History Lesson

No one could remember when the tribe had begun its long journey. The
land of great rolling plains that had been its first home was now no more
than a half-forgotten dream.
For many years Shann and his people had been fleeing through a country
of low hills and sparkling lakes, and now the mountains lay ahead. This
summer they must cross them to the southern lands. There was little time
to lose. The white terror that had come down from the Poles, grinding
continents to dust and freezing the very air before it, was less than a
day's march behind.

Shann wondered if the glaciers could climb the mountains ahead, and
within his heart he dared to kindle a little flame of hope. This might
prove a barrier against which even the remorseless ice would batter in
vain. In the southern lands of which the legends spoke, his people might
find refuge at last.
It took weeks to discover a pass through which the tribe and the
animals could travel. When midsummer came, they had camped in a lonely
valley where the air was thin and the stars shone with a brilliance no one
had ever seen before.
The summer was waning when Shann took his two sons and went ahead to
explore the way. For three days they climbed, and for three nights slept
as best they could on the freezing rocks, and on the fourth morning there
was nothing ahead but a gentle rise to a cairn of gray stones built by
other travelers, centuries ago.

Shann felt himself trembling, and not with cold, as they walked toward
the little pyramid of stones. His sons had fallen behind. No one spoke,
for too much was at stake. In a little while they would know if all their
hopes had been betrayed.
To east and west, the wall of mountains curved away as if embracing
the land beneath. Below lay endless miles of undulating plain, with a
great river swinging across it in tremendous loops. It was a fertile land;
one in which the tribe could raise crops knowing that there would be no
need to flee before the harvest came.
Then Shann lifted his eyes to the south, and saw the doom of all his
hopes. For there at the edge of the world glimmered that deadly light he
had seen so often to the north-the glint of ice below the horizon.
There was no way forward. Through all the years of flight, the
glaciers from the south had been advancing to meet them. Soon they would
be crushed beneath the moving walls of ice...

Southern glaciers did not reach the mountains until a generation
later. In that last summer the sons of Shann carried the sacred treasures
of the tribe to the lonely cairn overlooking the plain. The ice that had
once gleamed below the horizon was now almost at their feet. By spring it
would be splintering against the mountain walls.
No one understood the treasures now. They were from a past too distant
for the understanding of any man alive. Their origins were lost in the
mists that surrounded the Golden Age, and how they had come at last into
the possession of this wandering tribe was a story that now would never be
told. For it was the story of a civilization that had passed beyond
recall.

Once, all these pitiful relics had been treasured for some good
reason, and now they had become sacred though their meaning had long been
lost. The print in the old books had faded centuries ago though much of
the lettering was still visible-if there had been any to read it. But many
generations had passed since anyone had had a use for a set of
seven-figure logarithms, an atlas of the world, and the score of Sibelius'
Seventh Symphony printed, according to the flyleaf, by H. K. Chu and Sons,
at the City of Pekin in the year 2371 A.D.

The old books were placed reverently in the little crypt that had been
made to receive them. There followed a motley collection of fragments-gold
and platinum coins, a broken telephoto lens, a watch, a cold-light lamp, a
microphone, the cutter from an electric razor, some midget radio tubes,
the flotsam that had been left behind when the great tide of civilization
had ebbed forever.

All these treasures were carefully stowed away in their resting place.
Then came three more relics, the most sacred of all because the least
understood.
The first was a strangely shaped piece of metal, showing the
coloration of intense heat. It was, in its way, the most pathetic of all
these, symbols from the past, for it told of man's greatest achievement
and of the future he might have known. The mahogany stand on which it was
mounted bore a silver plate with the inscription:
Auxiliary Igniter from Starboard Jet Spaceship "Morning Star"
Earth-Moon, A.D. 1985
Next followed another miracle of the ancient science-a sphere of
transparent plastic with strangely shaped pieces of metal imbedded in it.
At its center was a tiny capsule of synthetic radio element, surrounded by
the converting screens that shifted its radiation far down the spectrum.
As long as the material remained active, the sphere would be a tiny radio
transmitter, broadcasting power in all directions. Only a few of these
spheres had ever been made.-They had been designed as perpetual beacons to
mark the orbits of the asteroids. But man had never reached the asteroids
and the beacons had never been used.

