In the summer of 1892 the British public became engrossed in the subject of whether or not we were capable of communicating with Mars after it was claimed the Martians were attempting to contact us via electric lights. Articles were published, letters were written, and the Rev. Hugh Reginald Haweis, author of Victorian smash hit Music and Morals, suggested to the Pall Mall Gazette that the night lights of London be used to send a signal to our planetary neighbour:
"I infer from the astronomers that a signal on our earth about six miles in size of the nature of a bright light could be seen by the inhabitants of Mars, who, by all accounts, seem to be making the most systematic and herculean efforts to communicate with us by flashing triangular signals of presumably electric light. Why cannot we answer those signals by something which would resemble the lighthouse intermittent signal? Here is the method. London every night presents an area of at least 12 miles square brilliantly illuminated. ... We have actually the mechanism for interplanetary communication at work every night - why not use it?"
The debate inspired South Wales Daily News columnist 'Cosmos' to take a flight (of fancy) to Mars and report back to the newspaper's readers. The story stretched over several issues and can now give us a glimpse into the sci-fi tropes of the time - and the general opinion of them.
31st AUGUST 1892: THE METHOD BY WHICH I VISITED MARS
HAVING heard so much about Mars and its inhabitants I thought I would take a journey to this planet and let my readers have some authentic details about the place and the people. I cannot give you accurately the particulars of the machine which I used for my journey, because I have not yet patented it, and the manipulation is so delicate that if it is not set in motion to the million-billionth part of a second the result is annihilation to the person who attempts to use it. Thus I should be to blame were I to expose the secret, for people might be rash enough to try that which can only be learnt by years of patient toil, and which can only be guided by those possessing a special aptitude for the work.
At the same time, it will do no harm to sketch a general idea of the means employed, because the adaptation of those means is so difficult to discover that no one is likely to unravel the problem. It mainly consists of the utilisation of light. Light, as you know, has a velocity approaching 200,000 miles a second. This would be a speed too high for our mortal bodies. I should have said that my machine is carried by light, as a ship is carried by a stream. By an ingenious device, which I may term a drag, although, of course, it is nothing in the shape of a drag, I managed to reduce the rate to a tenth part. This would have been sadly too much had I not found out how the rush of the air through this atmosphere could be prevented. I may state that I am in hopes of perfecting this pare of my invention when I shall be able to travel at the same pace as light.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE MEANS
ONE of the principal obstacles with which I had to contend was the variation of pressure. Again and again I thought I had overcome this difficulty only to be disappointed. I was growing disheartened, and was beginning to imagine that the cup was dashed from my lips just as I was tasting it, for you must be told that my machine was finished by this time, and a short trial had convinced me that I had wrung from Nature one of her most hidden powers, when suddenly the solution jumped into my head, and I really wondered how so simple a process could have escaped me. It was another instance of the simplicity of great inventions. Over and over again the paradox has been demonstrated that things which are nearest to us are farthest away from us. If you cover the mouth of a bottle with an indiarubber disc and boil the contents, as they cool the contraction of the air will bring the indiarubber tight down on the lip.
I shall certainly not inform you how I applied this simple scientific fact to my purpose, but I may add that I had an indiarubber suit made which contracted automatically as the pressure increased, and expanded as the pressure decreased. It was tested to exert a pressure of 14 tons, and this was distributed all over the body. It acted admirably, but it rather gripped me as we crossed the border line between this atmosphere and space. However, I fancy this can easily be remedied, either by a little more temperature or the insertion of wadding beween the flesh and the suit.
I calculated by travelling at 20,000 miles a second I should arrive in Mars in something like 20 minutes. As I was not in a very great hurry, and also recollecting that there is more danger the faster you travel, I set my machine so as not to do more than 10,000 miles a second. Slower than this it would not have been safe to travel. Like whirling a can of water round, the water will be spilt unless the motion is sufficiently quick; like skating over thin ice, the ice will break if the pace of the skater is not accelerated, and so it is in travelling upon light. While I give the reader these mundane similes, he must not by any means believe that they reflect the actual state of the case, for they don't, but without furnishing a clue to my secret I am unable to explain my method in a more intelligible manner. Well, the eventful day. [To be continued in our next.]
