Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-10-19

THRoNGED WITH THE REMNANTS OF DEAD
WORLDS.

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THRONGED WITH THE REMNANTS OF DEAD
WORLDS.
81 have been watching the star called
the Winking Demon" said the astrono-
mer, as he extended his hand to pull the
reporter cp on the roof. These autumn
mornings are little chilly, but the air is
so delicously pure and clear that one
don't mind it if it bites a little Besides,
it is worth the risk of catching cold to see
the Demon wink. You are just in time
to watch him as he gradually opens his
eye. If you had come few minutes
earlier yon might have seen him shut it "
"Where is this remarkable Demon
starr"
There, almost overhead at this hour.
If you want to point him out to your
friends you have only to observe that he is
q little south Of that bending row of stars
that marks the constellation Perseus, and
that there is little group of small stars
near him. Now, you see, his light is
pretty faint, but not so faint as it was few
minutes ago. In three or four hours his
eye will b. wide open again, and he will
shine as a star OF the second magnitude
These winkings of Algol or the Demon,
occur II little oftener than once in three
days"
"What causes them?"
"Ah, now we come to the strangest
thing of all. Is there anything in the
appearance of the sky, all glttering with
stars that suggest to your mind that it
may be vast cemetery? No ridiculous
you say. You will not dispute that the
earth we tread is, from one point of view,
only great burying ground, which con.
tains the remains not only of countless
generations of men, but of whole races
and tribes of various animals and plants.
Just so in the heavens above us the dead
are mingled with the living. 1t is to my
mind the most suggestive discovery of
modern astronomy that the universe is
full OF dead suns-suns whose light has
gone out, whose fires have been extin-
guished. and which no longer shed life
giving and life preserving rays upon the
worlds that may be imagined yet circlng
in coldness and gloom about them What
has this to do with the Wnking Demon?
Why, everything, believe it is general
| ly conceded, though Prof. Newcomb
seems to dissent, that the variations in the
light of Algol are caused by some huge
dark body revolving around it at fright
full rate of speed. There are other variable
stars whose phenomena can be accounted
for in the same way. In the case of Algol
there is evidence that the dark body is
rapidly approaching the star, drawing
nearer every circle. When it strikes, if
it is TO strike, who can picture the extent
of that catastropheP Then, indeed that
mysterious dark body will become visible,
blazing with the light of hundred suns
and unable to escape from the fiery des-
truction it has brought upon the star"
Are there any other dark bodies like
this known 10 astronomersp'
"Oh, yes; the great star Sirius is ac-
companied by huge body of the kind It
is not altogether dark, for with great tele-
scopes it can occasionally be seen glim-
mering family close to the star. Astrono
mers knew it was there before they got Il
glimpse of it, for it caused disturbances in
the proper motion of the star. Another
of these dark bodies which astronomers
are sure exists, although no human eye
ever saw it, is doggng the star Procyon,
one of the largest in the sky. You may see
the star now low down in the east, north
of Sirius and below the Twins. The in
visible body that hovers about it is evil
IDENTIFY of large size, for it causes consider
able perturbations in the stars motion.
1t may once have been a sun Us brilliant
as Procyon itself, but now not ray comes
from it. Still, astronomers can point out
the changes in its position, as the attrac-
ton pulls the star now this way now that.
If space is filled with these mysterious
dark bodies, collisions between them and
living, or light-glving suns are not inn
possible. You know our sun is in rapid
motion, carrying his family of worlds
along with him in his flight. SO all the
stars are instinct with motion. Our lives
are 30 short and their distances are so
great that we can hardly appreciate these
motions, yet they are swift beyond com.
prehensior. Some of the stars are ap.
preaching, others receding, all moving in
some direction. The consultations whose
forms are so familiar to us are falling to
pieces like card houses. In a few thousand
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