Last of all was a flat, circular tin, wide in comparison with its
depth. It was heavily sealed, and rattled when shaken. The tribal lore
predicted that disaster would follow if it was ever opened, and no one
knew that it held one of the great works of art of nearly a thousand years
before.
The work was finished. The two men rolled the stones back into place
and slowly began to descend the mountainside. Even to the last, man had
given some thought to the future and had tried to preserve something for
posterity.
That winter the great waves of ice began their first assault on the
mountains, attacking from north and south. The foothills were overwhelmed
in the first onslaught, and the glaciers ground them into dust. But the
mountains stood firm, and )When the summer came the ice retreated for a
while.
So, winter after winter, the battle continued, and the roar of the
avalanches, the grinding of rock and the explosions of splintering ice
filled the air with tumult. No war of man's had been fiercer than this,
and even man's battles had not quite engulfed the globe as this had done.

At last the tidal waves of ice began to subside and to creep slowly
down the flanks of the mountains they had never quite subdued. The valleys
and passes were still firmly in their grip. It was stalemate. The glaciers
had met their match, but their defeat was too late to be of any use to
man.
So the centuries passed, and presently there happened something that
must occur once at least in the history of every world in the universe, no
matter how remote and lonely it may be.
The ship from Venus came five thousand years too late, but its crew
knew nothing of this. While still many millions of miles away, the
telescopes had seen the great shroud of ice that made Earth the most
brilliant object in the sky next to the sun itself.

Here and there the dazzling sheet was marred by black specks that
revealed the presence of almost buried mountains. That was all. The
rolling oceans, the plains and forests, the deserts and lakes -all that
had been the world of man was sealed beneath the ice, perhaps forever.
The ship closed in to Earth and established an orbit less than a
thousand miles away. For five days it circled the planet, while cameras
recorded all that was left to see and a hundred instruments gathered
information that would give the Venusian scientists many years of work.

An actual landing was not intended. There seemed little purpose in it.
But on the sixth day the picture changed. A panoramic monitor, driven to
the limit of its amplification, detected the dying radiation of the
five-thousand-year-old beacon. Through all the centuries, it had been
sending out its signals with ever-failing strength as its radioactive
heart steadily weakened.
The monitor locked on the beacon frequency. In the control room, a
bell clamored for attention. A little later, the Venusian ship broke free
from its orbit and slanted down toward Earth, toward a range of mountains
that still towered proudly above the ice, and to a cairn of gray stones
that the years had scarcely touched... .

The great disk of the sun blazed fiercely in a sky no longer veiled
with mist, for the clouds that had once hidden Venus had now completely
gone. Whatever force had caused the change in the sun's radiation had
doomed one civilization, but had given birth to another. Less than five
thousand years before, the half-savage people of Venus had seen sun and
stars for the first time. Just as the science of Earth had begun with
astronomy, so had that of Venus, and on the warm, rich world that man had
never seen progress had been incredibly rapid.

Perhaps the Venusians had been lucky. They never knew the Dark Age
that held man enchained for a thousand years. They missed the long detour
into chemistry and mechanics but came at once to the more fundamental laws
of radiation physics. In the time that man had taken to progress from the
Pyramids to the rocket-propelled spaceship, the Venusians had passed from
the discovery of agriculture to antigravity itself-the ultimate secret
that man had never learned.
The warm ocean that still bore most of the young planet's life rolled
its breakers languidly against the sandy shore. So new was this continent
that the very sands were coarse and gritty. There had not yet been time
enough for the sea to wear them smooth.

The scientists lay half in the water, their beautiful reptilian bodies
gleaming in the sunlight. The greatest minds of Venus had gathered on this
shore from all the islands of the planet. What they were going to hear
they did not know, except that it concerned the Third World and the
mysterious race that had peopled it before the coming of the ice.
. The Historian was standing on the land, for the instruments he
wished to use had no love of water. By his side was a large machine which
attracted many curious glances from his colleagues. It was clearly
concerned with optics, for a lens system projected from it toward a screen
of white material a dozen yards away.
The Historian began to speak. Briefly he recapitulated what little had
been discovered concerning the Third Planet and its people.

