Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-12-12
Capt. Cowden and Mark Twaln.

81. Louis fOst.J
That famous scientist, Mark Twain.
must look to his %laurels, for he has a
Western rival who bids fair to outstrip
him. Marks scientific reputation
rests entirely on two gigantic efforts.
In his %Innocents Abroad he alludes to
the agony Of an Indiana gentleman
whose watch could not keep up with
the ships time. 1t was the best
watch he had ever owned. He had
paid a high price for it and felt conf
dent that it could run as fast as any
watch ever made and he did not at
tempt to conceal his chagrin that it
was showing a daily incapacity to keep
up with the time of the ship. He had
about made up his mind that he had
been swindled, when Mark came to
his relief by showing him that the
hardness Of his watch was owing to
the eastward progress of the vessel.
Mark then closes by stating that they
travelled eastward at a rate Just sufi-
cient to keep the moon at its full dur
ing the entire passage. Only n
scientist ventured to question the ac-
curacy of this statement, Mr.. Richard
Proctor, the celebrated English as
tronomer. He showed conclusively
that no matter how fast or how slow a
man might travel around the earth.
either east or west, the moon would
change all the same. But Englishmen
are always carping at something
American.
Mark next tried his scientific hand
on the Mississippi river. He collated
a lot of statistics showing the constant
tendency Of the river to grow shorter.
He instanced a number of cut-offs to
establish the average rate of shorten
ing, and then demonstrated that about
one hundred and fifty thousand years
ago the mouth of the river was in the
middle of the Gulf Of Mexico, and the
river stuck out over the gulf like a
fishing pole. This splendid deduc-
ton has passed unchallenged.
Now comes one Captain John Cow
den, of Memphis, with a plan for i'm
proving the Mississippi and shows
himself fully the equal of Mark as a
man of science. He accounts for the
eastward bound Of the river from
Baton Rouge to the gulf by ascribing
it to the rotary motion of the earth
from west to east. The river, in flow
ing southwark, flows toward a constant
ly increasing motionof rotation, which
it bears very patiently so long as it is
confined in its bluffs. But after pass
ing Baton Rouge it has fair play, and
then it loses no time in showing that
it can run east faster than the force
which propels it in that direction. No
doubt some E~nglishman will attempt
that the current ofthe river, having a
slower rotary motion than the earth,
ought to get behind the earth, that is
to say, incline westward nevertheless,
Cowden' s theory Of its ability to out
strip its propelling force is fully equal
to Mark Twain's fshing-pole general
~ization.
Again, Captain 0owdeR, in order to
strengthen his theory, says that Che
eastern rail of railroads running North
and South is more abraded by wheel
fanges than the Western rail. If we
grant that southwark bound trains
ought to get ahead of the earth's ro-
tary motion and hug the eastern rail,
we might claim that the northward
bound trains, being subject to the re,
verse action of the same force Of ro-
tatio1, would get behind it, and wear
away the western rail. But we are
not going to play the Englishman
This, FsiiF9sa discovery a. Captain
CQwdeA's is not a whit inferior to
Mark Twain's famous lunar essay,
And whereas Marx Twain has occu-
pied the whole of his long career in
reaching his present high position as a
scientist, while Captain Cowden
eclipsss him with his %iniatial effort,
therefore, we say that it is proHed tl,at
Captain Cowden is as great a scientific
genius as Mark Twain, and it will go
near to be thought 50 shortly.