The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1876-01-05
MISCELLANY

HE MAN IN THE MOO NJ w HAT 1E SEES
IN THE MIDNIGHT SKr.--A writer in the
British Quarterly INDUCES in a glowing des-
cription Of the appearance of our earth to an
iuhabitant Of the moon but, according othe
Of science. the "man In the
moon is a creature Of the imagination. We
cannot conceive how it would be possible for
. human being to exist without air or water.
lie says: AT last however, night sets in.
Gradually it comes, after the sun has gathered
up his shifting beams, and gone down to rest.
All at once we are plugged into comparative
obscurity, for again lre is no twilight to
stay the steps of tho departing day. But
booking up into the sky, we behold vast orb
which pours down milder and more bene-
ticcnt spiendor than the great lord Of the sys-
tenn It is such moon as we terrestrials
cannot boast, for it is not less than thirteen
times as large aud luminous as our own.
There it hangs in the armament, without APP
parent change of place, as If "fixed in its
everlasting seat" But not without change
of surface. For this great globe is a painted
panorama, and, turning round, majestically
on its axis presents oceans and continents in
grand succession. As Europe and Africa,
locking the Mediterranean in their embrace,
roll away to the right, the stormy Atlantic
offers its waters to view, and then the two
Americas, with their huge forests and waists
.prairies, pass under inspection. Thsr the
grand basin of the Pacific, lit up with island
fires, meets the gazer's eye, and as this glides
over the scene the eastern rim of Asia and
the upper portion of Australia sail into sight.
The Indian Ocean, and afterward the Arabian
splendor, and thus in r-and-twenty hours
the great rotundity we tread turns its pictured
countenance to the moon and grandIy repays
the listening lunarians by repeating to the
best Of its ability the story of its birth. Nor
is the sky less marvellous in another respect,
for the absence Of any atmospheric diffusion
of light permits the consultations to shine out
with distinctness which is never paralleled
on earth. They glitter like diamond points set
in a armament of ebony. Stars and clusters
which we never see with the naked eye flock
into view and crowd the lunar heavens.
In one respect at least, Americans might
mend their manners--in the public exhibition
Of reverence for the dead. The passage of
funeral train through our streets, whether of
a great or an unknown man. elicits from the
stolid spectators no further recognition than a
stare. In Paris or anywhere in France the
presence of the mortal remains of any fellow
being is acknowledged even by the humblest
artisan with head barred and bowed, while In
New York the dead body of Vice President
is carried through miles of streets lined with
people all with crowns covered. They take
off their hats to the living, but never to the
dead. There is NO more touching and grace
ful custom than this bit of French reverence,
and none which our people seem SO slow to
adopt. 1t is just these little knaeks Of polite
ness that the American gentleman, who fond
ly imagines himself the finest gentleman in
the world, is in need OF. No doubt in this, az
in many other things, he represses his Instincts
for fear of seeming sentimental. In the case
of SO distinguished public officer as Henry
Wilson the rudeness Of the omission was al
most brutal, and the very darkness that threw
an atmosphere of gloom about his funeral pro-
gress through the city seemed to be friend
ly shade. There was something appropriate
besides in the darkness. For "a lonely old man,
dying almost without kith or kin, forsaken
before his death by the men who should have
respected his counsels, forsaken after death
by his own colleagues in Congress, and hastily
seized upon by surgeons as Subject" al
most before the body was cold, it was fitting
pall.--N. X. Tribune