3rd SEPTEMBER 1892: VISIT TO MARS
In another column you will find a communication which declares that Professor Pickering, of Harvard Observatory, has discovored two mountain ranges in Mars, lakes, etc. I may say that it is all pure imagination, and I should know, because I have been there. In due and proper time the features of Mars will be delineated by me; but at present you will recollect my narrative has not reached the start from this earth. As I remarked, the eventful day at length dawned. It generally does. I cannot swear that it did dawn on this occasion, but if my readers will not take a few things for granted it will be impossible to curtail this account to reasonable dimensions.
I had no restless night, I did not lay awake thinking of the great feat of the next day. I did not toss from side to side, but I slept peacefully and soundly until the maid knocked at my door. I am well aware that I ought not to have indulged in this manner, for such a course of conduct is entirely opposed to all similar scenes in any books that I have read but there you are. I give you the facts as they happened, and a departure from the truth in even the slightest particular would not be to my credit, though it might screen some of the mistakes which I have made in my lifetime. However, I can express my sorrow, and hope that it will not occur again.
THE EVENTFUL DAY
I ROSE leisurely and shaved carefully. I wanted to appear at my best in Mars; moreover, I did not want to cut myself. I cannot tell you what I had for breakfast, but as the larder seldom contains anything more than bacon I presume it must have been this, with the usual accessories of limp toast and lukewarm tea. Of course, I recognise the importance of accuracy in a narration like mine, and I must admit that it shows a strange deficiency of memory in not being able to furnish fuller details of such an eventful morning. It is idle for me to pretend that they were unimportant, because a man who cannot recollect the beginning of the journey is extremely probable to forget the middle and the end. I ate heartily, which again is contrary to precedent, and which is rather damaging to the statements I shall have to make.
You may possibly arrive at the conclusion that a man who acts in so strange a manner suffers from hallucinations, and that what I am going to tell you is merely the creation of a disordered brain. But I trust that you will put these vagaries down to originality. Without this quality I could not have invented thtot wonderful instrument, which has revolutionised the whole method of travelling, and has woven the web of good will between the inhabitants of this globe and those of Mars. The latter part of the sentence is not my own, but it is the right thing to say at this particular juncture.
MY MACHINE
I CANNOT describe my machine, for many reasons. In the first place, it is moved by an entirely new power. I am much in the position of a person of this century who should attempt to explain to the ancient Britons the system of the telegraph or the telephone. They would not understand him. I don't mean to infer that you would not understand me, but it is not to my advantage to furnish you with a clue. Filthy lucre I despise. The patent is worth millions, but that is not my object in concealing the secret of this grand discovery. The harm its exposure would do to the human race, the injury which it would cause to generations yet unborn, is my principal motive for keeping silent.
I may state, though, that it is a sort of balloon and ship mixed. Of course, you must expressly comprehend that it is nothing like these things, but they bear the nearest mundane resemblance to an object which is purely ethereal, just as you might to the Ancient Briton that in the telephone the voice is carried along a wire. Never-theless, I may go so far as to say that the envelope is composed of a substance which may be compared to a bublat of soap. This envelope inflates itself and while being transparent, is elastic. It is wholly impervious to friction, thus saving the person inside from the fate of a meteor both in this atmosphere and that of Mars. Without this protection the traveller would be converted into a mass of sparks in less than the two hundred and fiftieth part of a second.
I do not know the exact time at which I launched myself into space. My watch is not to be depended upon, and I had to wait nearly an hour for a beam of light sufficiently broad to suit my purpose. Any ray would not do for me. If I had taken the first that came I might have found myself at Jupiter or Jericho, or any other place which I did not want to visit. At length the beam came which I required. There was no button to press or string to pull, or ropes to throw off about my machine. Nothing of that sort. I did not even whistle. The spot chosen for my attempt was the Sophia Gardens, the hour between 11 and 12 in the day, when [To be continued in our next.]
5th SEPTEMBER 1892: THE VOYAGE TO MARS
If you will look at Mars some evening you will find that it gives a ruddy glow. It was this red light of which I was in search. As I have stated, some time elapsed before I could obtain a sufficient supply ot it. Like a ship which has to wait until the tide is high enough to float it, so I had to delay until I was assured that the rays which I required were of the necessary depth and intensity for my purpose. By the aid of an instrument which I had designed I was enabled to obtain a focus which was entirely satisfactory. This instrument collects the rays of light like a telescope splits them up into their various hues like the spectrum analysis, finally testing them and furnishing their exact composition. The last-mentioned duty is very important, for it is only by this means that you can distinguish which is the right shaft of light.
