: PAGE TWO The Dallas Dost ESTABLISHED 1889 TELEPHONE DALLAS 300 A LIBERAL, INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING L : AT THE DALLAS POST PLANT LEHMAN AVENUE, DALLAS, PA. BY THE DALLAS POST, INC. HOWARD IRISTITY x feiats nso ois sola less osiuinain v niaiatoils ae die bn aiaty General Manager HOWELL, BIES i hvensnssintiiaae casas esiesions esses sisians Managing Editor STRUMAN STEWART .. voi iinssisds canvesesionss Mechanical Superintendent The Dallas Post is on sale at the local news stands. Subscription price by mail $2.00 payable in advance. Single copies five cents each. _ Entered as second-class matter at the Dallas Post Office. ° Members American Press Association; Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers’ Association; Circulation Audit Bureau; Wilkes-Barre-Wyoming Valley Cham- ber of Commerce. THE DALLAS POST is a youthful weekly rural-suburban newspaper, owned, edited and operated by young men interested in the development of the great rural-suburban region of Luzerne County and in the attainment of the highest ideals of journalism, THE POST is truly “more than a newspaper, it is a community institution.” Congress shall make no law * * abridging the freedom of speech, or of Press.—From the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Subscription, $2.00 Per Year (Payable in Advance). Subscribers who send us changes of address are requested to include both new and old addresses when they submit their notice of change. THE DALLAS POST PROGRAM THE DALLAS POST will iend its support and offers the use of it» oolumns to all projects which will help this community and the great rurai- ‘suburban territory which it serves to attain the following major improve- ‘ments: > 1. Construction of more sidewalks for the protection of pedestrians in ~ Kingston township and Dallas. 2. A free library located in the Dallas region. 3. Better ‘and adequate street lighting in Fernbrook and Dallas. : 4. Sanitary sewage disposal system for Dallas. 5. Closer co-operation between Dallas borough and surrounding townships. 6. Consolidated high schools and better co-operation between those that now exist. : ra 7. Adequate waten supply for fire protection. : Un 8. The formatien of a Back Mountain Club made up of business men and home owners interested in the development of a community consciousness in Dallas, Trucksville, Shavertown and Fernbrook. 9. A modern concrete highway leading from Dallas and connecting the 8ullivan Trail at Tunkhannock. 3 10. The elimination’ of petty poiitics from all School Boards in the region ~ oovered by THE DALLAS POST. Trucksville. Shavertown, The newspapers of the country continue to reflect im- proved business conditions. The momentum with which i economic recovery moves is recorded in news dispatches and ‘emphasized and reiterated in editorial comments. Under the caption, “Business Clouds Clearing Away”, the Los Angeles Post-Record has this to say: “The long-awaited recovery of American business and dustry may not be just around the corner, but there are abundant indications that not since the economic collapse of 1929 has the public had more substantial rea- sons to expect that we are slowly but sure- ly climbing back to normal conidtions than during these lengthening spring days. “We have but to watch the reports of new investment and enterprise from the leading business centers of the country to appreciate the magnitude of the upswing. Every day brings news of increased activities in basic industries. | “Millions are being set aside to increase manufacturing ~ capacity in existing plants and-gof more particular signifi- ~cance—to build new plants. “The definite settlement of the controversy in the gold- clause cases, while not satisfactory to certain financial in- ~~ terests, has measurably restored confidence in the monetary policy of the administration among business leaders at large. “By removing the uncertainties of the money situation, the Supreme Court has established standards upon which the investor can depend and by which he can make adjust- ments for future commitments. “The great problem of unemployment and of establish- Fy ing security for the workers of the country is not yet solved, but with the evident restoration of confidence and a weli-de- ~ fined purpose on the part of capitalists to put their idle bil- lions to work, the task of remodeling the economic machine ‘will be much simpler. “It would be gratifying to all of us and not surprising to some of the keenest observers of business trends if