals were completed they were to be turned over to the state and become its property, and in payment for this the state was to guarantee an annual dividend or interest of five per cent on that portion of the capital stock owned by the Lunarians. The king was not well informed on financial matters and inquired the meaning of five per cent interest, and was told that it meant the payment of half a kik to the owner of every ten kiks of stock which such owner was to receive in lieu of all other profits and reward for his labor and investment and which he the king as the head of the government was to guarantee. The king was satisfied to do this—more than satisfied in fact.
“He said: “Gentlemen, I am a great King! what care I for half a kik.” Then with a prodigal wave of all his disengaged limbs he exclaimed “make it a whole kik.”
“But our Lunarians were not to be outdone in liberality by the king, and while admitting that five per cent was ridiculously small, modestly declined to take any more. The king then inquired why they did not include his stock in the proposed guaranty. “Why should not I be guaranteed as well as you?” To this they replied that they purposely left his out because, first, he was himself the government, and so he would simply be guaranteeing himself; in the second place, if his stock were not named in this guarantee he neednot be confined to 5 per cent, but could as well take 10 or 20. The king having been satisfied on this point they cautiously unfolded their next proposition which was that they should have security in the shape of a mortgage for the payment of the 5 per cent interest, and that in case of default on the payment of said interest it should become a lien against the state and thence forward be entitled to draw interest the same as the original stock. “O king,” said they, “we sincerely wish you might live forever. If we were sure you would we would never think of asking security. But Martians and Lunarians all die when their time comes, while this great corporation will be immortal. Some time in the future a king may arise who, while enjoying the blessings and comforts of civilization will forget what, they were due to and will refuse to carry out Your Majesty’s contract, about paying this interest.”
“Well,” said the King, “what security do you want?”
“They said they would be contented with a mortgage covering Faithless Jack and Blind Lucy, and the two frigid zones of Mars.”
I may say here that the frigid zones of Mars cover the polar ends of the planet and extend 28°. 42´ from the poles. I understood this much, but did not know who were meant by Faithless Jack and Blind Lucy. The Professor proceeded to explain.
“Mars as you know has two funny little moons. Your Astronomers have named them Deimos and Phobos. But the Martians call them by names thatare equivalent to Faithless Jack and Blind Lucy. These names belong to an ancient mythical legend, which I will relate to you. In very ancient times there were a pair of lovers named Jack and Lucy. Lucy was reputed to be the most beautiful lady that ever walked on six feet. Her six eyes were quite unique, being alternately red and yellow—three of each color. She was over eight feet high when she stood up and was noted for the grace and dignity of her manners, and the captivating way in which she walked, her feet coming down one after another in perfect time and with a rhythmic pit-a-pat pit-a-pat almost inaudible from the softness of her tread, but which was nothing less than inspired music. Her disposition was as charming as her person. She had a kind word for every one, and was always doing some one a favor.
“Jack on the other hand was exceedingly ill favored. It could not be said exactly that he was the ugliest or the most disagreeable young gentleman in the community, but a great many were his superiors in every way, and how it happened that Lucy fell in love with him could never be accounted for, but she did, to an excessive degree. To look at the Martians you might not suspect them of being very sentimental or affectionate, but they are, and their form in a manner compels them to be demonstrative. When a couple walk together they cannot lock arms or take hold of each other’s hands as you do, since their limbs are all employed in walking. But if they are friends they hold on to each others cheeks with their lips, which have a suctorial force likean air pump and which would raise a blister on a skin less tough than the integument of a Martian. When lovers walk out with each other they apply their lips together in an affectionate kiss of most uncommon adhesiveness. Jack and Lucy they say could have been seen any day walking about glued together in that manner. As this was common it was considered proper, but under the circumstances was not altogether prudent, for it roused the jealousy of Jack’s rivals to an almost murderous pitch. Jack was not so tall as Lucy by a foot, being only a little over seven feet high. This brought his mouth six inches lower than hers, and made it necessary for him to elevate himself on his toes (or fingers) as much as possible, and even then Lucy had to meet him half way by bending the limbs that happened to support her at the moment in a manner that detracted considerably from her natural grace. Some of the disappointed lovers attempted to relieve their chagrin by speaking of Jack contemptuously as “Tiptoes” and making ungallant remarks about Lucy. But this was small comfort to them, while the loving pair were so much devoted to each other as to be quite heedless of the angry and jealous comment they were causing.