I had merely to turn the light on to my machine, and I was off. I was perfectly calm and collected, and self-reliant. I had said "good-bye" to nobody; I had not even made my will; I had nothing to leave. My hand did not tremble as I turned on the light. I was more than a hundred miles from the earth before I lost sight of the Sophia Gardens. This distance would be accomplished in about the 90th part of a second, and the eye would be unable to obtain a fresh impression in that period.
TRAVELLING THROUGH SPACE
IN fact, the Sophia Gardens developed into a big mass of fire, which filled tbe entire heavens behind me. In a second it had become round, edged with a dark circle. This dark circle quiokiy became blue, and the ball of fire was palpably diminishing in area every moment. On the other hand, the moon was growing larger. I passed quite close to it. It took me about 25 seconds to reach it. I went by it in something like a quarter of a second. As I did not happen to have with me a Benson's chronograph you must allow for a little inaccuracy in the times stated.
I give them as near as my watch will permit. Other travellers in my position, not possessing that strict regard for veracity which characterises myself, would perhaps dilate to you upon the features of the moon. They would argue to themselves that their readers could not realise the rate at which the machine was rushing through space, and a confirmation of the suppositions of the astronomers would please everybody and hurt nobody. But to me the moon was merely a sphere of light, which for 20 seconds was rapidly increasing m size, then it elongated into an ellipse, again shrinking into a ball.
The earth, which had been partially hidden, came into sight. In a few seconds it was no larger than a full moon. Mars, which was in front of me, was now a little larger, but there was no visible increase, as was the case with the decrease of the earth. It is a delightful existence in space. There is no necessity to breathe. The respiration with which I had started lasted me until I reached Mars. Nothing is consumed in space. I did not even blink my eyes. Anything which I did required no effort.
If you raised your arms they floated up, if you stooped there was no exertion. You could stand out of the perpendicular and not fall. You are perfectly comfortable and at your ease in any position you choose to assume. You need no rest for your arms or your back, or any part of your body. You can poise yourself on your head and suffer no inconvenience; you can obtain perfect rest in any attitude — a rest more complete than the soundest sleep on the softest of feather beds. There is no scenery in the sky, and after the novelty wore off it became rather monotonous to observe planets contracting and expanding. Occasionally you would notice a thin dark line. This was an asteroid. I was in no danger from them because my machine stops instantly the light is cut off, and without the slightest shock.
APPROACHING MARS
IT was about 20 minutes out when Mars began to swell. The moon was a large star, and the earth showed about a quarter of the diameter of a full moon. The contraction was no longer apparent, whereas the expansion of Mars was beginning to make itself plainly seen. That twenty minutes which it took to reach Mars would have been tedious had it been on this earth. You would have worried and fidgetted, and wished the time would pass. In space there is no wear and tear, not even of the mind. Your thoughts come and go without any labour, nor do they leave any anxiety or fatigue behind. There is perpetual rest, yet perpetual motion.
You will think enough in an hour to stock "every book which has been printed, but you will not feel tired. There is no lassitude in space. You have no idea how time passes, for it does not pass there. On earth your muscles, or your stomach, or your brain recall to you that the hours are going, but in space they are like a clock which has stopped, the machinery is quiescent but nevertheless, unlike a clock, they are kept going. If you set your head nodding it would be like the figures of the Chinese Mandarins, it would keep on nodding, and yet occasion you no inconvenience. I was close to Mars when I looked back for the last time. You could see the earth and the moon, the one about one-sixteenth the size of the moon as seen from the earth, the other about the size of a star.
6th SEPTEMBER 1892: ON THE ROAD TO MARS
WHEN I stated that I was close to Mars I might have been half a million miles off, but at the speed at which I was going this distance would be accomplished in 50 seconds. During my journey across space I found out that I could travel very much faster than 10,000 miles a second, but it would have taken me several minutes to have altered my machine, and I was not quite sure that the envelope would have been friction-proof in the atmospheres of the earth and Mars if this rate were exceeded. The envelope has been tested to withstand a greater resistance than 10,000 miles a second, but at the first attempt I thought it would be wiser to keep well within the mark, particularly as the whole voyage would not occupy an hour. The increase of pace could be readily managed. The admission of more light would have this effect. As it happened I had no spare lenses with me, and those I had would not allow the rays to filter through them in a larger quantity than was sufficient to produce the speed which I had estimated. It is true that I might have altered them if there had been any necessity, but the process is extremely delicate, and I am one of those men who prefer to let well alone.
