Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1855-07-11
MATTERS IN THE MOON.

people in the moon would have There.
days are as long as years, and day and
year are equal to our months, 90 days,
12 hours and 45 minutes. The seasons
differ but very little from each other
On the equator there reigns eternal sum
mer, for the sun is ever in the zenith !;
the poles are buried in eternal winter.
The days are of equal length throughout
the year, all days equally light, all nights
equally dark. The absence of an atmos-
phere deprives the moon of the sweet
charms of a twilight, and glaring day
would follow gloomy night with the ra-
pidity of lightning, if the slow rising and
setting of the sun did not slightly break
the suddenness of the transition. Human
eyes, however, could not bear the fierce
contrasts of light and shadow; they would
long in vain for the soft intervals between
the two extremes-the other colors, which
beautify our world with their joyous va
riety and soft harmony. The sky is not
blue, but even in daytime black, and by
the side of the dazzling sun the stars
claim their place and light in the heav-
ems. Near the poles the mountain tops
shine in unbroken splendcr year after
year, but the valleys know neither day
or night, scantily lighted as they ever are
by the faint glimmer reflected from the
surrounding walls.
That side of the moon which is turned
from US, has a night of nearly fifteen
days the stars only, and planets, shine
on its ever dark sky. The side we see,
on the contrary, knows no night; the
earth lights it up with never ceasing
earth shine, light fourteen times strong
er than that which we receive from the
moon. We recognize our own light, lent
to our friend, in the faint, grayish glim-
mer of that portion of the moon which
before and after the new moon receives
no light from the sun, but only from the
earth, and reflects it back again upon US.
Mornings in autumn show it more bril-
liant than evenings in spring, because in
autumn the continents of the earth with
their stronger light illumine the moon,
while in spring she only receives fainter
light from our oceans. Our orb appears
to the Man in the Moon as changeable as
his home to US, and he might speak OF
the first or last quarter of the earth, OF
new earth and full earth. The whole
heaven moves before him once in 90
days around its axis the sun and stars
rise and set regularly once in the long
day; but the vast orb of our earth is
nearly immovable. All around is in slow
unceasing motion; The mild face of the
earth alone, gorgeous moon of immense
magnitude, never sets or rises, but re
mains ever fixed in the zenith. 1t there
appears sixteen times larger than the
moon 10 us, and daily exhibits its vast
panorama of oceans, continents and ISL
ands. Bright lights and dark shadows
are seen In ever varied change, as land
or water, clearings or forests appear, new
with every cloud OF fog. and different in
different seasons.
The Man in the Moon has thus not
only his watch and his almanac daily
before him in the ever changing face of
the earth, but he may, for all we know,
have maps of our globe which many a
geographer would envy on account of
their fulness and accuracy. Long be-
fore Columbus discovered America, and
Cook New Holland, our lunar neighbor
knew most correctly the form and the
outlines of the new continents. There
was no new world for him, and there is
none left. He could tell us the secrets
of the interior of Africa, and reveal to
US the fearful mysteries of the Polar
Seas. But how he or his side must
marvel at our vast fields Of snow, our
volcanoes and tropical storms and lem
pests--he who knows nei' her fire, nor
snow, nor clouds What strange fables
he may have invented to explain the
shadows of our clouds, as they chase
each other over sea and land, and hide
from him in an instant the sun-lit land
scape And stranger still, on the side
of the moon which is turned from the
earth, he knows nothing at all about us,
unless news reach him from the happier
side. Or he may undertake-the great
event OF his life-a long and painful jour
ney to the bright side of his globe, to
stare al the wondrously brilliant earth
star with its unread mysteries and mar
vellous changes of fitting lights and
shadows. Who knows what earnest
prayers may rise from the moon, full of
thanks for the floods of light and heat
we pour upon them, or of ardent wishes
that their souls might hereafter be al
lowed to dwell in the bright homes of the
beauteous earth h-star.-Putnam' Maga-
zine.
WINCHELL, the humorist, tells story
of dog, who undertook to jump across
a we'll in two jumps. He fell q victim
TO his ambition. There are a great
many people Just like that dog-folks
who think they can jump well in two
jumps: