San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1881-09-22

SuDscrlOer, the Other END OF tne world
is nothing, il you only shape this end
as nearly right as You know how.
p Y The Earth Bomb Proof. si 9ai z
1T is lucky for us that the earth has
such good bomb proof on the sky-
ward side said the astronomer on
Wednesday morning last, as he stood,
coatless and bareheaded, on the roof,
watching the August meteors. hi, Df
"Why'" asked the reporter, painting
as he clambered up through the scuttle
hole. 1.4s oi hiss gs'EE yeis
"You'd have seen reason enough il
you had been up here with me for the
last two hours" said the astronomer.
"Why, the earth has been undergoing
a regular bombardment. It's not over
yet. Look at that fellow, howhe skins!
You would call it a shooting star. Well.
there's as much reason for calling it o
celestial shell. If those British artil-
lerists could give their projectiles q We.
locity like that, they might plant their
guns on the Welsh mountains and shell
every troublesome tenant in Ireland
out of his hut. That meteoroid was
moving twenty or thirty miles a
second; yet it could not get through
the bomb proof that protects the earth. :
where is the bomb proof?"
"Why, right under your nose; all
around you, it's the atmosphere. When
the meteorids strike the air that sur
rounds the earth the heat produced in
consequence of their tremendous velo.
city runs up million degrees or more
asecond, and in a twinkling they are
langed to vapor. If they could get
through the atmosphere they would
make it lively for us. No man could
tell at what instant he might be struck
down by a shot from the sky, for me-
teoroids are plunging into the atmos-
phere all the time at the rate Of several
millions, day for the whole earth. At
certain times, as about the 10th Of Au-
gust and 18th Of November, they come
in showers, and fairly lombard the
earth. The soft air that fans the cheek
is to most Of these projectiles space as
impenetrable as a wall OF steel. Some
of them, however, are able to penetrate
to the earth, but they are comparative
ly very few in number. When me-
teoroid strikes the earth it is called
an @rolite. No good N useum of min
eralogy is without one or more speci-
mems of these black crusted, iron like
bodies. Humboldt tells Of two monks
who were killed by them, one at Crema,
in 1911, the other at Milan, in 1860.
He also relates that two Swedish sailors
were killed by an @rolite on board
their ship, in 1874. The matched roofs
of houses have been set on fire by ero-
lites, and sheep and animals have been
struck. dead in the fields by them.
Some think it was q shower of mrolites
that overwhelmed the Amorites after
they had been whipped by Joshua, a.
described in the Bible"
@But these are rather ancient in
stances" -a fse s
well, there are modern instances
enough. We are no safer than our
forefathers. Hardly years passes with
out one or more masses of meteoric
stone falling in the neighborhood of
human habitations. I 1876 German
farmer was shot through the arm by o
small @rolite, which made hole like o
bullet. In 1878 o boy at Hanau had .
piece of his thumb clipped off by q
burning stone that fell from the sky.
About two years ago boy at Patterson,
New jersey, was said to have been hit
in the leg by an @rolite. His story was
doubted, but believe it was never dis
proved, and certainly it was not imposi-
BILE. A man is in more danger of being
killed by lightning than by any erolite,
but il would not be 90 il the air did
not protect him-r-Neic York Sun.
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