“At last Jack’s rivals entered into a conspiracy to “do him up.” They would beat and tar and feather him at the very least and if he provoked them by resistance they would do worse. So they planned, and one summer evening when Jack and Lucy were taking their usual loving promenade, these disappointed suitors took after them. Butthe lovers stimulated by a panic of sudden terror made a miraculous race and distanced their pursuers. The latter declared that the lovers did not run at all in fact, but glided along in some miraculous way not touching the ground, but gradually rising and sailing off getting constantly higher and higher, they at last disappeared behind a cloud. And they all declared that there could not be the least doubt that they had been translated to the sky to associate with the innumerable stars that had gone before them. There was nothing at all incredible in this to the Martian people, because it was a cardinal principle of their religion that their great heroes in ancient times had all been transferred from Mars to the sky. The proof was patent to anybody that had eyes, for there they were to be seen without any change of form, some with six radiating limbs and some with five. And these two hostile races carried their resentments to heaven with them and often engaged in direful warfare, hurling at each other thunderbolts, meteors and aerolites as might be seen almost daily or nightly. The celestial history of the lovers is tragic. They no longer had to walk, because there being nothing much to walk on, the celestial mode of locomotion is a delicious glide, consequently they were able occasionally to give their lips a rest, and hand in hand to quietly slip along with the glittering crowd thinking of nothing whatever unless it were of each other. But this happiness at last came to a sad ending. They were sauntering along as thoughtless and careless as children, when suddenly and without the least warning, animmense aerolite came dashing through the sky and before Lucy even perceived it, it crashed into her face knocking out every one of her pretty eyes, smashing her lips and disfiguring her in the most terrible manner. In the confusion she was separated from her companion, and when she sought him, distracted by pain and blindness she took the wrong track, and from that day to this she skurries across the sky in the most feverish haste, rising in the west sailing overhead and setting in the east from two to three times a day, while all the other stars including the sun, and Jack with the rest, rise in the east and set in the west. As for Jack, when he found how changed and hideous she had become—his love turned to aversion. When she sought him, he avoided her, and passed by far on the other side. And now, although they pass each other every few hours he always looks the other way and she, poor thing, cannot see him. “There used to be a serious dispute among the Martians as to the particular sort of star that threw that rock. One sect of theologians stoutly maintained that it was hurled with malicious intent by a malignant five legged star, and struck the fair mark it was aimed at with terrible precision. Another sect held that it was only an accident; the missile was probably fired by a friendly six pointer, missed its mark and unfortunately struck where it was not intended to. As there was not a particle of proof for either side, affirmations and assertions took the place of argument, and were dogmatically made and maintained with no little acrimony on both sides.But they all agreed in rendering divine honors to Lucy with their sympathies and condolences: Poor Lucy! Perfidious Jack!
“When the King learned what the Lunarians wanted him to give them a mortgage on, he laughed heartily and thought it a good joke. He could hardly be made to believe they were in earnest. “As for the poles if there is anything there except snow and rocks,” said he, “whoever gets them will earn them, I warrant you.
“As for the moons, I shall never undertake to deliver them in case you foreclose on them, and your mortgage must distinctly state that you are to take them running.”
“The King thought the idea of mortgaging his moons was peculiarly comical; and after the deal was consummated and the papers all signed, he would sometimes stand on the door step and call out to Lucy as she rushed along overhead with the speed of a cannon ball, and ask her how she felt to be mortgaged. In addition to the scheme for the construction of the canals, the Lunarians asked and easily obtained a charter or concession from the king for an easement or right of way twenty miles wide, ten miles on each side of the equator, and reaching entirely around the planet, for the purpose of one or more lines of telegraph and cables for the conveyance of electrical power and for railroads etc. This region was entirely uninhabited, and not suited for the occupation of Martians, but the Lunarians said they would have use for it in the course of time and wished to haveit understood so they could know what to depend on.
“All the preliminary negotiations being at last concluded, and the contracts signed, they went to work with a will. The bonus or subsidy of 100 kiks per acre was raised by taxation, those who had no money being compelled to work out their tax on the canal. The route selected for the first line was across a low swampy country. The work was light and much of it in the water where the Martians were at home. The Lunarians had flat boats constructed on which the excavated muck and earth were loaded and floated to the deep places which they partially filled up or deposited on the dry land. The canal was made 200 feet wide at first, one-half of which was kept entirely clear, while the other half was planted to the sea-weed.