we should wake up some morning to find that the depression is over.” ; Thus speaks the Los Angeles Post-Record, published on the Pacific coast. From States on the Atlantic seaboard come equally optimistic notes. “The forces of recovery’, proclaims the Atlanta (Ga.) Journal, “are no longer incipient and scattered; they are ful- ly geared and general.” Commenting on the statement in the Federal Reserve Bulletin that the January level of industrial production reached 90 percent of the 1923-25 average, the Albany (N. Y.) Knickerbocker-Press says these are more pleasing fig- ures than have been shown in some time, and adds: “The hope — and reasonable expectation — is that the upward trend will continue.” *» * 4 More than 98,000 seedlings and transplants from the State Forest Nurseries will be planted in Luzerne County by 33 tree planters this Spring. Of this num- + SPRING ber the Game Commission will plant 18,- TREE : 000 trees and Irvin Chapin of Shickshinny PLANTING © will plant 11,000. Spring planting throughout Pennsyl- vania will exceed eight million trees. Most of these trees will go toward reforesting idle and abandoned farm lands. Although the supply of trees for Spring planting has been exhausted, Secretary Ralph M. Bashore of the Depart- now being placed for 1936. Planters desiring trees for 1936 planting should place their orders soon. The nurseries have available for next year white pine, red pine, pitch pine, Scotch Pine, Banks pine, Norway spruce, Japanece larch, black walnut, red oak, tulip poplar, and white oak seedlings. Red pine, white ‘spruce, and Norway spruce transplants also will be ready for next spring. ment of Forests and Waters states that mmny orders are| Philp Wylie Qpyrig By Fawin Balmer A Philip Wiis WNU Service. THE NARRATIVE CHAPTER 1.—David Ransdell, approach- ing New York on the liner Europa, re- eeives a succession of radiograms offer- ing him $1,000, finally $20,000, for an ex- elusive newspaper interview divulging the mission that brings him from South Africa. Ransdell, noted aviator, has been secretly commissioned at Capetown by Lord Rhondin and Professor Bronson. the astronomer, to fly across the Mediter- ranean to the fast liner, with a large traveling case containing photographic plates. His instructions are to deliver them to Dr. Cole Hendron, in New York. Tony Drake calls at the Hendrons’ apart- ment, Ransdell arrives and Eve Hen- @ron, with whom Tony is deeply in love, introduces Tony te Ransdei. CHAPTER [1.—New York newspapers publish a statement made by Hendron and concurred In by sixty of the world’s greatest scientists, The prepared state- ment says that Professor Bronson has discovered two planets, which must have broken away from another star or sun and traveled through interstellar space fer an incalculable time, until they came to a region of the heavens which brought them st last under the attraction.of the sun. The statement ends: ‘“Their previ- ous course, consequently, has been mod!- fled by the sun, and as R result, they are ROW approaching ws.” (he result of the imevitable collision must be the end of the earth. The appreaching bodies are referred te as Bronson Alpha and Broa- son Beta, the latter being the smaller— about the size of the earth. CHAPTER II1—“It's going te be doomsday, isn’t it? Tony Drake asks Eve. “No, Tony—more than doomsday. Dawn after doomsday,” she tells him. She explains that the first time the Bronson Bodies approach the earth they will not hit it, but the second time, one, Bronson Beta, will pass, and the other will hit the earth and demolish it. Teo devise means of transferring to Bronson Beta, so much like the earth, is what is occupying the minds of the members of the League of the Last Days. CHAPTER IV.—Hendron tells Tony he is to be a member of the selected crew of the projected Space Ship which Hen- dron plans to: build, with the idea of landing on Bronson Beta, and the scien- tist advises him to gain a knowledge of agriculture and proficiency in manual arts and elementary mechanics. Tony rounds up suitable men and women to | build the ship at a cantonment Hendron established in northern Michigan. CHAPTER V.—Hendron has nbdt been able to find a metal or an alloy which will withstand the heat and pressure of atomic energy to be used in propelling the Space Ship. The night before Hen- dron and his immediate party are to fly to Michigan the tides rush through the streets of New York. CHAPTER VI.