MY RESPECT FOR ACCURACY
ANOTHER person in my situation would have delineated the special features of Mars as viewed from space. I am not writing this account for the purpose of giving my imagination an airing, but to afford the people of this globe accurate information about the inhabitants of Mars, and the planet in which they reside. Had I determined not to budge one inch from the dictates of truth do you think that I should have made the voyage across space so uneventful or so uninteresting? Could I not have filled it with hair breadth escapes, and populated it with spirits whose conversations I should have jotted down. I am acquainted with the peculiar tenets of Theosophy, and according to that creed I passed through the region where the egos are stored up until the freights get better, —hang it, that comes of going on 'Change— I mean to say where they are waiting until a mundane body is prepared for their reception. Far be it from me to unsettle anybody's faith, and because I did not observe any of these Egos that is no evidence that they were not there.
Space is vast. But vast as it is, it is crowded with small comets and meteorites. They all possess such a striking similarity to one another that they afford no interest after the first few millions. What with the pace I was travelling and the speed they were going, their appearance was more like a pencil line than anything else. I am aware that these details are neither exciting nor startling, but because there is nobody to contradict me that is no reason why I should invent particulars merely to impart colour to a story. Other authors certainly take this advantage, but, even at the risk of being thought dull, I intend neither to exaggerate nor to mention any- thing which is not in accordance with fact. There is no fiction about this narrative. In making this confession I must insert a saving clause. I was at the mercy of the Martian people, and what they told me I cannot wholly vouch for, so that that portion which will be enclosed in inverted commas, you can receive or reject as you prefer. At the same time I did my best to confirm it as far as lay in my power, and I must admit that I never encountered a Martian who told a lie.
THE ARRIVAL AT MARS
If I had carried a telescope with me, I might have been able to sketch the outlines of Mars, as observed from space. Necessarily this view must have been brief, for it would only have lasted a few seconds. My means were not sufficient to admit of my purchasing an instrument. The glass for the Lick telescope cost £11,000, and my present salary would not justify such an outlay. Unfortunately I never learnt the art of obtaining photographs, but I brought back some coloured illustrations of the planet which no mundane artist will ever understand. Very naturally I began to be a little excited as I noticed the globe of light in front of me bulging outwards, though the eternal calm of space, while helping to eradicate these tendencies, could not in the short period in which I had crossed it entirely subdue such feelings.
In space there is perfect silence you cannot hear the beating of your heart — in fact it does not beat. The last throb on earth was sufficient to cause the blood to circulate, and it continued to circulate with- out any further pumping. Thus excitement was almost a matter of impossibility. The nearest approach to it was a languid interest. I rushed into the sphere of fire. Perhaps yo", may be curious to know how I stopped my machine without injury to myself. Go, my friend, and regard a sun beam. When it falls on a flower, or the most aspen of leaves, do you notice any shock? Well, my machine alights as gently as a sunbeam. As a matter of fact, I descended upon the face of one of the Martians he just moved his head, and I glided on to the ground. I have other methods of stopping the machine, but surely the simplest is the best.
7th SEPTEMBER 1892: A CHILD OF MARS
OF course I was not aware that the strange being I saw was one of the Martian inhabitants. It - I cannot say he or she, for reasons which will be explained later on - was a most extraordinary creature. It was floating about in mid air, and was not unlike one of the finny tribe. It was perfectly devoid of all clothing, and appeared to be composed of a substance which was a combination of a cloud and a jelly fish, but the flesh - if it can so be termed — was too solid for the one and not opaque enough for the other. If you can imagine vapour slightly materialised, and jelly disintegrated into dust but still retaining its cohesion and its flexibility, you may form some idea of what a Martian is made. The similitude to a fish was heightened by a kind of homocercal tail. This I afterwards discovered was occasioned by the rudiments of two legs. What answered to the two fins are in reality arms, but they are very much shorter than our own and while the thumb and two first fingers are abnormally developed, the third and little fingers are almost absent.
I gleaned these details later on. At the moment the arms were at rest by the side of the body. Talk of body — it scarcely had any. The huge head descended almost to where the legs commenced. As for neck there was none. The head, while retaining some of the shape of our own, was without any hirsute covering. The face was almost flat, with a very small mouth, which was entirely toothless. On the contrary, the eyes were very large and prominent, so much so that they can see behind as well as in front.
