The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1877-12-06
REVOLVING STORIES.
a New Astronomical Discovery OF Great
Interest,"

a New Astronomical Discovery OF Great
Interest,
No intelligent man now doubts the
Copernician theory. We know that the
planets revolve around the sun, and that
every satellite revolves around its own
private planet Still, mankind has been
curiOusly slow to perceive that the law
upon which the Copcrnican theory is
based is of vastly wider application than
astronomers suppose. AL! things do not
literally revolve, but all things have
their periodic times.
The appearance in the Chicago Tribune
of the story of an alleged marriage cere-
mony which came to an abrupt end be-
cause the bride and groom mutually &C.
cused each other of awkwardness,
furnishes fitting occasion TO call atten.
ton to the fact that all stories have
their periodic times. The story in ques.
ton was popular one precisely twenty
six years ago, as will appear by an
examination of the comic almanacs of
the year 1851, and its reappearance at
this time shows that its periodic time
is in round numbers twenty-six years.
The Tribune, ignorant of this fact, sup.
poses that the story is new one, jus
discovered by one of its reporters. All
comets and all stories have existed during
incalculable ages, and their regular
reappearances do not justify us in as.
suming that they are new.
There is vast difference in the peri
odic time of different stories, and it is
probable that some of them revisit the
earth not ottener' than once in many mil
lions of years. The one which appeared
in the Chicago Tribune will, of course
il its time has been accurately computed
--reappear in 1902, when it will sud
denly dawn upon score of simultaneous
newspapers, all of which will hail it az a
genuine novelty. Vastly longer is the
period of the story of the man who, with
the aid of his father, a widow, and the
widows dauSht r, and an intricate sys-
TEN of inter-marriage, became his own
grandfather. The first recorded appear
ancc of this is in a Sanscrit work, trans
lated by Burton, the African explorer
Its second appearance was in this city, in
1857, when it was told with much ap-
plause at negro minstrel entertainment.
Between these two appearances there
was an interval of not far from $500
years. We need, therefore, fear no re.
currence of the story until about the
year $3.50; a fact upon which we
may fairly congratulate ourselves,
in view OF its almost unique
tediOusness and intricacy. In CON
trast with the long cycle through which
the grandfather story sweeps, is the brief
period of the anecdote of the Irshman
who thought that he would never be able
to put on a pair of tight boots without
previously wearing them for a day or
two. This reappears every two years
with unvarying regularity, and though
it has been slightly modified, since the
date when the sandal expanded into the
boot, it has maintained the same period
for at least three thousand years.
1t would be impossible, within the
limits of a newspaper, to discuss the
causes which first set stories in motion
and regulated them by law. Neither can
the perturbations and phrases which
certain stories manifest, or the disturbing
influence which one sometimes exerts
upon another, be more than barely al
luded to at this time. Very little obser.
yatior is, however, needed, to establish
the fact that every story has its periodic
time, and that its path and its speed are
governed by natural and innexible laws,
as truly as are the path and speed OF the
moon.--N. Y 7imes