He mentioned the centuries of fruitless research that had failed to
interpret a single word of the writings of Earth. The planet had been
inhabited by a race of great technical ability. That, at least, was proved
by the few pieces of machinery that had been found in the cairn upon the
mountain.

"We do not know why so advanced a civilization came to an end," he
observed. "Almost certainly, it had sufficient knowledge to survive an ice
Age. There must have been some other factor of which we know nothing.
Possibly disease or racial degeneration may have been responsible. It has
even been suggested that the tribal conflicts endemic to our own species
in prehistoric times may have continued on the Third Planet after the
coming of technology.

"Some philosophers maintain that knowledge of machinery does not
necessarily imply a high degree of civilization, and it is theoretically
possible to have wars in a society possessing mechanical power, flight,
and even radio. Such a conception is alien to our thoughts, but we must
admit its possibility. It would certainly account for the downfall of the
lost race.
"it has always been assumed that we should never know anything of the
physical form of the creatures who lived on Planet Three. For centuries
our artists have been depicting scenes from the history of the dead world,
peopling it with all manner of fantastic beings. Most of these creations
have resembled us more or less closely, though it has often been pointed
out that because we are reptiles it does not follow that all intelligent
life must necessarily be reptilian.
"We now know the answer to one of the most baffling problems of
history. At last, after hundreds of years of research, we have discovered
the exact form and nature of the ruling life on the Third Planet."

There was a murmur of astonishment from the assembled scientists. Some
were so taken aback that they disappeared for a while into the comfort of
the ocean, as all Venusians were apt to do in moments of stress. The
Historian waited until his colleagues reemerged into the element they so
disliked. He himself was quite comfortable, thanks to the tiny sprays that
were continually playing over his body. With their help he could live on
land for many hours before having to return to the ocean.
The excitement slowly subsided and the lecturer continued:
"One of the most puzzling of the objects found on Planet Three was a
flat metal container holding a great length of transparent plastic
material, perforated at the edges and wound tightly into a spool. This
transparent tape at first seemed quite featureless, but an examination
with the new subelectronic microscope has shown that this is not the case.
Along the surface of the material, invisible to our eyes but perfectly
clear under the correct radiation, are literally thousands of tiny
pictures. It is believed that they were imprinted on the material by some
chemical means, and have faded with the passage of time.

"These pictures apparently form a record of life as it was on the
Third Planet at the height of its civilization. They are not independent.
Consecutive pictures are almost identical, differing only in the detail of
movement. The purpose of such a record is obvious. It is only necessary to
project the scenes in rapid succession to give an illusion of continuous
movement. We have made a machine to do this, and I have here an exact
reproduction of the picture sequence.
"The scenes you are now going to witness take us back many thousands
of years, to the great days of our sister planet. They show a complex
civilization, many of whose activities we can only dimly understand. Life
seems to have been very violent and energetic, and much that you will see
is quite baffling.

"It is clear that the Third Planet was inhabited by a number of
different species, none of them reptilian. That is a blow to our pride,
but the conclusion is inescapable. The dominant type of life appears to
have been a two-armed biped. It walked upright and covered its body with
some flexible material, possibly for protection against the cold, since
even before the Ice Age the planet was at a much lower temperature than
our own world. But I will not try your patience any further. You will now
see the record of which I have been speaking."
A brilliant light flashed from the projector. There was a gentle
whirring, and on the screen appeared hundreds of strange beings moving
rather jerkily to and fro. The picture expanded to embrace one of the
creatures, and the scientists could see that the Historian's description
had been correct.
The creature possessed two eyes, set rather close together, but the
other facial adornments were a little obscure. There was a large orifice
in the lower portion of the head that was continually opening and closing.
Possibly it had something to do with the creature's breathing.

The scientists watched spellbound as the strange being became involved
in a series of fantastic adventures. There was an incredibly violent
conflict with another, slightly different creature. It seemed
certain that they must both be killed, but when it was all over
neither seemed any the worse.
Then came a furious drive over miles of country in a four wheeled
mechanical device which was capable of extraordinary feats of locomotion.
The ride ended in a city packed with other vehicles moving in all
directions at breathtaking speeds. No one was surprised to see two of the
machines meet head-on with devastating results.
After that, events became even more complicated. It was now quite
obvious that it would take many years of research to analyze and
understand all that was happening. It was also clear that the record was a
work of art, somewhat stylized, rather than an exact reproduction of life
as it actually had been on the Third Planet.