—The tides sweep back to the Appalachians on the east and to the mountains on the Pacific side, and quakes change the entire surface of the earth. The Washington government moves as many millions as possible to the great Mississippi valley. The Hen- dron settlement survives unprecedented sarthquakes. CHAPTER VIL.—Bronson Alpha col- lides with the moon and wipes it out. Ransdell and Eliot James, an English poet whom Hendron has invited to join the colony, leave on an aerial recon- noissance, as the Hendron colony ‘is in ignorance of conditions elsewhere. They return safely, reporting almost universal destruction throughout the country. CHAPTER VII1.—Three weeks later, Ransdell, with Peter Vanderbilt, promi- nent New Yorker, selected by Hendron as a member of the party on the Space Ship, and James, fly over a large section of the devastated country.. They are at- tacked by a crazed mob and each mem- ber of the party wounded, but they re- turn alive, and Ransdell has found the metal Hendron needs for the Space Ship. CHAPTER I[X.—The Space Ship wih accommodate only 100 persons, with the lower species of life Hendron is convey- ing to the New Earth. There are 1,000 picked men and women in Hendron’s camp. When half of them die in an at- tack by a hunger-crazed horde, Hendron calls the survivors into the ship and sends it aloft. The thousands in the at- tacking horde are wiped out by the sear- ing blast emitted by the ship. CHAPTER X.—Hendron announces the puilding of a second and larger Space Ship so all may escape to Bronson Beta. Just before the ships are to leave the earth, Eve and Tony, walking on the fringe of the encampment, find two little children, left there by their father, who has disappeared. Despite Hendron’s or- ders, they take the little ones on the ship. As the last air lock is about to be closed, Pierre Duquesne, France's great- est physicist, lands from a plane, to join the party. Tony looked at his number and found his place. Eve was near by him, with the two children beside her. She had sat up to welcome him. “I’ve been terribly nervous, Of course I knew you’d come, but it has been hard waiting “here.” “We're all set,” Tony said, as he adjusted himself on the floor harness. Below, in the control-room, the men took their posts. Hendron strapped himself under the glass- screen. He fixed his eyes to an optical instru- ment, across which were two hair lines. Very close to the point of in- tersection was a small star. The in- strument had »2-2 set so that when the star reached the center of the cross the discharge was to be started. About him was a battery of switches which were controlled by a master switch, and a lever that worked not unlike a rheostat over a series of re- sistances. His control-room crew were fastened in their places with their arms free to manipulate various levers. and quieter, CHAPTER XI Hendron turned to, the crossed hairs on the optical instrument and began to count. Every man in the room stiffened to attention. “One, two, three, four, five—” His hand went to the switch. The room was filled with a vibrating hum. “— Six, seven, eight, nine, ten—" The sound of the hum rose now to a feline shriek. *“—Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen—ready ! Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty —"” His hand moved to the instru- ment that was like a rheostat. His other hand was clenched, white- knuckled, on his straps, “Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty= four, twenty-five.” Simultaneously the crew shoved levers, and the rheostat moved up an inch. As he counted, signals flashed to the other ship. They must leave at the same moment, A roar, redoubling that which had resounded below the ship on the night of the attack, deafened all other sound. Tony thought: “We're leav- ing the earth!” A quivering of the ship that jarred the soul. An up- thrust on the feet. Hendron’s lips moving in counting that could no long- er be heard. The eyes of the men of the crew watching those lips so that when they reached fifty a second switch was touched, and the room was plunged into darkness relieved only by the dim rays of tiny bulbs over the instruments themselves. A slight change in the feeling of air pressure against the eardrums. An- other forward motion of the steady hand on the rheostat. An increase of the thrust against the feet, so that the whole body felt leaden. Augmen tation of the hideous din outside. Tony reached toward Eve, anl felt her hand stretching to meet his. The fiery trail of the second Ark rising skyward on its apex of scin- tillating vapor already was miles away. Below, on the