: 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.)
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