The Normal Record. February 1898

              THE NORMAL RECORD.
3
stantlated by observation and calculation, that
a new comet that had been steadily growing
brighter for nearly a year was directing its
course straight for the earth.
It is one thing to die when the race of life has
been run with honor and success, but it is quite
another to die in the midst of ambitious endeavor
to make the most of the time allotted to human
existence. How hard it seemed to the great
mass of human beings to whom the dread news
was flashed over the whole earth, that now in
this era of human progress, when man had
achieved so much to make life worth living,
when all disease and human ills had been vanquished, and happiness was a reality instead of
an ideal, that he should be so ruthlessly destroyed. It seemed as if Mother Nature had
concluded to cease her partiality to man, and
serve him as she did the rest of her composing
atoms, making him directly subject to the irre-
sistable lawTs of sudden mutation.
When the earth swings smoothly along in its
orbit, man is apt to feel secure, and only wakes
from this feeling when he contemplates the
possibility of some wild meteoric sun crashing its
erratic way amongst the more reasonable spheres
that circle and whirl throughout the known
universe.
With feverish excitement, great crowds gathered where the latest news could be had, and
forgot employment, forgot home forgot friends,
lovers, obligation, in the all-absorbing desire of
life. "How cruel, how cruel," some moaned.
Others, indeed most people, looked vacantly at
each other, too stupid to recognize even dear
ones. Indian summer began early, and was
especially sultry. The long, hot days seemed
never to end, and the nights brought no surcease from the oppressive heat. Fresh terror
was lent to the stifling nights by the glare of the
ever-nearing fiery ball that came so remorsely
on. People in the tropics began to crowd to the
temperate zones, and, after a few days consultation among the greatest scientists, it was decided that in order to exist as long as possible
on the earth, it would be necessary to follow the
edge of the ice as it  melted toward the Poles.
Accordingly all means of aerial and terrestrial
travel were pressed into service, and the great
masses of humanity began an orderly emigration
for the cooler regions where life could be made
bearable for a longer period than was possible
by remaining as they were. The days grew
hotter and more oppressive, and the gap between
the receding people became wider. The great
ice fields of the North and South were steadily
decreasing-, and now there was but little difference between the day and night, since the light
from the swiftly approaching meteor was daily
growing brighter. It was a weird light, and
showed the masses of terror stricken humanity
that nightly stood with ghastly upturned faces
looking fearfully at their approaching doom.
By its light many terrible scenes of suffering
and death were viewed by a party who traversed aerially the great extent of scorching
territory dividing the two ice fields. Great
herds of wild animals fled here and there, or
cowered beneath some mocking shade, as they
gasped out the last breath in awful dying convulsion. Wide plains and mighty mountains *
burned fiercely by day and night, the fires being
the result of spontaneous combustion. By its
lurid light w-as seen stagnant pools, seething
with the dying inhabitants, where once great
lakes were lying. Tiny streams marked the
course of mighty rivers, and from great swamps
arose thick vaporous clouds that ascended high
in the air. No rain reached the parched earth,
although great storms raged high in the air, but
the drops were evaporated long before striking
the earth.
The day was at last calculated when the awful
crash should come, but long before that day it
was averred that all animal life would have
perished from the excessive heat. A panic
seized the hitherto controllable people, and insanity run rampant among the poor mortals so
soon to be annihilated, All reasoning by the
more philosophic or stoical was to no avail.
Suicides became so frequent that the methods
of disposing of dead bodies could not be employed, and the old and young, the haggard
and the beautiful lay festering in the sun, with
none to care for them. Sometimes a wild-eyed
maniac would lay to the right and left with some
weapon, killing many before  he was dispatched