earth, fires broke out —a blaze that denoted a forest burn ing. In the place where the ship had been, the two gigantic blocks of con crete must have crumbled and col lapsed. Far away to the south the President surrounded by and west. of the United States. his cabinet, looked up from’ the new toil engendered by the recommencing earthquakes, and saw. separated by an immeasurable dis tance, two comets moving away from the earth, The President looked rev- erently at the phenomenon; then he said: “My friends. the greatest liv: ing American has but now left his homeland.” In the passenger chamber the un- endurable noise rose in a steady crescendo until all those who lay there were pressed with ‘increasing torce upon the deck. Nauseated, ter- rified, overwhelmed, their senses foundered, and many of them lapsed into unconsciousness. Tony, who was still able to think, despite the awful acceleration of the ship, realized presently that the din was diminishing. From his rather scanty knowledge of physics, he tried to deduce what was happening. Either the Ark had reached air so thin that it did not carry sound waves, or else it was traveling so fast that its sound could not catch up with it. The speed of that diminution seemed to in- crease. ‘The chamber became quieter Tony reflected, in spite of the fearful torment he was under- going, that eventually the only sound which would afflict it would come from the breeches of the tubes in the control rooms, and the rooms them- selves would insulate that. Presently he realized that the ringing in his ears was louder than the noise made by the passage of the ship. Eve had relaxed the grip on his hand, but at that moment he felt a pressure. It was impossible to turn his head. He said, “Hello,” in an ordinary voice, and found he had been so deaf- ened that it was inaudible. He tried to lift his hand, but the acceleration of the ship was so great that it re- quired more effort than he was able yet to exert. Then he heard Eve's voice and realized that she was talk- ing very loudly: “Are you all right, Tony? Speak to me.” He shouted back: “I'm all right. How are the children?” He could see them lying stupefied, with eyes. wide open, “It’s horrible, isn’t it?’ Eve cried. { son Beta, “Yes, but the worst is over. We'll be accelerating for some time, | though.” Energy returned tc him. He strug- gled with the bonds that held his head, and presently spoke again to.| Eve. She was deathly pale. He looked at the other passengers. Many of them were still unconscious, most of them only partly aware of what was happening. #e tried to lift his head from the floor, but the upward pres- sure still overpowered him. Then the lights in the cabin went out and the screen was illuminated. Across one side was a glimpse of the trail which they were leaving, a bright hurtling yellow stream, but it was not that which held his attention. In the cen- ter of the screen was part of a curved disk. Tony realized that he was star- ing up at half of the northern hemi- sphere of the earth. Tony thought he could make out the outline of Alaska on the west coast of the United States, and he saw pinpoints of lights which identi- fled with the renewal of volcanic ac- tivity. The screen flashed. Another view appeared. Constellations of stars, such stars as he had never seen, blaz- ing furiously in the velvet blackness of the outer sky. He realized that he was looking at the view to be had from the side of the ship. The light went out again, and a third of the four. periscopes recorded its field. Again stars, but in their center and hanging away from them, as if in miraculous suspension, was a small round bright-red body which Tony recognized as Mars. Once again Eve pressed his hand, and Tony returned the pressure. In the control room, Hendron still sat in the sling with his hand on the rheostat. His eyes traveled to a me- ‘ter which showed their distance from the earth. Then they moved on to a chronometer. He had already deter- mined the time necessary for accelera- tion—one hundred and twelve minutes —and he could not shorten it. Tony felt that he had been lying on the floor for an eternity. His strength had come back, but they had been in- structed to remain on the floor until the speed of their ascent was stabil- ized. Minutes dragged. It was becom- ing possible to converse in the cham- ber, but few people cared to say any- thing. Many of them were sul. vio- lently ill Hendron operated the switch con- trolling the choice ot periscopes. In the midst of the glass screen, the earth