There is merely the rudiment of a nose, and it is solely used for the purpose of breathing. Colds are unknown in Mars. The outline was oval, and resembled a man without any prominent features, and whose head had been put on where his shoulders ought to have been. The colour of what I must describe as the flesh was just as it suited this creature. Like a chameleon, it could absorb the different hues of the sun and exhibit any tint it chose. This was the creature upon whose face my machine had alighted. When it turned its head I glided off on to the ground.
I STEP ON TO MARS
You all have observed a soap bubble collapse. With one blow of the little Damboo cane which I invariably carry with me the machine disappeared as if struck with an enchanter's wand. Don't run away with the notion, please, that I destroyed it, though with the secrets I had extracted from nature it would not have been difficult to have reconstructed it. Still I did not forget that in Mars there might not be those appliances which would be requisite for the manufacture of a safe conveyance to this earth. Although I was perfectly convinced that my machine was invisible to the people of our globe. I did not make allowance for the knowledge which the Martians have acquired during the many millions of years they have existed longer than the human race. Little did I dream that the creature floating lazily in the air above me had seen me dwell on his face, and then slide off on to the ground.
A Martian is never surprise, and this new phenomena only stimulated it (not he or she please Mr Printer) to observe closely, and to think more deeply. It, too, could see my machine, which I thought was perfectly hidden. Into so small a space does it telescope that a thousand magnifying microscope will not show it. But the Martian has wonderfully increased his eyesight moreover, he posses marvellous artificial aids for ocular investigation. By the simple means of the moisture of the orbits they are enabled to enlarge any object ten thousand times its actual size. This is merely a development of the principle that water in a glass magnifies. But I am anticipating. However, I learnt afterwards that my movements were closely watched.
AN ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY
I PRESENTED a curious spectacle. My indiarubber suit which I could not throw off, because the pressure in Mars is less than on the earth, enclosed me from head to foot. My eyes were covered with a huge pair of goggles, not unlike those of a diver — in fact, you would have taken me as engaged in this occupation. How the Martian analysed me is difficult to determine. Although they have passed through much the same stages of evolution as ourselves they were not exactly the same. However, I must postpone my summary of their history until some more convenient season, for they have ten million years of written records which are indestructible by any known element.
I was gazing at the creature above me, wondering what it was when to my astonishment I heard the words, "O ba le y daethoch chwi?" ("Where do you come from?") Was it a dream? Was I still in Glamorganshire? I looked around me, and the view which greeted my vision totally dispelled that idea. The question was repeated, and the sound came from the creature above me. The tears welled in my eyes when the accents of the dear old language fell upon my ears. I could have thrown my arms round the neck of the creature and wept copiously, but alas it had no neck, and an embrace was not inviting. It was lucky I did not.
8th SEPTEMBER 1892: THE MARTIAN ADDRESSES ME
WHEN I said that it was lucky I did not embrace this creature I was thinking of the power they possess of burning anything which touches them. A Martian's equanimity is not easily upset, but it should not be forgotten that I was an unknown quantity, an apparition which did not come within the limits of their erudition, exhaustive as that is, and the Martian did not need to be told that he beheld something which must be acquainted with more profound lore than the learning of their cycles of ages had fathomed. This Mart-ian afterwards admitted to me that if I had thrown my arms round his neck lie might have emitted some electric flames which, while they would not have harmed me, might have damaged my india-rubber suit — an injury which was practically the same.
THE MARTIAN READS MY THOUGHTS
BY this time the air above me was crowded with these people. I partially guessed that I was in the presence of beings who were infinitely superior to mankind. How they had flocked to that spot in the twinkling of an eye was a mystery to me, but there they were, and they seemed to divine my thoughts before even they heard my voice. When I mentioned the earth I forgot that it wpuld not be called by that name in Mars, but the mere gesture was sufficient. They recognised at once what I meant, and the Martian who had addressed me first said "We call that planet the widow and orphans."
"But," asked he, "by what method did you transport yourself? We know that it was not electricity. We can tell by your machine there it was not air-vaptioned — (this was a new power to me, and I subsequently was told that it is a means by which explosives are controlled) — and therefore we presume you must have discovered that problem of light which has puzzled us for thousands of centuries." You may judge of my astonishment at being practically anticipated in any relation which I could make. I was more wonder-struck, too, when the Martian continued "I see that you are astonished, and that you are unable to read our thoughts as we are able to read yours, but I can assure you that the astonishment is greater on our side, for we cannot conceive how a creature ("y fath creadur") who is evidently destitute of many of the ordinary powers of the brain could have hit on a solution to such an abstruse subject."
