American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-01-03

but, fortunately, the lariat broke, and the
rasn young man escaped with his life.
Interesting Discoveries Concerning Our
| Lunar Luminary.
| TuB old-time folly which traced mad
ness to the moon, bids fair To prove a
| claim to wisdom, for recent observations
| declare the moon to be the most cracked
thing in existence. 1t is not only said to
| be completely out of its head, but TO be
| absolutely dangerous, and to be rapidly
preparing heavy destruction for the earth.
| II is now fully year since some real,
firstcIass astronomical sensation was
hurled at the old fashioned, steady going
| world Sensation makers have had very
poor fortune in their use of comets, and
the gradual approach OF the earth to the
blazing sun is too far in the future to
trighten well. But another matter has
been seized upon. The moon is cracked
and is in danger of flying apart, and when
it does fly apart, we shall have two moons,
or else The piece will fly from its orbit,
and, rushing hither, will put a full stop in
| terrestrial history. This is Il sensation
| worthy of the name. 1t is one of those
| delightful frightening affairs, which one
| reads of, eXclaims gracious" and then
resigns himself to his fate by forgetting
| it.
|
tegrating moon, which is made public
| through the wellknown observatory at
| Marseiiles, has points about it which, if
fully assured rs to their authenticity, Will
arouse a good deal of discussion among
astronomers. The story is of Luigi Ca
ciatore, a young man with an idea and a
| fortune of about $4,000. student at the
Observatory of Marseilles. This young
man was so devoted to his idea that he
I, Ii lot IN
| a telescope and other instruments set sail
| alone for the solitudes of southern seas.
Before embarking he handed to his old
instructor roll of manuscript upon
which was inscribed the idea which the
youth pursued and his reasons for enter
| tanning it at the expense Of his time and
fortune. He believed, speaking unscienti-
fically, that the moon was altogether
more cracked than modern astronomers
| imagined, and he went to the south seas
alone, that, being there in the region
| where passed the deepest shadow, he
might see the sunlight peeping through
the cracked moon at the time of the next
eclipse. He went away to the south even
to Pitcairn's Island, erected his rude OBJ
servatory, gained an old sailor to assist
him, and they two, with eyes front and
instruments pointed, awaited the shadow.
| 1t came. Straight through the rugged
rocks the ragged sunlight shone, as one
sees CLEAN through a crack in the door.
A cry of joy came from beneath the tele
scope. The sailor, turned Photograph
er, caught three negatives of the pene
trating sunbeam. The youth, with his
| idea possessed now proof to him suffi
| cient, that his belief was not Il vision, but
a scientific reality, and he writes to his
old instructor in France, with all the en-
| thusiaSm Of boy who has Stormed a
snow fort and with all the exclamation
points of the successful lover. That
young man saw enough during his lonely
| vigil on Pitcairn's island to make him de
clare ''that our satellite is not only shell,
and not only a shell full of cracks, but a
shell that is crushed in upon some por-
tons of its periphery, and shell that is
now crumbling to ruin with a constant, a
savage, "a frightful velocity"
| The old Professor at Marseilles, COM
| menting upon the YOUTHS observations
and records which accompanied his letter,
says he has pushed his discovery very
near to the point of demonstration and
| then the old gentlemen takes a hand in
| running things with a cracking moon as
| fellows:
eff the crumbling be connected with
and dependent upon any such intense in
| ternal volcanic action as Luigi seems to
| suspect, the final disruption would be so
| violent as TO project some portions of the
| moon sheer out of their orbit and down
| upon US with consequences of the most
serious character. Such an impact, if it
| were of sufficient force, might in turn
| disl0dge the earth from its orbit, send it
| grating on a spiral into the sun, or flung
| on hyperbolc out into freezing space.
| Or the same resistless force might, in fall
| ing, crush in the surface of our own
| planet, break through its crust and deluge
US with lava and steam, or suiiocate US
with escaping gases from our own subter-
| ranean laboratory"
| Is not that a beautiful paragraph? The
| reader may think that the moon is not the
only cracked thing in existence, but re-
strain the thought, for the above occurs
| just over the signature of WON De Pom
| tecoulant, of the Observatory of Mar
settles.
The thought that the moon may be
thinking of sending a heavy shell hither
to avehge the many insults which men
have heaped upon her, is the only one
which presses after the eager Marseillaise
have done their worst. We do not think
it is coming, but has not the moon reason
to make us know that she is not the crazy,
love-sick, unwholesOme, cold, metallic
thing which men will not cease to think
her. Has she not had The Jumping in
suits of all the young versemakers of his
tory, flung upon her bright, open counte-
face" for ages, while listening to the rhet-
Orical gum-drops of all the lovers since
Jacob began, with fourteen years of moon
light walks. Has she not listened patient
ly to the longest VOWS and then been
blamed because the words were perjury?
Has she not been charged with mingling
harm with the affairs OF men, from the
cutting of a tooth to the SCATTERING of
intellect. While we do not believe the
moon or any part of it is coming hither
until the great creative spring, now rcgu-
ulating planetary motions, and ruling
their gradual approaches, shall have
wrought its perfect work, still we
protest against giving the moon any
further ground for even consequential
damages. We doubt not she is proud
of her beauty and jealous of the
alteration which it commands. 1t is nei
ther safe, nor polite, nor wise to call her
cracked and suicidal termagant.-Uttca
On. " Heraid.
The Rod in School.