Life in a Thousand Worlds

by W. S. Harris

Brief.

One of the medium sized worlds that revolve around Alcyone sustains the shortest lived human beings of our universe. It is seldom that any of the creatures reach more than four years of age according to our standards of time. They are nearly as large as we and relatively much lighter in weight. All the periods of physical growth are correspondingly decreased. Children walk four or five weeks after birth, and are capable of receiving regular instruction at the age of five months.

Strange as it may seem, this sphere, which for convenience we will call Brief, revolves very slowly on its axis, so that our world makes fifteen times as many revolutions as this planet.

It requires but little arithmetic to figure out that the people of Brief do not see the sun rise very often. When it does appear in the morning sky, all the public signals blow and the people appear in one or another of their places of worship. This beautiful custom has been in practice for over three thousand years. The worship is not sun worship, but a genuine service of thanksgiving to Him who ruleth over the sun and supplies it with fuel to burn. It appears that on all worlds everything is regulated in accordance with the length of human life. On this world, of Brief all vegetables mature in periods so short that one marvels when he hears it. Think of cereals reaching maturity in seven or eight of our days, or during one day of Brief. Early in the morning certain crops are planted and are harvested at night. Two or more days are required for maturing other crops. Actually the people of Brief raise their crops with less labor than is required amongst us.

If you were permitted to look upon the public and private life of this incredible world, your first sensation would be dizziness, not to mention the weirdness of all sights that would confront you at every turn. People would seem to be in a mad rush, and it would appear that all business is done with insane rapidity.

Furrows of care and trouble begin to deepen on the faces of these Briefites as they approach an age of what we would call three years, and if by lease of strength they pass on toward an age of four years, it is but an evidence of their exceptional vitality. It seems to be true that the experiences of a long life of sixty or eighty years is crowded into a narrow compass of four years by a miracle of spheres not comprehended by finite minds.

No doubt a detailed description of this whirling and dashing life would be of interest to us slow, deliberate creatures. But I can give only a passing glimpse.

JOURNALISM.

Things happen in such quick succession that the news is hustled out at all hours of the day and night; not on sheets of paper, but through automatic news-receivers, machines somewhat akin to our telegraph instruments.

The state supplies each home with an automatic news-receiver. Thus a record is kept in each home of all messages received so that they can be read at leisure. To speak in a manner more easily understood, I will say that the news is telegraphed to each home as soon as possible after the events transpire. But compared to our customs, the news is very scarce. There being no competition, no time or space is required for sensational trash. Thus, if nothing of importance occurs, nothing need be transmitted. The official news-censors decide as to the relative importance of occurrences. There need not be a certain amount of news telegraphed each hour. The government verifies, as much as possible, all reports before they are transmitted. There are indeed some advantages in the government being in constant touch with each home under its care. The advertising department pays nearly all expenses of this whole system of journalism. Announcements for private gain are paid at a regular rate. It costs more to advertise at certain periods than at other times, all regulated by the customs of the people.