National Republican., 1881-10-22
WAY UP In THE SKY.
THE HEAVENS AS A CEMETERY.
The Demon star--Winklngs OF the stsrs-Dark
Bodies Aloft-whAt the Telescope Reveals
Dead and Alive suus-The Un-
tombed Dead-Dead Worlds.

:" have been watching the star called
tho Winking Demon" said the astronomer, as he
extended his hand TO pull the reporter up on the
roof "These autumn mornings are little chilly,
but the air is so deliciously pure and clear that
one doesn't mind lit bites little Besides. 1t is
worth the risk Of catching cold to. sec the Demon
wink You are just In time TO watch him as he
gradually reopens his eye. 1fyou had come few
minutes earlier you might have seen him shut IT,"
where is this remarkable demon starr
"There, almost overhead at this hour IL you
want to point him out TO your friends you have
only TO observe that he Is little south OF that
bending row OF stars that marks the constellation
Perseus, and that there is little group Of smaller
stars near him. Now, you see, his light Is pretty
faint, but not so faint rs It was few minutes ago
In three or four hours his eye will be'wide open
again, and he win shine as star OF the second
magnitude These winkings Of Algol, or the
Demon, occur little oftener than once in three
days"
"what causes thcmY"
"Ah, now you come to the strangest thing OF all
Is there anything in the appearance Of the sky. all
glittering with stars, that suggests to your mind
that II may be vast cemeiery9 No, ridiculous
you say Very well. You will not dispute that
the earth We tread IS from point OF view, only
great burying ground, which contains the re-
mains not only OF countless generations OF men
but Of whole races and tribes Of various animals
and plants. Just 80 in the heavens about us the
dead are mingled with the living. It is to my mind
the most suggestive discovery Of modern as
tronomy that the universe Is full Of dead suns
suns whose light has gone out whose fires have
been extinguished and which no longer shed life
giving and life-prescrying rays upon the worlds
that may be imagined yet circling in coldness and
gloom about them. What has this TO do with
the winklng Demon2 Why everything. believe
| II is generally conceded, though Professor New
comb seems to dissent, that the variations In the
light OF Agol are caused by some huge dark body
revolving around IL at n frightful 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
Ia rapidly approaching the star drawing nearer
with every circle When IL Strikes IL II is to strike
| who can picture the extent Of that catastrophe
| Then, indeed. that mysterious dark body will be-
come visible, blazing with the light of a hundred
suns nnd unable TO escape from the fiery destruc-
tion that 1t has brought upon the star"
"Are there any other dark bodies like this known
| 10 astronomersY'
"oh, yes; the great star Sirius Is aceomp an led
| by a huge body of the kind. 1t Is not altogether
dark for with large telescopes 1t can occasionally
be seen glimmering family close to the star. AS
tronomers knew it was there before they got
| glimpse OF It, for II caused disturbances in the
proper motion of the star. Another of these dark
bodies which astronomers are sure exists. nj
though no human eye ever saw 1t, is dogging the
star Procyon, one ofthe brightest in the sky. You
may see the star now low down in the east north Of
Sirius, and below the Twins The invisible body
that hove about It is evidently Of large size, for
1t causes considerable perturbations in the stars
motion. II may once have been sun rs brilliant
as Procyon ITSELF but now not a ray comes from It,
Stil astronomers can point out the changes in its
position as Its attraction pulls the star now this
way and now that,
"If space Is filed with these mysterious dark
bodies, collisions between them and living, or
lght-glving, suns not impossible. You know
that our sun Is in rapid motion, carrying his fam
lily OF worlds along with him In his flight SO all
the stars arc instinct with motion. Our lives arc
30 short and their distances are so great that we
can hardly appreciate these notions yet they are
swift beyond comprehension. Some of the star.
are approaching, others receding. oil moving IN
some direction. The consultations whose forms
are SO familiar to us are falling TO pieces like
card houses. In few thousand years there
will be no Great Dpper, no Orion with hi:
club no Southern Cross. The heavens would
look like q new universe TO one Of us who
revisited the earth in the ten-thousandtt
century. Now, II we suppose that there are a
many dark or dead suns as there are living ones
Is not difficult to believe that occasionally Their
might be collisions between them. or course tn,
chances against any such collision would be very
very great and yet some of the cases Of stars tina
have suddenly blazed out with astonishing bril-
liancy and then disappeared may bo accounted
for in this way To show you that there Is no ex
aggeraton in what am saying about the multi
tude of dead suns in the universe, see what ST
John Lubbock said in his inaugural address at Tho
meeting Of the British Association In August last
The floor Of Heaven Is not only /" thick inlaid will
satnes of bright gold" but studded also with extnc
stars, probably as brilliant as sun, bu
dead and cold rs Helmholtz tells that sur
itself will besome 100000 years hence
"But we need not wander Off in space In Sc arcl
, ofthesky's untombed dead. We have right at hand
, crcling about our own earth. not an extinct sun
! but dead world. The moon is dead, and ha
been dead these million years. There the astron
omer, fhe fancies himself the worlds surgeon
may study the effects of malady that no surger,
could cure Even worlds and suns, like men an,
. women, grow old and die; but unlike men an,
women, they have no grave but the open an,
, boundless Heavens."-New York Sun.
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