The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-11-29
REVOLVING STORIES.
New AstroaomicaI Ds.eov.yv =, g. g..
19 Knsere.f.


New AstroRomfcaI Discovery az ar..t
W i=4 interest,",
No intelligent man now doubts the
'OoPeTHiciaR the0Fy. We know that the
planets reyolve around the sun, and that
every satellite rsVolves around its own
private planet. Still, mankind has been
curlously slow to perceive that the lavi
upon which the Copernician theory is
based Is OF vastly wider application than
astronomers suppose. All things do not
literally revolye, but all things have
their periodic times.
Inc appearance in the Chicago Tribune
OF the Story of an alleged marriage eere-
mohy Whtcn came to an abrupt end be-
cause the bride and groom mutually ae-
furnishes fitting occasion to call atteu-
ton to the fact that all stories have
their periodic times. The story in oues-
ton was popular one precisely twenty
six years ago, As viii appear by an
examination of the comic sluanscs of
the year 1851, and its reappearapee at
this time shows that its periodic time
Is Ia round numbers twenty-six wears.
The Tribune, ignorant Of this fact. SUP
poses that the story is a new one, Jus
discovered by one OF its reporters. All
comets and all stories have existed during
lncalcuIable ages, and their regular
Temperatures do not justify us in as
Stunning that they are new,
1here Is vast difference in the peri
Odic time of different stories, and Ii is
probable that some of them revisit the
earth not ottener than once in many nil
lions OF years. The one which appeared
IN the Chicago Tribune viii, of course
II Its time has been accurately computed
-reappeaF in 1902, when it will sud
denly dawn upon a score of simultaneous
newspapers, all of which will hail il as a
genuine novelty. Vastly longer is the
period of the story of the man who. with
the aid of his father, widow, and the
widows daught, I, and an intricate sys-
tenn of inter marriage, became his own
grandfather. The first recorded sppear.
ance of this is in Sanscrit work. trans
lated by Burton, the African explorer.
Its second appearance was in this city, in
/ 1857, when it was told with much an
| 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-
currenee Of the story until about the
year $3.50; a fact upon which we
may Ialriy congratulate ourselves,
in view OF its almost UNIQUE
tedieusness and intricacy. In con
trast with the long cycle through which
the grandfather story sweeps, is the brief
period Of the anecdote of the Irishman
who thought that he would never be able
to put on a pair of tight boots without
previously wearing them for q day Oh
two. This re2ppears 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 newspaper, to discuss the
causes which frst set stories in motion
and regulated them by law. Neither car
the PeFtuTbatiOns and phrases which
certain stories manifest, or the disturbins
| influence which Que sometimes exertl
upon another, be more than barely al
luded to at this time. Very little obser
walton is; however,. needed, to establish
the fact that every story has its periodic
time, and that its path and its speed ar,
governed by natural and iDflexible laws
as truly as are the path and speed of tn,
| moOn.-M Y Times.