Amazing Stories, Vol. 3, No. 2 — page 61: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

156 Nor can one Martian force his thoughts upon another if the latter does not want to ‘listen.’ He sunply shuts the other out, just as you can shut out your friend’s voice if you do not care to listen to him. You ‘tune’ his voice out by concentrating real hard on a subject, with the result that you are not conscious of what he is talking about. The same is the case with the Martian. “On the other hand, if the Martian does not want to have anyone ‘listen’ to his thoughts, he simply pushes the plates away from his temples, when, of course, ne thought transmission can take place. “But, as usual, I get ahead of myself. I believe that I told you last night how we had taken.an excursion over the mighty Mars canals with our host, the Planet Ruler, and how we had been shown the machines which move the waters in these miraculous canals. After the inspection our host took us back to the executive palace and once more we were seated in our transpar- ent chairs. ‘ “Our host also resumed his transparent chair in front of his desk, which, as I mentioned yesterday, was flat and transparent, while on top 20 transparent tos rods, curved like goosenecks, were mounted in two semi- circles. Qur host sitting in front of the desk formed the center of one of the semi-circles, in such a manner that one gooseneck was as far away from him as he was from the other. “The atigust ruler hatdly sat down when a 10-foot transparent tos rod which was mounted on the desk suddenly gave out a pleasant but penetrating chime-like sound. Our host immediately assumed an exceedingly grave manner and motioned us to pay close attention. “We then witnessed a most astounding procedure. “The ruler of the Planet Mars placed his finger upon a black button-like contrivance in front of him and instantly the transparent gooseneck tos rod in front of the button changed its color and became almost milky white. Simultaneously its upper sharp point began to | glow in a bluish white color and a faint discharge, not unlike tobacco smoke, struck our host squarely in the face. This discharge was unlike any electrical high ten- sion phenomenon we had ever witnessed, for it was transparent and it did not make the slightest sound. Moreover, it seemed to constantly undergo changes ; for a few seconds the stream would be bluish white, quickly to change to a pinkish color during the next moment. Then again it would appear slightly violet One moment it would spread out, the next it would look like a single beam of light. Altogether it was the mos: singular, astonishing phenomenon we had ever seen. “But this was not the most wonderful part, for when our eyes were directed upon our host’s face, another surprise awaited us. His expression was con- tinually changing; sometimes he would smile, some- times he would look very severe. At other times me me=. would nod as if he was giving his approval 0-3 thing ; then again he would sway his head slightly fro one side to the other, but at all times while we were watching him we could not rid ourselves of the idea that he was ‘reading’ something. : ae “Indeed, as we were to find out later, this was pre- cisely what he was doing. In other words, we were e (To be contin mae Pes wae cata witnessing how the Ruler of the Planet Mars was ‘reading’ his morning ‘correspondence!’ “While we were still marveling, the gooseneck stopped its discharge—the ruler had read the first ‘letter.’ : “We were to see immediately how he answered it. He simply touched a red button in front of the black one, which he had just released, and by his demeanor we did not find it difficult to understand that he was transmitting his thoughts pertaining to the ‘letter’ just received, to one of his secretaries. He ‘dictated’ for a few minutes and when he had finished he pressed upon the second black button in front of the second goose neck—he was now ‘reading’ his second letter. “For an hour or more he thus attended to his ‘cor- respondence,’ never slacking, never resting a minute. Whatever the qualities of a Martian ruler are, it is certain that he must be energetic to the utmost, as well as a quick worker. Of course, we had no inkling of what was going on; we were to learn the details later. “Briefly they aré as follows: The Planet Mars is divided into 10 equal ‘zones,’ each administered by a ‘Zone President.’ These ten officials, scattered over the planet at different points, are directly responsible for the welfare of their zone and report to the Planet ' Ruler once each day at a certain predetermined time. “As the most vital question on Mars is invariably the supply of water, nine-tenths of the Planet Ruler’s ‘correspondence’ is on this subject. So strenuous is the battle for existence on Mars that the inhabitants of the planet themselves are always considered after the water supply, never before it. If the Zone President's report has been prepared by him, he sits down in front of his desk, similar to the one described, except that it has fewer goosenecks than that of the Ruler. When he presses the red button in front of him his thoughts are immediately transmitted through a cable to the executive capitol and are received by the Planet Ruler. I described a few thinutes ago the manner, by which the message is received by him. Simultaneously while the Ruler receives his message a record of it is made by one of his secretaries. Connected to the tall tos rod on the Ruler’s desk, which is used to receive the trans- mitted thought waves, is a sensitive recording mechan-_ ism. This latter is in charge of a secretary and works as follows: A thin metallic ribbon of the thickness epee tissue paper unrolls slowly in front of a sharp stylus. The thought waves acting upon an amplifying syste operate this stylus, which in turn engraves a cont ous wave line o1 line is perfectly legible and a Martian can read it a: well as you can read an electric ticker tape. incoming as well as outgoing ‘correspondence’ is always” recorded, so it can be readily looked up should occasio: arise. Each tape is carefully labeled and stored awa: in the archives of the capital and, being of metal, i will last practically forever. ee “But I note by my chronometer that the ti and in a few seconds the telegraphone wire -tadiomatic on the moon will be full to capacity must cut off short. Au revoir, dear boy, and pl dreams till to-morrow = os ued next month) Sr ose Sr RDP Se nee alent