Most of the scientists felt themselves completely dazed when the
sequence of pictures came to an end. There was a final flurry of motion,
in which the creature that had been the center of interest became involved
in some tremendous but incomprehensible catastrophe. The picture
contracted to a circle, centered on the creature's head.
The last scene of all was an expanded view of its face, obviously
expressing some powerful emotion. But whether it was rage, grief,
defiance, resignation or some other feeling could not be guessed. The
picture vanished. For a moment some lettering appeared on the screen, then
it was all over.

For several minutes there was complete silence, save for the lapping
of the waves upon the sand. The scientists were too stunned to speak. The
fleeting glimpse of Earth's civilization had had a shattering effect on
their minds. Then little groups began to start talking together, first in
whispers and then more and more loudly as the implications of what they
had seen became clearer. Presently the Historian called for attention and
addressed the meeting again.
"We are now planning," he said, "a vast program of research to extract
all available knowledge from this record. Thousands of copies are being
made for distribution to all workers. You win appreciate the problems
involved. The psychologists in particular have an immense task confronting
them.

"But I do not doubt that we shall succeed. In another generation, who
can say what we may not have learned of this wonderful race? Before we
leave, let us look again at our remote cousins,

whose wisdom may have surpassed our own but of whom so little has
survived."
Once more the final picture flashed on the screen, motionless this
time, for the projector had been stopped. With something like awe, the
scientists gazed at the stiff figure from the past, while in turn the
little biped stared back at them with its characteristic expression of
arrogant bad temper.

For the rest of time it would symbolize the human race. The
psychologists of Venus would analyze its actions and watch its every
movement until they could reconstruct its mind. Thousands of books would
be written about it. Intricate philosophies would be contrived to account
for its behavior.
But all. this labor, all this research, would be utterly in vain.
Perhaps the proud and lonely figure on the screen was smiling sardonically
at the scientists who were starting on their age-long fruitless quest.

Its secret would be safe as long as the universe endured, for no one
now would ever read the lost language of Earth. Millions of times in the
ages to come those last few words would flash across the screen, and none
could ever guess their meaning:
............................A Walt Disney Production. :)