Here was a pretty situation! I who had prided myself on my marvellous attainments, was being regarded much in the same way that a man regards a clever trick on the part of a monkey.
HOW I BAFFLED HIM
BUT the worst of it was they could divine my thoughts without my being able to retaliate. But the inferior race generally makes up in cunning what it lacks in intelligence. At times I am very absentminded, and this condition came to my assistance. I resorted to a subterfuge, which is stated to be a remedy to insomnia. I thought of nothing but sheep jumping over a hurdle. This confused my friends the Martians. In the first place, they did not know what sheep were, and the picture of an everlasting saltation of some animal with which they were not acquainted was not a species of information. It was an extremely clever ruse, and I noticed at once that it answered, the purpose. But how to keep it up I did not know. It is rather difficult to think one continual thought, and yet reply to questions on different matters.
I was surrounded by these people. They all remained poised in the air, some on their backs, some on their sides, others on their faces. At length, however, the spokesman descended to the ground, by my side. This was a device on his part to urge me to think. But it was not successful. I was willing to answer questions, but I was not going to be raked fore and aft in that manner. I noticed that he was entirely boneless, toothless, and hairless. He had the power of becoming rigid, though it was not until later that I learnt that he could elongate himself into a thin streak. In other words, the Martian people have arrived back at the jelly fish stage, but with all the improvements of millions of years — improvements which are more accentuated than the difference between a boat pushed by a pole and the latest Cunarder. We can send our thoughts by wire, but they can send them by the mere effort of will. This accounted for the huge assemblage which so quickly gathered in my vicinity.
I RISE TO THE MARTIAN'S LEVEL
BUT, as you can glean from my inventions and my voyages, I am not a man altogether void of resource. Thinking one thing and speaking another is more difficult than singing in one and playing in another. The Martian could not interpret my thoughts as readily as he could those of his fellow-beings. Like a foreigner who does not fully understand your language, he had, as it were, to tran- slate it into his own tongue. A sudden thought leapt into my brain, and I carried it out with the rapidity of lightning. The secret of my machine occurred to me, and I at once utilised it.
I drew a veil over my brain which at once concealed my thoughts. I may state here that it is done by light. You shut off the light by a screen much on the same plan as the magic lantern. Light is merely sound with a greater number of vibrations. Thought consists of vibra- tions. It is impossible to describe to mankind how these vibrations can be transmitted, but they can. I had placed myself on a level with the Martian, and I was ready to enter into any conversation. The secret of my machine was safe.
9th SEPTEMBER 1892: MARTIAN LIFE
THE Martians have a very small voice. They have no necessity for it, so they seldom use it. They carry on all their conversation by transmission of thought. This is the cause of the enormous development of the head. But what saddens me is the reflection that our sages believe that the crude, nay primitive, civilisation which obtains on earth is prevalent in Mars. They ought to know better. They are aware that mankind is ever advancing, and Mars is at least ten million years ahead of us.
I smiled when a Welshman asked me what kind of music was appreciated in Mars. Of course they have none. As Elcyc observed — this is the name of the Martian with whom I conversed, and means "tired of life" - Music is only noise. You may have higher forms of it. just as one Hote is higher than another but we don't like noise, especially since we have almost ceased to use the voice. The savage is delighted with the banging of tin kettles, then ho acquit as a taste ior a less boisterous mode of vibration, but once he attains to the understanding of the vibrations which you call light, he ceases to care for the production of such uncouth vibrations as those caused by either wind or string instruments."
Fancy, too, imagining that "the Martians live in houses or herd together in cities! Why, each individual can have whatever temperature or element he chooses. What is the necessity, then, for living in a house or wearing clothes?
MARTIAN CHARACTERISTICS
THEY are all of one sex, so that even Mrs Grundy could scarcely object to this sartorial disregard for the proprieties. They have practically discovered the secret of immortality, but few care to live long. The ills to which the flesh is heir have all been exterminated, and if you were to cut them up Into mincemeat — a process which would be as difficult to accomplish as to attempt it on a running stream - the parts would adhere instantaneously. Their food they can manufacture out of the elements, and their own race they can generate in the same way.
Government! What do they want with a Government? The universal diffusion of thought renders any variance of opinion impossible. Moreover, they require nothing. Anything for which the palate wishes is at hand. There is no servitude. Even the animals are not enslaved or killed. It is true that in the earlier ages of Martian evolution the noxious animals were destroyed, and though the Martians could create again, they think they are happier in not having to struggle for existence. In Mars there is no animal or insect life which preys upon one another. This feeling of clemency is almost extending to plant life, and the Martians do not look with favour on those plants which are aggressive. They have got beyond the love for destruction. But animal life is not very plentiful on that planet.
