The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1876-09-21
NV stars!
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How l wonder what you are !"

HOW WOnUer WHAT you are
Right-over there tonight, above |
the southern horizon, trinagle of
three bright stars shine like dia-
monds in the sky. The brightest
one is Sirius. 1t was the watchdog
of the Nile. 1t rose when the great
Nile flood rose every year. AS 5hey
had fever then, they thought the
dog-star Sirius warned them of fe-
vers. And some people here be-
Heve the rising of the dog-star, dog
days, are fever days.
How brilliant it is! Wonder how
far off it is? Let's see; how shall
we come at it? The tailor measures
by the yard; but the yard measure
will not do. Railroad measure will
not do. Railroads measure by the
mile. Well, that may do to start
on. Let's get a few distances.
From New York to Chicago, is, say,
1 600 miles; to Denver, Col, 1000
miles; to San Francisco, 5000 miles.
A pretty broad country, that.
But this will hardly do for the
stars. 1t may do for the star worlds
that belong to our Sun. The moon
is 100000 miles of. About 500
times as far-say 1OO,OoO,OOO miles
and we come to the sun. It is a
little less, but that will do-1OO,-
10000 miles to the sun.
Now, that bright, blue star, 81
rius, that looks so little by our sun,
is over fOO,OOO,OOO as far from us as
the sun that is, 1OO,OOO,OO0 times
IL million miles, or about 10000
OOO,OOO,OOO,O0O does not get much
knowledge into our heads. Let US
try another way. The cars run
about 80 miles an hour. To get to
the moon on the cars would take
333 days-say one year. To get to
the sun we would have to go, if we
lived long enough, 376 years. And
now for a long trip. If we could
ride to Sirius on. the cars, at the
rate of 80 miles an hour, we should
get there in about 376, 900 600 years
allowing for no way stations at the
moon and the sun. But that's &
little more time than most of us car
spare for a pleasure TIP.
Let's try another plan to find ou
how far off Sirius is. II we can
go, may be we can see. Light trav
els faster than the cars. Ligh
goes at the rate of $4,000 miles I
second. In about 81 minutes tn,
first ray of light reaches us from
the sun, after he rises in the morn
ing. Now, although that is travel
ing pretty fast, yet it would take
ray Of light, starting from Sirius
% years to reach us here; it vii
take the Sirians % years waiting 4
see the glories of our one hundredt
liberty year, and the splendid sho'
Of the Centennial at Philadelphia
the gathering Of the fruits of tn
, great republic, and the gathering G
, the fruits of the nations of til
earth viii not dazzle their eyes uu
Ill about the year 1900. If Siriu
were blotted out to-day, yet ?
years its splendor would gem IT,
b Southern sky, and only when 2
years had gone by would we kno-
= the dire catastrophe by dark spac
eclipsing the brilliant star. What
e great blazing sun it is, pouring OF
its white heat away into the untra'
4 eled immensity!
y We think some people and som
ii things big in this world of ours. Bu
@ when we look at this mighty suI
4 mightier than 1000 of our sun
{ ani then remember that the eye ca
e see six thousand Of them in til
sparkling sky, and that the glas
!, can see 20,0OO,OOO Of them, some {
them smaller, but many Of them fa
d mightier than this glorious Siriu
we begin to feel our own diner
u sions, and, though we can neve
y takes ITS measure, yet we can loo
u with awe and reverence on th
mighty universe of God.-hsU. e
y p. .S0ford. az fke Interior.
= Gen. McCullock Of the PennsY
l. vania Central railroad, made th