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Cosmic Tales, v. 2, issue 1, Summer 1939

Page 25

COSMIC TALES             25

up, making the human race more and more and more a thing of perfection and idealism, doing away with the squalid tenements, criminals, and all the other evils that filled the world he knew. Eventually man would reach out, away from his home planet, to other worlds, other galaxies, other universes....
Donar looked out of the great crystal port of the spaceship on which he was traveling, and smiled dreamily at the universe that stretched out and out until the eye refused to carry any concept of greater distances to the mind. The solar system had fallen under human rule, and expeditions were already under way to the nearest stars. At the thot of the childish times that had preceded this intensely scientific age, he smiled again. "They thot they were clever,I suppose," he thot, "and in their own stupid way, perhaps they were. It took them so long to learn that there are no real necessities for man except a measure of food to fill his stomach and some protection against the violence of weather. With the secret to atomic power, space travel, everything the human race has wanted, under their very noses, they occupied themselves with gathering up gold. Gold! Had it not been for that triply cursed metal, we would be a thousand years advanced. A, well, all that had to go to produce this!" With half-closed eyes, Donar continued to stare out at the heavens and muse about the wonders of his age.
The expedition was odd enuf in the human sense. They were queer beings, like huge blobs of protoplasm, like intelligent amoeba with more power than amoeba had ever possessed. They stood on the steps of a pastel tower and gazed up at the crumpled structures, and around at the wide avenues, now pitted and cracked, and broken. They had searched the whole planet in an endeavor to find some explanation for this apparently reasonless absence of the race which had built the cities and wonders they had seen. Mighty buildings that had once towered into the clouds, were slowly falling into ruins. Little, furry things ran the crevices and peered at the curious party with beady little eyes. Apparently there was nothing left of humanity. The leader of the expedition made a slight movement that might have been taken for a shrug, and the group returned to its ship. An instant later, it had left again. The little animals fled in terror as the thunder of the rocket blasts reached their ears. One of them hid under the robe of a giant statue -- the statue of a woman who held in her hand a torch, and in the other a book. A short time later the animal ran down the steps and jumped into the water, and the statue continued to stare out at the slowly receding seas.....

*****************

Eternity moved on, slow paced and heedless. The silver ships that had sped thru space, lay crumpled on the surfaces of the nine planets and many stars. The cities had gone down, and the oceans were frozen. There were no more mountains or rivers, and where the cities had been, were only rusty stains on the crust of the dead planet. A crimson sun moved slowly across the sky and seemed to echo, "Never anything as great as this....."
The End
_______________________

The Moon Artist 
(continued from pg 23)

see the picture. I must have a copy of it, made by an artist for my book." I held out my hands in a gesture of despairing futility. "It is impossible, no doubt you will not believe me, but the next day when I had time, I unlocked the door of that room, and went in by myself. And there was no picture on the wall. It was just a white, calcimined wall except for Whistler's mother in the lower left hand corner."
"Nothing but that?"
"Nothing. Perhaps I was
(continued pg 31)

Saving...

COSMIC TALES 25 up, making the human race more and more and more a thing of perfection and idealism, doing away with the squalid tenements, criminals, and all the other evils that filled the world he knew. Eventually man would reach out, away from his home planet, to other worlds, other galaxies, other universes.... Donar looked out of the great crystal port of the spaceship on which he was traveling, and smiled dreamily at the universe that stretched out and out until the eye refused to carry any concept of greater distances to the mind. The solar system had fallen under human rule, and expeditions were already under way to the nearest stars. At the thot of the childish times that had preceded this intensely scientific age, he smiled again. "They thot they were clever,I suppose," he thot, "and in their own stupid way, perhaps they were. It took them so long to learn that there are no real necessities for man except a measure of food to fill his stomach and some protection against the violence of weather. With the secret to atomic power, space travel, everything the human race has wanted, under their very noses, they occupied themselves with gathering up gold. Gold! Had it not been for that triply cursed metal, we would be a thousand years advanced. A, well, all that had to go to produce this!" With half-closed eyes, Donar continued to stare out at the heavens and muse about the wonders of his age. The expedition was odd enuf in the human sense. They were queer beings, like huge blobs of protoplasm, like intelligent amoeba with more power than amoeba had ever possessed. They stood on the steps of a pastel tower and gazed up at the crumpled structures, and around at the wide avenues, now pitted and cracked, and broken. They had searched the whole planet in an endeavor to find some explanation for this apparently reasonless absence of the race which had built the cities and wonders they had seen. Mighty buildings that had once towered into the clouds, were slowly falling into ruins. Little, furry things ran the crevices and peered at the curious party with beady little eyes. Apparently there was nothing left of humanity. The leader of the expedition made a slight movement that might have been taken for a shrug, and the group returned to its ship. An instant later, it had left again. The little animals fled in terror as the thunder of the rocket blasts reached their ears. One of them hid under the robe of a giant statue -- the statue of a woman who held in her hand a torch, and in the other a book. A short time later the animal ran down the steps and jumped into the water, and the statue continued to stare out at the slowly receding seas..... ***************** Eternity moved on, slow paced and heedless. The silver ships that had sped thru space, lay crumpled on the surfaces of the nine planets and many stars. The cities had gone down, and the oceans were frozen. There were no more mountains or rivers, and where the cities had been, were only rusty stains on the crust of the dead planet. A crimson sun moved slowly across the sky and seemed to echo, "Never anything as great as this....." The End _______________________ The Moon Artist (continued from pg 23) see the picture. I must have a copy of it, made by an artist for my book." I held out my hands in a gesture of despairing futility. "It is impossible, no doubt you will not believe me, but the next day when I had time, I unlocked the door of that room, and went in by myself. And there was no picture on the wall. It was just a white, calcimined wall except for Whistler's mother in the lower left hand corner." "Nothing but that?" "Nothing. Perhaps I was (continued pg 31)