The insufficiency of oxygen is exerting a powerful influence on the fertility, and the Martians regard this decay with complacency. They themselves are gradually dying out. As Elcyc remarked, What advantage do we gain by obeying destiny? We simply change to find that another change awaits us. We go round in a circle, which widens, it is true, at each revolution, but time and space are so vast that this whirligig will never cease, and if it does come to an end what then? We abhor slavery. Why should we be slaves, and at the behest of a superior being continue to rear children to toil round this orb?"
THE POPULATION DECREASING
THESE are the opinions of the inhabitants of Mars, and they are acting up to those opinions. For many years the population has been decreasing, and if it were not for the general amity which prevails the extinction of the race would proceed at a very much faster rate. My visit helped to dispel a trifle of this pessimistic gloom, but it was only transitory. They perceived that they had nothing to learn from other planets, and if they had it was merely commencing another roll of the eternal wheel. They are a people without any guile, and have reached a stage far in advance of any socialism which is preached on this earth. Our socialism only embraces ourselves. Their socialism comprises everything even down to the plants.
I should have liked to detail to you the conversation I had with Elcyc. But they would fill many volumes, and there is not much good in describing a state of affairs which the earth will not teach in ten millions of years. The Martians were rather hurt with me at first because I did not reveal my thoughts. They are so open and confiding themselves that such a thing as deceit in any shape is unknown among them. But they remembered that they had passed through this period themselves, and consequently made allowance for my lack of civilisation.
During the time I stayed with them, I explored the whole planet. They can move at about the speed of 50 miles a second, but it is seldom that they want to move. One spot is exactly as delightful as another. Although they can converse at any distance, they cannot see any distance without artificial aids. The power they chiefly use is that of light, but although they were acquainted with three parts of my secret, they had just missed the crowning point.
THEY DON'T WANT KNOWLEDGE
NEVERTHELESS, I could not long conceal this problem had I been so minded. But it was no object to me to keep it hidden. They would not visit the earth, although I tried hard to induce them to do so. They have almost ceased to take any interest in life. What was knowledge to them? — only a little more than they had, even if they could have encountered anything with which they were not acquainted — a contingency which was doubtful.
I nearly Persuaded Elcyc when I urged upon him that it was his duty to come, in order to raise the multitude from the mud in which they wallowed. But he waived that plea by furnishing scientific arguments that a race hurried on faster than it could travel, would deteriate instead of progressing. "Would you reveal your secret of light?" demanded he. "No," I answered.
I was taught many things in Mars, especially those things which we are on the borders of discovering. For instance, instead of wanting coal to provide electricity I can obtain it from a cloud, and so prevent the hideous noise of thunder. I can milk a cloud of its electricity with as much facility as I can milk a cow. I can sit on a ton of dynamite and by its explosion be carried from here to America. The control of this power is termed aervoght, and not as printed yesterday. In Mars they use gold for the purpose, which is a much more powerful explosive. But with them these forces are antiquated.
NO MORE MARS
I have been forgetting that much of what I have been telling to you was the result of observation and communication. At present you will recollect I have only just landed, and have not had the opportunity of gazing around me and depicting the landscape. I should like to give you in detail the features of Mars, I should like to describe the ordinary every day life of an inhabitant, I should like to tell you why those two moons rush round the planet every few hours. I should like to relate to you some of its past history, I should like to show you to what perfection they have brought everything which we now use on this earth, but I have not the appliances of Mars for disseminating this intelligence.
Life is short on this planet, and I do not want to pass the rest of my days in writing about Mars to unappreciative and ignorant readers. But I roar with laughter when the great astronomers of the day talk of canals and ranges of mountains. In the future, however, do not talk of Mars as if it were on the level of this earth. The people here compared with those there exhibit a greater gulf than there is between a Gibraltar monkey and the Prime Minister of England.
I may add that the reason why Elcyc addressed me in Welsh is that it is the oldest language known on Mars, and nobody can tell how it got there. Its origin is lost in the mist of the ages. This is another proof that Welsh was the tongue in which beings first conversed.
You must pardon me I conclude my narrative at the most interesting point. I have afforded you a glimpse of life on Mars, and you may rely on its accuracy. Cheap and personally conducted trips are out of the question. I can return to Mars, but the inhabitants decline to admit anybody else, and as they know my secret they can shut off the light and prevent the machine alighting. [To be discontinued in our next.]