now appeared as a round globe, its diameter in both directions clearly apparent. More than half of it lay in shadow, but the illuminated half was like a great relief map. The whole of the United States, part of Hurope and the north polar regions, were revealed to their gaze. In won- der they regarded the world that had been their home. They could see clearly the colossal changes which had been wrought upon it. The great in- land sea that occupied the Mississippi valley sparkled in the morning sun. The myriad volcanoes which had sprung into being along the western cordillera were for the most part hid- den under a pall of smoke and clouds. Hendron signaled a command to his crew, who had been standing un- buckled from their slings, at attention. They now seated themselves. When Hendron reached the first deck of passengers’ quarters, he found them standing together comparing notes on the sensations of space-fly- ing. Many of them were rubbing stiff arms and legs. Two or three, includ- ing Eliot James, were still lying on the padded deck in obvious discom- fort. They had turned on the lights. apparently more interested in their own condition than in the astounding vista of the Earth below. Tony had just opened the doors of the larder and was on the point of distributing the sandwiches. “1 assure you,” Hendron told Tony and Eve, and their fellow passengers, “that except for its monotony, the trip will offer you no further great discomfort until we reach Bronson Beta, when we shall be under the ne- cessity of repeating approximately the same maneuver. In something less than an hour we are going to turn the periscope on France in an effort to observe the departure of the French equivalent of our ships. We are at the moment trying to locate our sec- ond Ark, which took its course at a distance from us to avoid any chance of collision, and being between us and the sun, is now temporarily lost in the glare of the sun.” Hendron disappeared through the opening in the ceiling which contained the spiral staircase. Tony saw to the distribution of food and water. The ship rushed through the void so steadily that cups of milk, which Eve held to the lips of the chil- dren, scarcely spilled over. The pas- sengers found that they could move from floor to floor without great trou- ble, Fans distributed the air inside the - ship. Outside, there was vacuum against which the airlocks were sealed. The air of the ship, breathed and “re- stored,” was not actually fresh, al- though chemically it was perfectly breathable. The soft roar of the rock- et propulsion tubes fuddled the senses, The sun glared in a black sky studded with brilliant stars. To the right of the sun, the great glowing crescents of Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta loomed larger and larger. Eve sat with Tony as a peri- scope turned on them and displayed them on the screen. They could plain- ly see that Bronson Alpha was below and approaching the earth; Bronson Beta, slowly turning, was higher and much nearer the ship. “Do you see their relation?’ she sasked. “Between the Bronson Bodies?” said Tony. ‘“Aren’t they nearer together than they have ever been before?” “Much nearer; and as Father—and Professor Bronson—calculated. Bron- being much the smaller and was revolving about Bronson Alpha. The orbit was not a circle; it was a very long ellipse. Sometimes, therefore, this brought Bronson Beta much closer to Alpha than at other times. When they went around the sun, the enormous force of the sun’s attraction further distorted the orbit, and Bronson Beta probably is nearer lighter, Alpha. now than it ever was beore. Yoh. Also, notice it is at the point in its orbit which is more favorable for us.” “You mean for our landing on it?” asked Tony. “For that; and especially is it favor- 2 able to us, after we land—if we do,” amended Eve; and she gathered the: children to her. She sat between them, an arm about each, gazing at the screen, “You see, the sun had not surely ‘captured’ Bronson Beta and Bronson Alpha, They had arrived from some incalculable distance and they have rounded the sun, but, without further interference than the sun's attraction, they would retreat again and petals never reappear. “But on the course toward the sun, Alpha destroyed the moon, as we: know, and this had an effect upon. both Alpha and Bronson Beta, con-' trolled by Alpha. And now something even more profound is going to ‘hap- pen. Alpha will have contact with the world. That will destroy the earth and will send Bronson Alpha off