“It took several years to finish the first line, and as soon as it was done they commenced the work of widening it, adding a strip 200 feet in width, which when completed made the canal 400 feet wide. This process was then repeated and has been going on constantly not only in the first canals but in all subsequent ones of which there is an immense number. As much material was carried to the banks and deposited there in the construction of each strip, a good deal had to be moved more than once. When this accumulation became too great to be profitably moved it was skipped and the next channel constructed parallel with the main canal, but separated from it by the strip of solid land on which this waste earth was piledfrom a few rods to a quarter of a mile in width. On these strips are located the villages of the working people that cultivate the sea weed, work on the canal and are engaged in navigation etc.
“The total width of some of these canals is now as much as sixty miles, but they generally consist in reality of numerous wide channels separated by narrow strips of land. This plan of canal making has been steadily adhered to for several thousand years. Lines parallel to each other and several hundred miles apart have been constructed, and many others connecting with these and intersecting them at various angles. These canals not only constitute the principal fields for the cultivation of their staple food, but also furnish what was for a long time their best and chief mode of transportation. Their chief commercial and manufacturing cities sprung up at the intersections of the canals.
“The building of these canals had a wonderfully stimulating effect on the development of the Martian people. The population promptly increased in proportion to the increase of the means for its support as it always does, on all planets. With the increase of population came diversity of employment, new ideas, tastes, and wants, new inventions, more culture and refinement.”
“How did the Lunarians come out on their contract?” I asked. “They must have made a lot of money I reckon.”
“I was just coming to that,” said he. “Yes they made lots of money if they could only have got it, but that was the rub. For a few yearswhile the amount of the acreage of the canals was small, it was comparatively easy to raise and pay over the five per cent due the Lunarians, but by the time the first great canal was completed through at a width of 200 feet, their interest amounted to 375,000 kiks per annum. By this time the king had discovered a good many new uses for money, and it went very much against the grain to pay over this interest. He began to think the Lunarians were going to be rather too well paid for the services and “investment,” they had talked about; and he congratulated himself that they had not availed themselves of his effusive offer, of ten per cent instead of five. However while he grumbled, he paid; and continued to do so as long as he lived, although towards the last the interest amounted to the very handsome sum of 1,000,000 kiks per annum. But that is all, after the death of that king who is yet affectionately referred to by the Martians as the “father of the canals,” the Lunarians for 7,000 years never got a kik. However, what they had already received was enough to make every member of the colony many times a millionaire if they had divided it amongst them. But this they did not do. The Lunarians are socialists and they regarded this money as belonging to the whole Lunarian race, to those at home on the moon as much as to themselves. They invested it to the best advantage in various enterprises, consuming on themselves only what their simple and modest personal wants required. The bonus or subsidy of 100 kiks per acre generally paid the entire cost of constructionand the Lunarians had their interest money. At the death of the king there was one year’s interest due amounting to 1,000,000 kiks. The successor to the throne was not satisfied with the contract to pay a dividend on the stock the Lunarians held in the canals, and in fact repudiated it all except the 1,000,000 kiks then due which he said he would pay when he got around to it. But he never did, and the claim continued to draw interest which was computed and audited at the beginning of each subsequent reign, but always put off for some reason or other and not paid.”
“Why didn’t they foreclose their mortgage?” I asked.
“Well they did not want to do that until they were ready to improve the property so as to make it earn something. They reasoned that the canal claim, as it was called, was making money at a tremendous rate. The interest on it 2,000 years ago or, over 6,000 years after the work on the canals was commenced, amounted to thousands of millions of kiks every minute, and they had not been able to devise any plan by which they could make any satisfactory use of the mortgaged property; and so they let the money remain in the canal fund.”
“But,” said I, “suppose it was earning so many millions of kiks, I don’t see what good it did them if they never got it.”
“Why you see,” he replied, “they got out of it in that shape, all they could have got if the money had been in their hands. And it was safe. It could not be stolen and nobody would be temptedto assassinate the owners in order to get it. When people have such enormous fortunes they can come into personal contact with only a small portion of them. An individual owning many millions can only use on himself a few hundreds or thousands, and the rest of it buys him nothing but the respect homage, consideration, obsequiousness and sycophancy of the crowd. For all this he does not have to pay a cent, but must own or be supposed to own millions. The funds which our Lunarians owned in canal stock made them the lions of Mars. Their personal abilities, accomplishments and graces would have done that anyway, with a certain class, but the addition of all that wealth gave them an influence and consideration amongst the mass of people who had no great appreciation of any other sort of merit.
