Life in a Thousand Worlds/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII.
Triumphant Feat of Orion.
S I continued ranging among the planets of the constellation of Orion, I felt an indescribable desire to pause at a very small orb which revolves around Saiph, a star of the third magnitude.
Here I found, to my surprise, a gem of a world which I will call Holen. It is five hundred miles in diameter, and inhabited by a refined race of human beings, radically different from us in physical contour, but remarkably similar to us in their mental aspirations.
As a race they greatly excel us in mechanical engineering. Many evidences of their skill might be given, but we will be content to give a description of their monumental engineering feat.
Long ages ago Holen had cooled to the center, and it became the ruling passion of her most intelligent inhabitants to communicate from one side of the globe to the other through an opening of five hundred miles almost directly through the center of their earth, or more accurately speaking, through the center of gravity.
After forty-five hundred years of experimenting the marvelous feat was accomplished.
Of all the worlds in the constellation of Orion, large or small, Holen is the only one that has succeeded in this astounding feat, although it has been and is being tried on more than a dozen worlds.
This wonderful opening through Holen's center of gravity is lined with sections of ribbed metal which cost the governments fabulous sums. This vast tube was finished thirteen hundred years ago according to our time.
Many lives were sacrificed in the hazardous work of tunneling. Were it not for the ribbed metal which afforded protection with its shelving flanges, the tube could never have been finished.
At the present time the tube is used
The Gravity-Car of Holen.
for commercial purposes and for passenger traffic. Air tight cars of special design are used, and only one car is allowed in the tube at one time.
You cannot imagine the frightful velocity of the ride, but the passenger is not as conscious of this as you might think. The first fifty miles of the descent is controlled by the exterior or surface engines. The speed is gradually increased until it reaches that of the falling body. Then the motorman releases the wizard car and the speed is steady and terrible until the car dashes past the center of gravity, after which the speed slackens at a regular rate. The car of its own momentum forces its way far toward the opposite surface of their earth.
Just as the carriage comes to a stop, the engineer or motorman, as we would call him, pulls his lever, thereby fastening the car to the ribbed side of the tube. At once a signal is given and the long, thin but strong rope descends to draw the carriage to the surface.
A perfect system of communication is established from one end of the ponderous tube to the other. It frequently happens when an attempt is made to fasten the car that the clamps fail to work and consequently the carriage commences its second journey toward the center. Another effort is made to hold the carriage when it again comes to a stop; but if this is not successful, then comes the most peculiar experience of all. The carriage of its own momentum continues dashing backward and forward until it comes to rest at the center of gravity. Then the engineer, by communicating with the surface, gets the longest stretch of rope and is drawn two hundred and fifty miles to the surface.
This world has no atmosphere and life is not sustained by breathing, neither by the process found on the Moon.
The inhabitants get their sustenance from the soil with which they must be connected, directly or indirectly over one-half the time, or they will suffer in a manner similar to us when we are suffocating.
From this faint glimpse of their life, it can be seen that the people of Holen in their habits are totally incongruous to all our conceptions, and if one of them were to make a visit to our world, everything he would here see would appear just as ridiculous and unthinkable to him as the things on their globe did to me.
As I surveyed this world, everything evidenced the fact that these people are born engineers. Our Eiffel Tower and Ferris Wheel would be mere playthings compared with the sky-scraping structures that adorn the various parts of this little world. It appears that the international mind runs in this one direction more than in any other, and while they surpass us in this respect, they are inferior to us in the limitless field of science and philosophy as well as in the variety of manufacturing plants.
In their religion, the Holenites have developed to a high degree. They have no sacred book akin to our Bible. Their whole authority comes from the lips of the Divine Family, as we would term it. This family serves for religion the same purpose as the Royal Family does for the civil realm in some countries of our world. The Divine Family are genuinely descended from their sacred ancestors who were, by a visible show of omnipotent power, appointed and consecrated to the sacred work of dispensing truth and officiating in all sacraments. The ordination of all the ministers of Holen must be held by a member of this Divine Family. By reason of this one source of authority, there is, therefore, no confliction of creeds. The great battle of the Church is with the several infidel organizations that give no heed to the genuine religion.
This Sacred Family received a code of laws which they have held from the beginning and, strange to say, no one is allowed to copy these laws in written or printed form. To do so is a type of blasphemy for which a severe penalty is imposed. Some of the infidel organizations find delight to print all or a part of these laws and scatter them secretly among the people. Such documents fall with as much pain on the premises of a believer as oaths do in our world on the ear of a delicately trained soul.
If an infidel wishes to insult a godly pilgrim, he can do it no more effectively than by secretly fastening to the believer's residence a piece of material on which is inscribed one or more of these sacred laws.
Every believer is required to commit to memory this code of laws by hearing them from the lips of the minister. It is therefore necessary to keep in constant touch with the church service so as to be a continual hearer of these laws, a part of which is repeated every worship day.
The minister does not preach in the same sense that we understand preaching. His work comes nearer filling the office of a priest under the old Jewish church. There is much more form and ceremony than is found in our system under the Mediator, Jesus Christ.
The civil law has absolutely nothing to say on the marriage question. All this is held in the domain of the Church. In truth, the Divine Family has always regulated this question. If the legality of a marriage is called in question, all that the civil authorities try to determine is whether the marriage ceremony was performed in accordance with the laws of the Divine Family. If this point can be established, the marriage is declared legal; if not, it is declared to be null and void. This one subject of matrimony has caused more friction between the Church and the infidels than all other issues combined. The infidels are bitterly opposed to take their marriage vows before the minister, yet this must be done to make their marriage legal. Divorce laws are unknown, although, in rare cases, papers of separation are granted by authority and under seal of the Divine Family.
The religious devotees of Holen look forward to a happier existence when their mortal life is ended. Their ideas of this future life are quite similar to our cherished ideas of Heaven.
In their moral life they have reached a higher plane than we. This is due to the fact that the Divine Family wield an influence in the civil realm that cannot be broken.