Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-07-09

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growing we'll. Labor sufficient. Decrease in
use Of fertilizers thirty-tlree per cent.
GEoK;IA-Sixty-nine counties report de-
crease in acreage of ten per cent Weather
less favorable The stand and condition Of
the crop are good. 1t is growing finely and
is clean, though small, being ten days later
than last year. Labor is good. The use Of
fertilizers has decreased thirty per cent as
compared with last year.
FLoEIDA-Reports from this State are mea.
gre The average is said to have decreased
four per cent. The stand is good, and the
condition very fine, clean, and growing we'll
being one week earlier than last year. There
are no complaints of labor.
! The Comet.
- Mr.. Henry NJ. Parkhurst, who has
been making careful observation, as he claims
of the comet now visible in the western heav'
ems, just beneath the polar star, and near the
Great Dipper or seven stars, writes to the New
York Tribune and says:
From my own estimate Of its length on the
morning of the 25th, after the moon had Set
| determined its actual length at that time to
be certainly over three million miles.
then assumed an increase Of length of one
tenth each day, and reached the startling re-
suit that upon July 10th its tail would actu'
ally strike the earh.
On the 18th of July the head of the comet
will have reached the horizon in the north
west at the end of twilight, so that it will
not easily be visible after that date; but the
tail will extend nearly to the polar star.
On July 16, the tail will extend far beyond
the pole and develop a new characteristic
tapering off rapidly toward the end. With.
in three or four days after the 18th, the tail
will have become so expanded in the neigh.
borhood of the pole as to fill large part Of
the northern heavens. Yet it will not be a
conspicuous object, because it will be so faint
as to look rather like All immense cloud, or q
new milky way, than what it really is.
Of the way in which this will end it is not
safe. yet to speak with de6niteness; for al.
though, if the tail we're straight, we should be
almost certainly near the middle of it on July
20, yet its curvature will probably delay it
two or three days, and even until the earth
has passed beyond its path. Taking the best
value | can from the records Of previous
comets, should expect the earth on July %
to be wholly within the eastern edge Of the
comets tail and l will assume this to be the
case. The comet will then disappear to us
but then the inhabitants of the Southern Hem
isphere, who may be ignorant of the luminosi.
ty of the evening sky, will see it gradually
rise and pass away, and will be amazed by
the sudden apparition of the comet of extraor-
binary size and unusual brilliancy, which
will burst upon their vision as unforeseen as
the great comet of 1861. The gradual dimi-
mutton and final disappearance Of the comet
will be so nearly the converse of what we
shall have witnessed here that it needs no
description.
What will he the effect upon the earth? l
dare not predict the effect upon the minds of
men, especially of the ignorant; but | do not
anticipate any appreciable physical effect
further than possible electrical phenomena
like the aurora. 1t will, of course, leave US a
portion ofits atmosphere when it departs, but,
probably, not enough to effect the barometer,
or to come within the cognizance even Of
scientists.
The Baltimore american has this to say of
the comet, which we append for the relief OF
the nervous:
The present comet will be at the most ia.
vorable position for observation from about
the middle of the present month up to its end
after which it will recede from US as rapidly
as it has approached. Its visit will be made
the occasion of more complete scientific obser.
~at;on than has beon possible III the case Of
previous comets, the improved apparatus o1
astronomers, and especially the use of the
spectroscope, furnishing them with facilities
for the accurate determination of the material
composing the approaching body, not hereto
fore possessed. Various theories are held on
this point, which is still matter of great un
certainty. The fact that the tails of comets
alternately move toward the sun and are re-
pelled from it has been as proof that they are
merely electric matter exhibiting this polarity
in consequence of the suns attraction. 9th
ers hold that the tails are composed of incan'
descent meteoric particles. or of vapor. In
November, 1872, the earth actually came in
contact and even passed through the tail of a
comet without experiencing general conscious:
ness of the event. 1t has been calculated
that we passed through 259,0OO miles Of the
matter composing this tail, the only result
being meteoric shower not then attributed
to its proper cause IF the tail had consisted
of meteoric particles, that luminous shower
would have been the result, the matter becom-
ing incandescent on striking the atmosphere,
but being consumed by the heat of its own
friction upon the upper layers of our air and
falling in imperceptible powder to the surface
of the earth. Thus, it will be seen, the earth
is in no danger of the long-predicted destruc.
ton from collision with comet, being pro.
tected by its thin envelope of atmospheric air,
which forms all ample guard against such
wandering highwaymen Of the heavens.
THE THORNWELL ORPIIANAGE.
CLINTON, S. c., July /, 1874.
EDITOR OF YoRKvILLE ENQUIRER May
I again tender our gratitude throug h your
columns to the noble.hearted young ladies
(and the friends who so generously assist them
who are laboring in your county to raise
funds for the Thornwell Orphanage? This
institution, located at Clinton, S. c., is being
rapidly pushed on. 1t is being built entirely
by the gifts of the charitable. We trust that
by the 1st of January next, it will be opened
to receive the houseless and fatherless. Every
cent contributed helps, as the building is
given out to contractor, to whom the sum
of $1,000 is to be paid, he thoroughly COM
pleting it of granite, finished in and out. The