“All sorts of odd stories concerning the wealthy foreigners found circulation amongst the masses. Once it was reported that if the canal funds were not paid before the next Christmas, the Lunarians intended to fill up all the canals again. It was well known for ages that there was not enough money on Mars to pay the canal debt, or even its accumulation for one year. Not very long ago it became reported that the Lunarians had sold their claims to capitalists on the earth, and that the latter were going to get out an attachment for Mars, bid it off at sheriff’s sale and take it for another moon to the earth. The story even settled the route it was to run on—half way between the earth and the moon.”
“That was a likely tale indeed!” said I. “Theydidn’t know our capitalists very well or they wouldn’t have imagined them going into a scheme that did not promise to pay pretty big.”
“O, but it was to pay well as they had it planned. First the speculators were to sell short for future delivery all the gas and standard oil stocks in the world: then they were to bargain with the various great cities to furnish additional moonlight at so much for each added moon power, measured by our moon. They calculated that Mars placed 120,000 miles from the earth would reflect upon the earth 16 times as much light as the moon does. This would make the night about as bright as day. This would reduce the value of oil and gas stocks almost to nothing and the speculators would then buy them up for delivery on their sale contracts and make an enormous sum. The most of the Martians were keen for the enterprise to be consummated. They said that they would gain more than the earth by the change, for both the earth and moon would act as moons for Mars, and he would get four times as much light from the earth as he would give it. He would also get far more light and heat from the sun than he did where he was. When it was announced that the story was a hoax many people were actually disappointed. Others said they were glad to have escaped the disgrace of being sold out at a bankrupt sale and degraded from a full fledged planet to a mere satellite to be towed off to play second fiddle to another world.”
“But how did they think Mars was to moved over to the earth?”
“O they supposed the Lunarians were going to see to that part of it. They had got the idea the Lunarians could do anything.”
“But could they have accomplished such an undertaking as that?”
“That question was never settled; but they would not have done it if they could. The Lunarians always felt very much mortified that the moon is only a satellite and not a full planet. They have got some little satisfaction, however, in the great amount of attention, the moon has always received from the people of the earth. In old times in fact the earthlings used to pay divine honors to our globe, as well they might. But if Mars were to become a satellite of the earth it is easy to see he would monopolize all the attention that has heretofore been lavished on us. We wouldn’t like that. No it looks as if you may depend upon it, the Lunarians would never lend themselves to a scheme like that. But a hoax like that has wonderful vitality.
“A little over a thousand years ago the Lunarians began to think of foreclosing their mortgage. They had the polar regions of Mars quietly explored, and were agreeably surprised to find large deposits of coal, iron, gold, silver, tin, copper and many other metals and valuable minerals. They were already posted as to the nature of the little moons Jack-Deimos and Lucy-Phobos. It was a difficult and perilous task to effect a landing on them, but after much effort it was accomplished. It was found that Jack Deimos, which by the way is about seven miles in diameter andtwenty-two in circumference—you could ride clear around it on a bicycle in four hours—is about one-half iron, the rest rock containing gold, silver, lead and tin. Deimos always has the same side turned toward Mars, and on the opposite side is a lake about a mile in diameter and frozen solid to the bottom, which melts down a few inches every day and freezes up again at night. There is a little thin air, that does not extend more than one or two hundred yards high. The mass of this little moon is so small that its attraction for anything on it is very slight. An ordinary man weighs less than an ounce. He is considerably lighter on the side toward Mars than he is on the opposite side. One might stand on that side and shoot an arrow toward Mars, and it would not return to him, but continue its flight till it reached the planet.
“There is in several places quite a growth of a hardy plant something like an alga, although the temperature on the shady side is 40° below 0. It is hot on the sunny side. The difficulty of getting on this little moon is due to its small attractive power. When we approach a large body, such as the Moon or Mars its attraction draws us after it and gradually brings us to its surface. But Deimos attracts with so little force that we have to get up speed and force from some other body and so run alongside and catch him. He flies around his orbit at the astonishing speed of 3,610½ miles an hour or more than 50 miles a minute. In order to get up such a speed as that our folks had to go off a million miles from Mars in a direction opposite to the sun and then allow themselves tofall toward Mars until they were near the orbit of Deimos; then they turned on repulsion which sheered them off and caused them to describe an orbit around Mars in the same direction as that of Deimos. Deimos passed them several times before they could get into his attraction close enough to be pulled in by him.
