This document, having been signed by the Governor, became law, and
thousands of people who were about to leave town for their
vacation were held up at the railway stations. Nature was declared
under martial law. There were many who held that the Act, while
admirable in principle, did not go far enough in practice. For
instance, it was argued, the detestable principle of fermentation
was due in great part to the influence of the sun upon vegetable
matter; and it was suggested that this heavenly body should be
abolished. Others, pointing out that this was a matter that would
take some time, advanced the theory that large tracts of open
country should be shielded from the sun's rays by vast tents or
awnings. Bishop Chuff, with his customary perspicacity, made it
plain that one of the chief causes of temptation was hot weather,
which causes immoderate thirst. In order to lessen the amount of
thirst in the population he suggested that it might be feasible to
shift the axis of the earth, so that the climate of the United
States would become perceptibly cooler and the torrid zone would
be transferred to the area of the North Pole. This would have the
supreme advantage of melting all the northern ice-cap and
providing the temperate belts with a new supply of fresh water. It
would be quite easy (the Bishop insisted) to tilt the earth on its
axis if everything heavy on the surface of the United States were
moved up to Hudson's Bay. Accordingly he began to make
arrangements to have the complete files of the Congressional
Record moved to the far north in endless freight trains.

Dunraven Bleak, a good deal exhausted by his efforts to keep all
these matters carefully reported in the columns of the Evening
Balloon, was ready to take his vacation. As a newspaper man he was