The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1869-08-28
The Comet.

Comets have always been regarded
with terror, especially by the unscien-
tific. In times past, certain comets have
created great CONSERVATION, such, for in
stance, as that of 1856, which appeared
again in 1881, in 1907, in 1852, in 1853
and in 1885, aud, which astronomers say
will reappear every 75 years. This was
the comet that Pope Calixtus III ordered
to be said, in connection with the Ave
Maria, Lord, save us from the Devil,
the Turk, and the Comet" The comet
of 1456 had tail more than ninety-six
millions of miles long. -,
Forty-three years before the birth of
the Saviour, comet appeared which
could be seen in the day y-time, this comet
rc-appearcd in 1106.
There is a bare possibility that this
planet may cofiie iii coHtaac: With comet.
DIR. Brewsters, in speaking of this says,
''The transient effect of body passing
near the earth, could scarcely amount to
any great convulsiou; but if the earth
were actually to receive shock from one
of these bodies, the consequences would
be awful A new direction would be
given to its rotary motion, aud would
revolve around new axis. The seas
forsaking their beds, would be hurried,
by their centrifugal force, to the new
equatorial regions; islands and cnnti-
nents, the abodes of men and animals,
would be covered by the universal rush
OF the waters to the new equator, and
every vestige of human industry and
genius would be at once destroyed"
1t will be seen from the following,
which we clip from one of our exchanges
that comet of dangerous nature, is
stealing fiery march on US:
"For more than ten years past, the
most scientific astronomers of the world
have told us, through publications in the
magazines aud otherwise, that during
the months of July, August and Sep.
tember, this year: 1S69), the most won.
derful comet the world has ever known
would re-appear. They have also as
sured us that it would approach nearer
the earth than any comet ever did before
and that either the earth or the comet
would have to change its course or col
lision would be inevitable. AS this
comet is said to be many thousand times
larger than the earth, and as it is solid
mass of fire, with tail of fire that
would reach round the earth more than
Il hundred times, it is not ut all unlikely
that Il collision with it would prove a.
disastrous to the earth as the late acci
dent on the Eric railroad did to some o
the more unfortunate passengers. Ac
cording to astronomers, il was this comet
that Immediately preceded the terribl,
civil wars in Greece, and was Immediate
ly followed by terrible contagion ir
Persia and other eastern countries, q
most dreadful plague that in few week.
swept from the face of the earth more
than one half of the people of the coun
tries visited by it. Some years after
this comet appeared again, and was pre-
ccdcd by a most terrific civil war il
Rome, and followed by plague, OF
scourgc, that piled the dead up in heap,
in the streets of that proud, but corrupt
city, until there were scarcely enough
persons left alive to bury the dead
That is the comet that is paying its re.
spccts to old mother earth again. 1t has
been much talked of and its visit much
dreaded by those who ieel that they have
good reason to dread, not only the fire,
works they may be compelled to witness
in this world, but the real and consum
ing fires with which they are Threatened
in the next.