“They afterwards boarded Lucy-Phobos in the same way. Her attraction is a little stronger than Jack’s as she is over eight miles in diameter. But her speed is still more terrific than his as she goes at the rate of 4,777 miles an hour or more than 79.2 miles a minute. She, too, always presents the same face to Mars.
“Having made up their minds how they would improve the property when they got it, they informed the King that they desired to foreclose the mortgage. He made no defense and instructed the authorities to throw no obstacles in the way. The foreclosure was advertised in the usual way and when the day of sale arrived there was the usual crowd of loafers, but no bidders except the Lunarians. They bid three million kiks for the whole outfit—one million each for the two frigid zones and one million for the two satellites, and the property was of course knocked down to them, considering the importance of the sale it was a quiet, tame affair.—The King was not a little displeased when he found they had bid in the property for less than the billion, billion, billionth part of their claim, thus leaving the debt practically unreduced. He supposed they would bid the face of their claim and thus wipe out the debt. Still,however, he made no attempt at redemption; in fact nobody would have given any more for the property than was bid. The title was confirmed to them by the court and they entered into possession.”
“The King began to be much concerned in regard to the great debt. He called his bankers together and had them compute it down to date. Then after brooding over the matter for some days he called his council and the Lunarian claimants together and made them a speech. He declared he was sick and tired of “paying interest.” True, he had never paid any, but it constantly added to the already most appalling debt to be found in the solar system. “In fact it is so great (said he) that we have no single words to express it. It is written by setting down 20 and then annexing to that a string of 153 ciphers. The original debt left by my illustrious ancestor the father of the canals was 1,000,000 kiks, at least that is all his successor assumed, and it is that insignificant sum that has grown to such overwhelming proportions.
“Take 20,000,000 septillions of kiks and multiply by 1,000,000 sextillions; multiply this product by 1,000,000 of quintillions and this by 1,000,000 quadrillions; this by 1,000,000 millions; and finally multiplythis by 1,000,000. Now from this inconceivably great sum subtractone kik. That kik is the principal; all the rest isinterest. As the whole principal was 1,000,000 kiks, our whole debt is 1,000,000 times the above sum.[5]I have for several days been endeavoring to master the financial principle applicable to this case. Our Lunarian professors have told us that the normal advance of natural modes of motion is by undulation, or the progressive rising and falling of one wave after another, as in the ocean, the movement of heat and light, the ebbing and flowing of the tides etc. I have observed that the same law holds in the accumulation of wealth. It undulates. It is lively awhile, then dull. Business men accumulate a pile, then lose it. It is the same with money engaged in business, it sometimes gains, sometimes loses. A man may drink twenty hogsheads of wine, but he cannot accumulate that much inside of him at once.
“It may be possible for one little kik in the course of 7,000 years to earn on Mars all the wealth both real and personal that there is on all the planets in the solar system and much more besides. At any rate it has done it on paper according to the figures and the claim of our Lunarian friends, but evidently it could only be done by its dropping a lot of it occasionally and earning it over again. So the undulatory movement applies here as a physical necessity. But the papersin this case so far, represent only the swelling of the wave without the complementary sinking that completes an undulation, and makes its continued movement a physical possibility. These papers relate only to the ascending or crescendo half of the wave, but fail to provide for the diminuendo side of it. This wave has been swelling for 7,000 years. It is high time it had reached its culmination or greatest amplitude and I think it has. Seven is a mystic number and in this case evidently marks that epoch. Time alone was competent to enable a little kik to pile up such an accumulation of debt against us, and what time has done, time can undo.
“I propose now to issue a diminuendo bond that will in the course of 7,000 years reduce this debt back to the level it started from. Instead of bearing interest, this bond will bear discount. This discount the first year will be precisely what the interest was the last, and each year in the descending future the bond will be reduced to the same amount to which it was increased in the year as far in the past as it is in the future counting from the date of the bond. So that 1,000 years hence the amount of it will be the same that it was 1,000 years ago and so on. Coupons shall be attached, representing the amount of the discount each year which the holders of the bonds shall detach and present to the treasurer to be cancelled. Thus the debt will be reduced every year and it will cost nobody a kik.
