THE END OF THE WORLD
Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer, in his story, “The End of the World,” gives this graphic description of the results of a collision between a Comet and our Earth:
In Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, New York and Chicago—in all the great capitals of the world, in all the cities, in all the villages—the frightened people wandered out of doors, as one sees ants run about when their ant-hills are disturbed. All the affairs of every-day life were forgotten.
All human projects were at a standstill. People seemed to have lost interest in all their affairs. They were in a state of demoralization—a dejection more abject even than that which is produced by sea-sickness.
All places of worship had been crowded on that memorable day when it was seen that a collision with a Comet had become inevitable.
In Paris the crowds in the churches were so great that people could no longer get near Notre Dame, the Madeleine and the other churches. Within the churches, vast congregations of worshippers were on their knees praying to God on High. The churches rang with the sounds of supplication, but no other sound was heard. The great church organs and the bells in the steeples were hushed.
In the streets, on the avenues, in the public squares, there was the same dread silence. Nothing was bought or sold. No newspapers were hawked about.
The only vehicles seen on the streets were funeral hearses carrying to the cemeteries the bodies of the first victims of the Comet. Of these there were already many. They were people who had died from fright and from heart disease.
With what anxiety everyone waited for the night!
Never, perhaps, was there a more beautiful sunset. Never a clearer sky. The sun seemed to dip into a sea of red and gold.