in another path. One almost certain ef- fect of the catastrophe is that it will break Bronson Beta away from the dominating control of Bronson Alpha and leave Beta subject to the sun. That will provide a much more satis- factory orbit for us about olr sun.” “Us?” echoed Tony. *Us—if we get there,” said Eve; and she bent and kissed the children. At the end of an hour all the lights. in the passenger quarters were turned out, and the earth was again flashed on the screen. Its diminution in size was already startling; and the re- mains of Europe, stranded in a new ocean, looked like a child’s model flour- and-water map. A point of light showed suddenly, very bright, and as a second passed, it appeared to extend so that it stood away from the earth like a whitehot:; needle, : + The upshooting light curved, became: horizontal and shot parallel ' with earth, moving apparently ‘with such. speed that it seemed to have trav. ersed a measurable fraction of the Alps while they watched. Abruptly, then, the trail sigzagged ; it curved back toward the earth, and the doomed ship commenced to de- scend, impelled by its own motors; In another second there was a faint glow and then—only a luminous trail,’ which disappeared rapidly, like the pathway : of fire left by a meteor. Flashes rose and traveled on. Indi- cations were that ships of other na- tions had got safely away from the ruins of the earth and were follow- ing the American Space Ships. The implications of these sights transcended talk. Conversation soon ceased. Exhaustion, spiritual and physical, assailed the travelers. Gravity diminished steadily, and their habit of relying upon the attrac- tive force of the earth resulted in an increasing number of mishaps, some of them amusing and some of them painful. After what seemed like eons of time some one asked Tony for more food. Tony himself could not remember whether he was going to serve the fifth meal or the sixth, but he sprang to his feet with earnest willingness—promptly shot clear to the ceiling, against which he bumped his head. He fell back to the floor with a jar and rose laughing. The ceiling was also padded, so that he had not hurt himself. The sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, and when some one on the edge of the crowd asked that his sandwich be tossed, Tony flipped it toward him, only to see it pass high over the man’s head and entirely out of reach, and strike against the op- posite wall. The man himself stretched to catch the wrapped sand- wich, and sat down again rubbing his arm, saying that he had almost thrown his shoulder out of joint. People walked in an absurd man- ner, stepping high into the air as if they were dancers. Gestures were un- controllable, and it was unsafe to talk ‘excitedly for fear one would hit one's self in the face. For an hour the Space Ship's: pas- 'sengers watched silently as Bronson Alpha swept upon the scene, a gi- gantic body, weird, luminous and un- guessable, many times larger than the earth. It moved toward the earth with the relentless perceptibility of the hands of a large clock, and those who looked upon its awe-inspiring approach held their breaths. Inch by inch, as it seemed, the two bodies came closer together. there on the little earth were mil- , lions of scattered, demoralized human ' beings. | ful phenomenon in the skies. _ them the ground was rocking, the tides ' were rising, lava was bursting forth, | winds were blowing, oceans were boil- .ing, fires were catching, and Haman ' courage was facing complete frustra- They were watching this aw- tion. Above them the sky was filled , with this awful onrushing mass. Tony shuddered as he watched. Earth and Bronson Alpha were but a few moments apart. It seemed as if ' the continents below them were swim- | ming across the seas, as if the seas were hurling themselves upon the land; and presently they saw great cracks, in the abysses of which were fire, spread along the land, Into the air were lifted mighty whirls of steam. The nebulous at- , mosphere of Bronson Alpha touched the air of earth, and then the very earth bulged. Its shape altered be- fore their eyes. It became plastic. It was drawn out egg-shaped. The cracks girdled the globe. A great section of the earth itself lifted up and peeled away, leaping toward Bronson Alpha with an inconceivable force. The two planets struck. Decillions of tons of mass colliding in cosmic catastrophe. (Contjnued Next Week.) . Down Around® remote dry ° i i J i {
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers