Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-01-12
! Astronomical Observations
By THE "rAr CONTRIBUTOR"


In considering the stars We can hardly
be expected to take them individually, q
there are several millions of them accord
who have set up good many nights
counting them, and the observations Of
lovers the world, over, who have sat ND
oftener and good deal later than the as
tronomers have, especially on Sunday
The larger order of planets are called
fixed stars-shooting stars are undxed.
Comets are the tutors Of the sky-they
teach the young stars how to shoot. 10
Jefferson is fixed "star"-and mighty
we'll fixed he is, too.
1t has been conjectured that each one of
the stars is world in ITSELF inhabited like
the earth, by men and women, each one Of
whom is playing a star engagement. Ny
stars! ~
The stars show to much better advan-
tage by starlight than at any other time.
They are rarely seen by daylight, except
upon the coats of the day police. The
police have been called stars since the
days Of Shakespeare. He makes allusion
to them in Midsummer Nights Dreams"
We quote from memory:
81 heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Utter such dulcet and harmonious strains
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
no hear the mermaid's music"
The italics are our own We bought
them at the Type Foundry with lot Of
other printing material.
1t would seem from the above lines that
the police were accustomed to the injudi-
cious and passionate use of their revolvers,
even in those early and chivalric days Of
midsummer knights, which Shakespeare
has immortalized What had those stars
got against the mermaid that they should
go and shoot madly from their spheres,
whatever they may be, though we take
sphere to be sort of Matchbox. Was it
out Of sympathy for the dolphin, whose
back was undergoing system of strains
from carrying around mermaid who
might have been disagreeable, however
dulcet and harmonious.
"Stars look untavorably even upon
the choicest music, particularly at night.
We have observed that Now case in
point: We remember vending our wind
ing way homeward late at night once, from
a social gathering. We were alone. Sud-
denly we heard voice of singular pene-
tration and power singing, 1.-THE Boy
with the Auburn Hair" The wall of the
disconsolate damsel, who mourned the
absence Of her darling joy, was rendered
in manner that was truly heartrending.
Nothing could equal the pathos with
which the singer delivered the lines
Now Il my Johnny was but here,
He'd save me- from all harm -
He's on the field OF bat chu.el
Dressed in his unicorn.
To me hi, to me no; oh, no; I, oh; oh; &c.
On about the last ooh" we felt an iron
grasp upon our coat collar, which caused
us to throw in an additional oh, ourselves.
We had a confused sense that the grasp
was in some way connected with a blue
coat and a star on it. In fact turn which
way we would there were blue coats and
stars.
"Do you know" said we, as soon as we
could speak, "where we can find police
MANI"
The iron igrasp jerked us very gently
across the sidewalk and back a couple Of
times before the voice replied:
"What yer want of policeman
"Some feller," we replied, ais singing
loud's he can boiler in the street. He
ought to be tended to-"
We were Immediately tended to.
From very ancient times it was sought to
discover future events by studying tho
stars. Astrology, the science Is called. It
~
extent. In all the larger cities astrologers
and fortune tellers claim to read the stars,
though few of them are able TO read any
thing else. We consulted one of them
the other day out Of curiosity. She took
her fee and then retired to another room
to consult the stars, as she said. When
she returned she brought an Odor of cheap
whisky with her, which led us to infer that
she and the stars had been taking social
nip together during the consultation. We
gathered from her rapid and somewhat in
coherent revealings that we were passion
ately idolized by pink girl in light
Completed dress, with red eyes and blue
hair, the which she didn't know it; but
that a tall completed dark man was plot
ting to leave large amount Of propertytO
her, mostly in gold and postage stamps,
that had been worn once and turned,
which oppressed her very much in her
dreams.
We would be in great danger from the
tall Completed man, who would try and
borrow money of us, and about this time
we were threatened with great perils on
the sea, but our good star, the which II is
in the ecliptic, in the form Of the Zodiac,
comes all for to save. We should be laid
low with fever, keeping us on land, and
his mind would wander, and he would rave
about the red.eyed girl with the tall COM
plected hair, and she would know that we
loved her, catch the fever, and be happy.
We would recover, be elected treasurer Of
a Fenian society, and live in opulence and
ease all the rest of our days, surrounded by
a multitude Of little red-eyed, blue-hair
children. We had our fortune and she had