10th SEPTEMBER 1892: THE POET ABROAD
I have not been troubled by a poet for some time, but my late voyage to Mars appears to have made one of the creatures uneasy. I admire brevity in poetry.
I was restless and uneasy,
And the thousand cares of life
Lay heavy on my spirit,
And I sickened of its strife;
And I said "Perhaps around us,
Where the star-light feebly dawns,
There are worlds that know no troubles,
There are roses without thorns."
And I sighed to think that science,
With is centipedal stride,
Silent stood when asked the question
Are the planets occupied?"
And I found no compensation
In the sneer of the buffoon,
Rhat though they might not be peopled,
There were craters in the moon.
And I cursed my feeble vision,
And I longed to look beyond,
Where no laws of extradition
Stretch across a herring-pond.
And I yearned to find my freedom
Where the Greater Herschell flits,
Unreminded that his offspring
Is preserved to fame in writs.
I laughed with scorn. "See, fool," said I,
'Tis time thou dids't grow wiser,
Nor fall into the trap prepared
By the demon advertiser.
"Scan on, thou'lt see towards the end,
Proclaimed for all our ills,
A universal remedy -
"Say, Smarter's River Squills."
But no - no quack's enticement this -
Sound scientific reason -
No padding here for papers lean
Throughout the silly season.
T'was clear we soon should able be
Through scientific labours
To call and leave our cards upon
Our planetary neighbours.
See already fearless Haweis
In the solemn hour of night
Would disperse the heathen darkness
With the true (electric) light,
As he signals undeterred by
His Episcopal preventer,
And suggests exchange of pulpits
To a Martian Dissenter.
What though fools scoff at our notions,
With the term of "Nonsense" brand 'em.
Sneered "When you've arranged your signals,
Will the others understand 'em?"
And suggested as a matter
(Which it might be well to mention)
That 'twould first advisable be
To attract our friends' attention.
They might scoff and they might banter,
They might sit and grin at ease,
They ask our best quotations
For consignments of green cheese;
But since Science can present us
To the inner life of Mars,
We shall bridge the airy chasm
That divides us from the stars.
10th OCTOBER 1892: THE WORKER STARVES; THE IDLER LUXURIATES
ARE there any agricultural labourers in South Wales as badly off as those of Suffolk, who have just struck against a reduction which would bring down their wages to 11s a week? I hope not. Indeed, it is not likely to be so, for the mines afford better paid employment, even these dull times; and the farmers hereaway are compelled to pay better wages. Yet the farmers of South Wales are no worse off than those of the eastern counties. On behalf of the cultivator in East Anglia it is argued that the price of corn is so low that he cannot pay higher wages, the price he can get for his wheat being the lowest on record.
That may or may not be the case. But to make the labourer suffer is not the right way to ensure a remedy. To the labourer is due, with the farmer, the existence of the wheat and if they two shared between them the value of the product of their joint industry both would be able to make a decent living. But the mischief is that there comes before them a third party, one who stands idle, doing nothing towards the production of the wheat; and he, the idler, takes heavy toll from the value of the product, leaving scarcely subsistence for the other two.
If I had discovered anything analgous to this during my visit to Mars, what fools we should have described the Mars fólk as being. If they (I have already affirmed the existence of intelligent beings in that planet) knew anything of our land system here, they would call us fools, and would rightly describe us, the only defect of description being that we were not termed rogues as well. How much longer will the workers endure that the idlers shall live upon them; in many cases, by restrictive covenants in leases and the like, also hindering the cultivator from making the best use of the land for the benefit of himself and the community?
28th DECEMBER 1892: REMINISCENCES OF MY VOYAGE TO MARS
PREACHING at the City Temple, on Sunday, Dr Parker is reported to have said - "The time will come when mental action alone will be sufficient medium for communications between individuals, however distant." Those who read the account of my visit to Mars will recollect that the inhabitants of that planet regularly correspond in this manner. Perhaps you will remember the device by which I prevented them from seizing my thoughts as fast as I generated them. Of course, Dr Parker knows nothing about Mars, but I can assure him that mental action with the Martians is many thousand times faster than speech, and distance is of no moment. I was very glad that I had to bring my impressions about Mars to such an abrupt conclusion. But I had to sail for Algiers, otherwise I should have written seven or eight columns on the subject.
