Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-09-13
LOCAL AFFAIRS.
The Rock Hill Chronicle.

tains the "gsnial and smiling" salutatory Of Mr..
J. FORREST GowAN-our whilom contribu tor
as. contributing editor to that paper from Charles
ton. Mr.. GowAN Yields a ~facile, fluent and
graceful pen. Som of his stories, published in
the ENQUIRER, have gained for him quite a rep
~utation as q novelist. He has for some years
been one of our most popular and prolific con-
tributors and, Ne doubt not, will add both va
riety and interest to the columns Of the Chroni-
Gle. With his debut before the public as editor,
be begins in that paper the publication of a new
story, entitled erred and l."
A Week of "varieties.n.
Last week was one Of unusual and varied at
fractions with US. The two able and scholarly lee
ture, of Maj. P. R. Stevens on Astronomy the
parade of the Jasper Light Infantry and Cadets of
the Kings Mountain Military School under Maj.
Stevens on Thursday evening; the annual meet.
ing of the York Bible Society op Thursday morn
ing; the Aurora Borealis on Thursday night, and
"Bailey's Varieties" on Thursday, Friday and
Saturday nights, made it indeed a week Of varie-
tics. We will speak of these occurrences, seria-
tim.
Maj. Stevens, in his first Lectures began by e1-
planning and exploding the old Ptolemaic theory
of the universe, which regards the earth as a
centre around which the heavens and the stars
in fixed crystal orbits ~revolve, keeping time to
the music of the spheres. From this point he
advanced to the Copernican theory, which places
the sun in the centre, and governs the motions
of the heavenly bodies by two forces, the centri-
petal and the centrifugal. He next gave a brief
account of the worlds, one by one, which com.
pose the solar system-beginning with the sun
and passing by Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
the asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, till at
last he stood upon Neptune at the outermost
confines of our system, sweeping around the
sun in an orbit II, 800, 900, 900 miles in circum-
ference Here ended the first Lecture. From
this position, on the next night, the skillful Pro-
lessor, by the u%nerring and sublime might Of
Mathematical calculations, and the ingenious
observations of the astronomers made for the
purpose of ascertaining the distance to the fixed
stars, obtained a foothold among those distant
worlds-so distant that it requires years for
light travelling at the rate of $4,000 miles per
second, to reach from even the nearest of them
to US. He spoke of the two theories of the
"milky way'-without embracing eitber-name-
ly: first, that those portions of the milky way
which have not been "resolved" even by Lord
Ross Telescope into distinct stars, are nebulous
matter, or "star-dust," slowly aggregating into
new worlds and, secondly, that they are really
worlds, but at such IN immense distance from US
that their faint and feeble light merely ''stains"
the mirror of the m~ightiest telescope. Let the
mind penetrate those far reaching avenues open
ed I'D by human reason and human Imagination.
The telescope Of Lord Ross has :'space-penetra-
ting power sufficient to bring into view stars
from which the light is $3.50 years in reaching
the earth. Yet far beyond the utmost ken of
this mighty man-made eye, are crowded gala1ies
of worlds on worlds, dimly cleaning out from
that Vastly might and chaos of "illimitable
space" into which even the ~tireless wing Of imag-
~iuation cannot soar On every mind, however,
Mr.. Stevens left the impression that these wide
~ separated worlds are bound together by com
mon laws and governed by 'the voice of the great
Creator" How precious, we thought, are the
words which the lips Of wisdom utter! How
honey-sweetto sit beneath the voice of the schol,
ar, calm and deep, and burdened with thought
and love, and listen as it unfolds the beauty,
wisdom, benevolence, displayed in nature -
This skeleton gives but a very imperfect idea in
deed of these two Lectures, 'colored MI o%'er,"
as they were, not only with profound truth, but
exquisite fancies and devout sentiment. The
distinguished Lecturer has gained for himself an
enviable place in the fhvors of our people and
we shall be glad to welcome him again and again
to our town.
The parade of the Cadets and Jnspers, as o
Battalion, under command of Maj. Stevens, was
q brilliant affair, by common consent of all. The
programme of evolutions was changed on the
field, and some entirely new maneuvres intro,
duced, for the purpose of testing the attachments
of the two companies. Yet so promptly and &C.
c~urately did they obey every command, that in
the ardor of his qualification, Maj. Stevens pro-
claimed them the best drilled companies in South
Carolina. This is higher praise than any words
of ours could convey, as it comes from one who
is qualified to speak.
The proceedings of the meeting of the Bible
Society will be found in another column. Rev.
Mr.. Watson has a peculiarly simple, pointed and
'compressive' style and delivery. In thirty-fve
minutes he said more than many a man could in
an hour, to show that the Bible is more precious
than thousands of silver and gold, and should,
therefore, be circulated at their sacrifice.
A very beautiful view of the Aurora Borealis
or "Northern morning." was had on Thursday
night-beginning between nine and ten o'clock,
we should say, and continuing two or three hours.
We could observe the streamers Of light flash
upward towards the zenith, and almost ONE
ly die out. There was q ruddy glow on every
thing and Dian looked as if she was asleep and
dreaming of Mars.
"Bailey's Varieties u which occurred on Thurs
day, Friday and Saturday nights, were indeed a
variety of comic and sentimental songs, music
and dancing, theatrical performances and dis.
solving views. They please all tastes, and cater
to oil classes. Our people greeted them with
crowded houses, and sent them away "with a
pocket full of rocks" The troop consists of
eleven, we believe-mostly members of Mr..
Bailey's family. They are, to all appearances,
very genteel and clever-right on the "~nigger"
question and the goose" auestion-and striving
to make a living by catering to that "folly"