“At the end of 7,000 years all the accumulation of interest will have been dissipated and only theprincipal will be left. This if not paid then will begin to draw interest again, because by the undulatory theory, the wave having reached its lowest ebb must thereafter rise.”
“This was the substance of the king’s speech, and it was highly applauded by the whole assembly, except the Lunarians. They said it looked to them like repudiation, and they told the king they feared it would hurt his credit not only in the Moon, but on the Earth, and Venus, Juno, Pallas, Ceres, Vesta and all the rest. The King replied that he would be sorry to do anything that would impair his credit in the other planets and for that reason would not on any account repudiate. That was why he gave this bond. If he intended to repudiate he would not need to give any bond. By this arrangement they would get their million kiks in the course of time—would no doubt have got them long ago—if that load of interest had not been piled on top of them. The object of this bond was to remove this interest. According to the undulatory theory of finance that he had just announced, the total amount of loss of money employed in business exactly equals the total amount of gain, since money does not change in amount by being used. But in particular cases there may be net gains at the expense of loss somewhere else. And he said that the shrewdness of the Lunarians would have insured to them a measure of net gain; but by no possibility could it have amounted to many times itself even in the course of ages. “It is labor, not money, that creates wealth. If you bury 100 kiksin the ground and after a year dig them up you will not find that they have increased to 105.”
“This talk of the king convinced the Lunarians that he did not intend to pay the interest on their claim and as they could not afford to quarrel with him, they proposed a compromise, and it was finally settled that they should receive 1,000,000 kiks in addition to the property they had taken on the foreclosure, and a bond for ten million kiks to be paid at the option of the government without interest or security. They did not regard this bond as very valuable, and as a matter of fact it has not been paid off to this day, but still constitutes a “claim.” After all, however, they did well enough notwithstanding their astounding loss.
“They were now recognized as men who through no fault of their own had sunk the most stupendous sum of money ever known to exist in one fund, and this circumstance gave them as much notoriety and almost as much influence and importance, as if they still had to their credit the sum of 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kiks.”
These financial questions being settled the Lunarians went to work to improve their new property.They commenced work on the south polar region, opening extensive mines of coal and iron and starting furnaces and rolling mills. It soon became known what they were up to, which proved to be nothing less than the capture of Jack-Deimos and setting him to work. The first thing to do was to construct a cable long enough to reach from the pole of Mars to Deimos. Deimos is 14,547 miles from the center of Mars and a little further from the pole viz 14,690 miles. The cable was made about 25 miles longer than that. It was composed of a vast number of strands of tremendously tough steel wire and put together in the most marvelous way, for they were in small bundles insulated from each other as to the attraction of gravitation and also insulated by sections of their length. By this construction a part of the strands might be made to be subject to the attraction of gravitation, others alongside of them to repulsion, also a strand might be made subject to attraction in one part while in another it could be subject to repulsion, and these conditions could be reversed, or all the parts could be caused to be in the same state. The effect of this was very remarkable. When the cable was completed it was stretched out a section of one to two hundred miles at a time, and tested, an alternating electrical battery being used to alter the gravitational conditions. By proper manipulation, the cable could be made to rise bodily from the ground, or it could be made to rise by sections, one section on the ground and another humped up like the back of an angry cat, or when lying down straight itcould be made to roll over, by causing one side to be attractive and the other repelling.
“This cable was eight inches in diameter. The lower end was doubled on itself to form an eye five feet in diameter. The other end for 25 miles was left free, the wires all being separate and loose with balls of iron attached to their ends. When this end of the cable was tested, a considerable section, by being subjected to repulsion, rose from the ground and assumed a perpendicular position, the loose ends of the wire parting and repelling each other like the hairs on the head of an electrified person. This was what was required and the test was pronounced a perfect success.