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Drawing with Pens

MATERIALS Every illustrator has his special predilections in the matter of materials, just as he has in the matter of methods. The purpose of this chapter is, therefore, rather to assist the choice of the student by limiting it than to choose for him. It would be advisable for him to become acquainted with the various materials that I may have occasion to mention (all of them are more or less employed by the prominent penmen), and a partiality for particular ones will soon develop itself. He is reminded, however, that it is easily possible to exaggerate the intrinsic values of pens and papers; in fact the beginner invariably expects too much from them. Of course, he should not use any but the best,—even Vierge could not make a good drawing with a bad pen,—but the artistic virtues of a particular instrument are not likely to disclose themselves in the rude scratchings of the beginner. He has to master it, to "break it in," ere he can discover of what excellent service it is capable. Pens The student will find that most of the steel pens made for artists have but a short period of usefulness. When new they are even more unresponsive than when they are old. At first they are disposed to give a hard, wiry line, then they grow sympathetic, and, finally, lose their temper, when they must be immediately thrown away. As a general rule, the more delicate points are better suited to the smooth surfaces, where they are not likely to get tripped up and "shaken" by the roughness in the paper. To begin with the smaller points, the "Gillott Crow-quill" is an excellent instrument. The normal thickness of its line is extremely small, but so beautifully is the nib made that it will respond vigorously to a big sweeping stroke. I say a "sweeping stroke," as its capacity is not to be taxed for uniformly big lines. An equally delicate point, which surpasses the crow-quill in range, is "Gillott's Mapping-pen." It is astonishing how large a line may be made with this instrument. It responds most nimbly to the demands made upon it, and in some respects reminds one of a brush. It has a short life, but it may be a merry one. Mr. Pennell makes mention of a pen, "Perry's Auto-Stylo," which seems to possess an even more wonderful capacity, but of this I cannot speak from experience. A coarser, but still a small point, is the "Gillott 192"—a good pen with a fairly large range; and, for any others than the smooth papers, a pen smaller than this will probably be found undesirable for general use. A shade bigger than this is the "Gillott 303," a very good average size. Neither of these two possesses the sensitiveness of those previously mentioned, but for work demanding more or less uniformity of line they will be found more satisfactory. The smaller points are liable to lead one into the quagmire of finicalness. When we get beyond the next in size, the "Gillott 404," there is nothing about the coarse steel points to especially commend them for artistic use. They are usually stupid, unreliable affairs, whose really valuable existence is about fifteen working minutes. For decorative drawing the ordinary commercial "stub" will be found a very satisfactory instrument. Of course one may use several sizes of pens in the same drawing, and it is often necessary to do so.
Before leaving the steel pens, the "double-line pen" may be mentioned, though it has only a limited sphere. It is a two-pointed arrangement, practically two pens in one, by means of which parallel lines may be made with one stroke. Rather interesting effects can be obtained with it, but on the whole it is most valuable as a curiosity. Though somewhat out of fashion for general use, the quill of our fathers is favored by many illustrators. It is splendidly adapted for broad, vigorous rendering of foreground effects, and is almost dangerously easy to handle. Reed pens, which have somewhat similar virtues, are now little employed, and cannot be bought. They have to be cut from the natural reed, and used while fresh. For many uses in decorative drawing one of the most satisfactory instruments is the glass pen, which gives an absolutely uniform line. The point being really the end of a thin tube, the stroke may be made in any direction, a most unique characteristic in a pen. It has, however, the disadvantages of being friable and expensive; and, as it needs to be kept clean, the patent water-proof ink should not be used with it unless absolutely necessary. A flat piece of cork or rubber should be placed inside the ink-bottle when this pen is used, otherwise it is liable to be smashed by striking the bottom of the bottle. The faculty possessed by the Japanese brush of retaining its point renders it also available for use as a pen, and it is often so employed. Inks In drawing for reproduction, the best ink is that which is blackest and least shiny. Until a few years ago it was the custom of penmen to grind their India ink themselves; but, besides the difficulty of always ensuring the proper consistency, it was a cumbersome method, and is now little resorted to, especially as numerous excellent prepared inks are ready to hand. The better known of these prepared inks are, "Higgins' American" (general and waterproof), Bourgeois' "Encre de Chine Liquide," "Carter's," "Winsor & Newton's," and "Rowney's." Higgins' and Carter's have the extrinsic advantages of being put up in bottles which do not tip over on the slightest provocation, and of being furnished with stoppers which can be handled without smearing the fingers. Otherwise, they cannot be said to possess superiority over the others, certainly not over the "Encre de Chine Liquide." Should the student have occasion to draw over salt-prints he will find it wise to use waterproof ink, as the bleaching acid which is used to fade the photographic image may otherwise cause the ink to run. Papers Bristol-board is probably the most popular of all surfaces for pen drawing. It is certainly that most approved by the process engraver, whose point of view in such a matter, though a purely mechanical one, is worthy of consideration. It has a perfectly smooth surface, somewhat difficult to erase from with rubber, and which had better be scratched with a knife when any considerable erasure is necessary. As the cheap boards are merely a padding veneered on either side with a thin coating of smooth paper, little scraping is required to develop a fuzzy surface upon which it is impossible to work. Only the best board, such as Reynolds', therefore, should be used. Bristol-board can be procured in sheets of various thicknesses as well as in blocks. Whatman's "hot-pressed" paper affords another excellent surface and possesses some advantages over the Bristol-board. It comes in sheets of various sizes, which may be either tacked down on a board or else "stretched." Tacking will be satisfactory enough if the drawing is small and is to be completed in a few hours; otherwise the paper is sure to "hump up," especially if the weather be damp. The process of stretching is as follows: Fold up the edges of the sheet all around, forming a margin about an inch wide. After moistening the paper thoroughly with a damp sponge, cover the under side of this turned-up margin with photographic paste or strong mucilage. During this operation the sheet will have softened and "humped up," and will admit of stretching. Now turn down the adhesive margin and press it firmly with the fingers, stretching the paper gently at the same time. As this essential part of the process must be performed quickly, an assistant is requisite when the sheet is large. Care should be taken that the paper is not strained too much, as it is then likely to burst when it again contracts.

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