Judge — December 1932 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

AND THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE WORLD WE LIVEIN... T SOUNDS incredible, but nevertheless it is true, If everybody in this world of ours vere six feet tall and a foot and a half wide a foot thick Cand that is making people a litle bigger than they usually are), then the whole of the human race (and according to the latest available statistics there are now pearly 2,000,000,000 descendants of the origi. nal Homo Sapiens and his wife) could packed into a box measuring half a mile in each direction. That, as I just said, sounds incredible, but if you don’t believe me, figure it out for yourself and you will find it to be correct. If we transported that box to the Grand Canyon of Arizona and balanced it neatly on the low stone wall that keeps people from breaking their necks when stunned by the in- credible beauty of that silent witness of the forces of Eternity, and then called little Noodle, the dachshund, and told him (the tiny beast is very intelligent and loves to oblige) to give the unwieldy contraption a slight push with his soft brown nose, there would be a moment of crunching and tipping as the wooden planks loosened stones and shrubs and trees on their downward path, and then a low and even softer bumpity-bumpity- bump and a sudden splash when the outer edges struck the banks of the Colorado River. Then silence and oblivion! ‘The human sardines in their mortuary chest would soon be forgotten. The Canyon would go on battling wind and air and sun and rain as it has done since it was created. The world would continue to run its even course through the uncharted heavens. The astronomers on distant and nearby planets would have no- ticed nothing out of the ordinary. A century fom now, a little mound, densely covered with vegetable matter, would perhaps indicate where humanity lay buried. And that would be all. one © Van Loon opens his epic story of Mother Earth—a book that will make an Olympian of its every reader, old and young; but Olympians chastened to humil- ity by what it so magnificently unfolds. ped of the 163 drawings Mr, Van Léon bimself bas ‘made for bis ck, 22 of them in full or—A good example, this,” of Van Loon's method of picturing the earth not as a simple surface, bat in three wen. -to those who join the Book-of-the- Month Club at this time .. . it costs nothing to belong and you do not have to take a book every month E suggest simply that you send the coupon below and get full information as to what the Book-of-the-Month Club does for book- readers. For instance, are you aware that as a member you are not obliged to take the specific book-of-the-month chosen by the judges? You may buy it or not, as you please, after reading the judges’ pre-publication report about it. Nor do you have to pay any fixed sum. You simply pay the regular retail price for such books as you decide to buy. What then is the advantage of joining? There are many: first, book-dividends; for every dollar its members spend on books they receive back on the average over 50% in the form of free books. Second, without a penny of expense, through the reports of the judges you are kept completely informed about all the important new books, so that you can choose among them with discrimination, instead of having to rely upon advertising and hearsay. There are several other advantages, not readily measurable in money, that cannot be outlined here for lack of space. Surely, within the next year, the distinguished judges of the Club will choose as the book-of-the-month or recommend as alternates, at least a few books that you will be very anxious to read and which you will buy anyway. Why not—by joining the Club—make sure you get these instead of missing them, which so often happens; get the really substantial advantages the Club affords (such as the book-dividends mentioned, if nothing else), and at the same time get a copy of VAN LOON’S GEOGRAPHY, free. BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB INC. 1371 386 Fourth Avenue. New York, N. Y. Please send me, without cost, a booklet outlining how the Book-of-the-! Mo: th Club rates. This request in- volves me in no obligation to subscribe to your service.