“Over the south pole of Mars is a mountain some 8,000 feet above the sea level. They found the exact pole not far from the highest part of this mountain which was a lucky circumstance. Here they planted a great steel shaft deep in the hard rock, its end sticking up so as to receive the eye of the cable. A good deal of grading and leveling off of obstructions that stood up above the proposed sweep of the cable, had to be removed. But the largest part of the work was the construction of the circular railway. This railway was built in a circle around the pole and 285 miles distant from it. The diameter of this circle was 570 and the length of the road was 1,791 miles. There were two purposes to be served by this road. A person standing at the pole of Mars cannot see Deimos on account of the bulge or convex surface of the globe. And it is only when he gets 285 miles from the pole that he can look over the bulgeand see the little moon. So a rope drawn taut from Deimos to the pole of the planet, would drag on the ground for the 285 miles next the pole, but outside of the 285 miles the line would gradually leave the ground. A large heavy car was made to travel on the railroad to hold up the cable as it swept around. Attached to this car there was to be a train holding the dynamos in which the power was to be turned into electricity.
“When everything was ready to hook on to the little moon, the cable was caused to erect itself by repulsion. It tended to stand directly out in line with the pole as if it were a continuation of the axis, and care had to be taken to prevent it slipping off its shaft and going off bodily into space. This had been anticipated and provided against however. After standing a few hours under the influence of repulsion it became rigid and perfectly straight. One-half of the strands throughout the whole length of the cable except the last twenty miles were now placed under the influence of attraction and the other half under repulsion. This left it still rigid, but indifferent and movable in any direction by a very small force like a water soaked log in the water. Attraction was now turned on a very small portion of the lower end of the cable and it began slowly to incline toward the ground. When it got down almost to the ground it was found that the ground where the railroad was built was running under the cable from west to east at the rate of 72½ miles an hour. Some very delicate manipulation was required here. The cable by having been erected at thepole had no rotary motion as the planet had. The planet revolved from west to east at the rate of 521.4 miles an hour at the equator, but, at the circular railroad this was reduced to 72.6 miles. At the pole of course it was nothing. As the railroad track and the car for carrying the cable were whirling along at that rate while the cable itself was stationary, it became necessary to give the cable a rotary sweep corresponding in direction with the diurnal revolution of the planet, and at somewhere near the same speed. This was accomplished by compelling work to be done by the revolution of the planet. Several little circular tracks were laid around the pole and close to it on which were placed cars carrying heavy steel beams that projected on either side and dragged cutting and scraping tools. The cars being attached to the cable, as the planet revolved they were made to pare down the mountain, and as this process continued long after the successful attachment of the cable to Deimos the part of the mountain immediately at the pole became shaped like an immense pin or capstan. The doing of this work by this steady pulling on the cable gradually set the cable to revolving around the shaft at the pole, the speed constantly increasing until at the railway the cable had developed a speed of 60 miles an hour or within 12.6 miles an hour of the rate the surface of the planet at the railway was traveling. A locomotive was now attached to the car or truck that was to carry the cable, and by running it from east to west at the rate of12.6 miles an hour it could be kept directly under the cable. Before lowering it, however, it was necessary to hump or raise up that part of it extending from the pole to the railway, to keep it from dragging on the ground which if straight it would do on account of the rounding of the globe of Mars. That was done by turning on repulsion over that part of it, and simultaneously putting on attraction in the region of the railway. This tended to cant the loose end of the cable toward the plane of the planet’s equator and brought it very near to the orbit of Deimos. The cable was settled upon its truck without trouble. This truck with the cable now had an apparent motion from east to west of 12.6 miles an hour its real motion being from west to east 60 miles an hour and that of the railway track also from west to east 72.6 miles an hour. The loose end of the cable swept around with a speed proportional with its distance from the pole of Mars. This speed was 3,062½ miles per hour which is 46 miles faster than that of Deimos which is 3,016½ as I mentioned before. Of course it was now only necessary to tip the cable over a little more so as to get it into the equatorial plane of Mars in order to bring it into contact with Deimos. This was done by applying attraction to a short section of the cable just outside of the railway track. The cable slowly moved at the switch end and came into line with Deimos about 43 days after having passed him. So as it gained on him only 46 miles an hour, it took about 40 days after this to catch up. This gave ample time to get the cable into exact position so there would beno danger of missing him. This most exciting race was now closely watched by every body on Mars that could get near a telescope—and our folks had introduced some very excellent ones. The cable gradually crept up on Jack—so the spectators said—like an old woman with a broom. As the final moment approached the excitement became intense. The cable like a vast arm terminated by an immense hand with extended fingers came up threateningly behind and at the fated instant gave Jack a spank on the rear with a shock of 46 miles an hour which sent all the fingers flying around him and clasping him with a tremendous grasp.