DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Horizons, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, October 1940

Transcribe
Translate

Horizons, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, October 1940

Page 9

HORIZONS
EVOLUTION -- MAYBE

     "Yes," I answered shortly, eyeing the walking baloon of a man with scornful eyes.
     He stared at me for some time, then finally seemed to come to a conclusion. "It is no use my trying to impress your mind with the facts," he ventured at length, "you mind is still too undeveloped to receive telepathic messages. I shall have to use other methods." Having come to a conclusion he placed his hand into a concealed pocket of his skin-tight suit and extracted a long metal strip and handed it to me.
     It was of some unknown substance, about nine inches long and was marked off with thin white lines across its surface at intervals of about 3-4 of an inch. Each line bore a symbol beside it, which seemed to indicate the number of the line. In answer to his unspoken question I said, "This is probably a ruler or measure, each line being a grade higher than the other." I placed my finger upon the ruler and drew it from one end to the other.
     "Exactly," he almost shouted in triumph. "But as you do not understand Martian symbols you drew your finger the wrong way. It is as if you placed your finger on an English foot-rule and drew it backward from 12" to 1"."
     "That's all very well," I began, "but what has that to do with evolution?"
     "Everything. Now, your theory of evolution is from protoplasm to Man, is it not?" I agreed that this was the base of the matter, more or less.
     "Very well, why does that not happen today?" he asked.
     "Very simple; since that time when evolution was only beginning the earth has cooled to a very great extent; the atmosphere has--"
     "And we will take it that at a given time, when the earth was sufficiently cooled, evolution stopped and gave way to progress. That all forms of life stood still, evolved no further in form, but man, in his form, began to progress instead of developing into something else," Taztos interrupted.
     "But what could man develope into?" I asked. "There is no higher form of life."
     For a few moments my companion eyed me with his protruding eyes, then finally he sank back into the chair, and made himself confortable, preparing to tell me the following. With the air of a grown up telling a child a story, he began.

     "In the year 103 of the Federated Government of the North, which was after a very great period of strife upon our planet, it was decided that various political prisoners and their families should be exiled to earth. At that time and even to this period earth was considered a bad spot for a Martian. No Martian had ever entered the atmosphere of earth and lived to tell the tale. However, the prisoners were taken to earth and left there. Where, it is not exactly known. There were over 100,000 members of this community. They had with them a radio set by which they could keep in communication with Mars; not that the Federated Government allowed this, but one of their followers smuggled one on board the space ship to them. During the time they were on the planet they made extensive explorations of its surface, and relayed to the mother planet that there was no life on the earth except themselves and huge reptilian monsters.
     "All went well for a time with the settlers. They formed a colony on the spot which is now the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, my friend, it was called Mu. As I said, all went well for a while until the people of this growing colony began to suffer a terrible desease. The effects of the planet earth were taking them further and futher back along the steps of evolution. Year after year the younger members of the colony saw their parents and the older members of the colony become hideously muscular; then degenerate to beasts. When they reached this stage they were transported to another continent so that they would not have to suffer the sight of their friends, as they finally vanished into pieces of protoplasm and soaked into the ground.
     "You know the fate of Mu or Atlantis; the destroying of this was the final straw. All records of the flight from Mars were destroyed and the survivors from the island who were the highest on the evolutionary scale of the descendants of

Saving...

HORIZONS EVOLUTION -- MAYBE "Yes," I answered shortly, eyeing the walking baloon of a man with scornful eyes. He stared at me for some time, then finally seemed to come to a conclusion. "It is no use my trying to impress your mind with the facts," he ventured at length, "you mind is still too undeveloped to receive telepathic messages. I shall have to use other methods." Having come to a conclusion he placed his hand into a concealed pocket of his skin-tight suit and extracted a long metal strip and handed it to me. It was of some unknown substance, about nine inches long and was marked off with thin white lines across its surface at intervals of about 3-4 of an inch. Each line bore a symbol beside it, which seemed to indicate the number of the line. In answer to his unspoken question I said, "This is probably a ruler or measure, each line being a grade higher than the other." I placed my finger upon the ruler and drew it from one end to the other. "Exactly," he almost shouted in triumph. "But as you do not understand Martian symbols you drew your finger the wrong way. It is as if you placed your finger on an English foot-rule and drew it backward from 12" to 1"." "That's all very well," I began, "but what has that to do with evolution?" "Everything. Now, your theory of evolution is from protoplasm to Man, is it not?" I agreed that this was the base of the matter, more or less. "Very well, why does that not happen today?" he asked. "Very simple; since that time when evolution was only beginning the earth has cooled to a very great extent; the atmosphere has--" "And we will take it that at a given time, when the earth was sufficiently cooled, evolution stopped and gave way to progress. That all forms of life stood still, evolved no further in form, but man, in his form, began to progress instead of developing into something else," Taztos interrupted. "But what could man develope into?" I asked. "There is no higher form of life." For a few moments my companion eyed me with his protruding eyes, then finally he sank back into the chair, and made himself confortable, preparing to tell me the following. With the air of a grown up telling a child a story, he began. "In the year 103 of the Federated Government of the North, which was after a very great period of strife upon our planet, it was decided that various political prisoners and their families should be exiled to earth. At that time and even to this period earth was considered a bad spot for a Martian. No Martian had ever entered the atmosphere of earth and lived to tell the tale. However, the prisoners were taken to earth and left there. Where, it is not exactly known. There were over 100,000 members of this community. They had with them a radio set by which they could keep in communication with Mars; not that the Federated Government allowed this, but one of their followers smuggled one on board the space ship to them. During the time they were on the planet they made extensive explorations of its surface, and relayed to the mother planet that there was no life on the earth except themselves and huge reptilian monsters. "All went well for a time with the settlers. They formed a colony on the spot which is now the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, my friend, it was called Mu. As I said, all went well for a while until the people of this growing colony began to suffer a terrible desease. The effects of the planet earth were taking them further and futher back along the steps of evolution. Year after year the younger members of the colony saw their parents and the older members of the colony become hideously muscular; then degenerate to beasts. When they reached this stage they were transported to another continent so that they would not have to suffer the sight of their friends, as they finally vanished into pieces of protoplasm and soaked into the ground. "You know the fate of Mu or Atlantis; the destroying of this was the final straw. All records of the flight from Mars were destroyed and the survivors from the island who were the highest on the evolutionary scale of the descendants of