Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-10-05

will contiue to grow brighter and brighter as
Il MOO rr tho aarth

will contiue to grow brighter and brighter as
it nears the earth.
MAY not the exceptional weather that we
have endured this summer be due to the COM
ct? While the comet was approaching the
sun we had the intensely hot days OF July and
August. When it went behind the sun we
were protected from it's heat and enjoyed the
cool weather of the last three weeks, just as
the summer boarder enjoys the cool hours
| towards the end of the day when the sun goes
behind the barn. Now that the comet has
emerged from behind the sun, the intensely
hot weather has returned with it,. II this be a
true explanation s0fs the weather OF the last
two months, and if the comet is really ap-
preaching the earth, we may expect to suffer
from weather hot enough to convert Mr.. Bob
Ingersoll from his unbelief.
1t is often said that the movements of the
heavenly bodies are regulated so perfectly that
there is not the slightest danger that comet
will ever strike the earth. Facts do not sup
port this theory The meteors that constant
ly come into collision with the earth are as
much heavenly bodies as any comet, and, in
deed they are believed to have been at one
time or another component parts OF comets
tails. Moreover, comets have frequently mix
ed themselves up with.Jupiter's moons in
most irregular and reprehenSible way. There
is no reason to- doubt that a collision between
comet and the earth is quite possible, and it
may be that the new comet is about to demon
strate this fact to the satisfaction of the most
incredulOus person.
Of course the comet may be coming toward
us without the slightest intention of hitting
us, and may pass us at distance OF thirty or
forty millions of miles. 1t may also be true
that the alarming reports as to its direction
and speed may be the cunning devices OF
Coney Island hotel-keepers, anxious to pro-
long ''the season." or of Vassar students who
wish to study little astronomy on the back
piazza or on the roof before returning to their
regular studies. 1t must be confessed, how
ever that the Washington astronomers are
probably acting in good faith, and that the
comet does present threatening appearance.
If it does strike the earth we shall have the
consolation that our sufferings will be ex-
tremely brief for it will certainly and perma-
nently knock the earth out of time in one
round-(Sir Isaac Newton's Rules.)
MATRIMONIAL INSURANCE.
The matrimonial insurance craze is raging
in the South, with all the Virulence OF the
death-rattle insurance business in Pennsylva-
mia year ago. Everybody seems to be taking
a hand in the swindle, as the papers are filled
with the advertisements of these concerns,
and their editorial columns praise them with
out stint. Each company is heavily otfcered,
and each officer is making livelihood out OF
the revenues The Memphis papers show That
eight Of these associations exist in that city,
while Nashville has no less than fourteen.
They are also to be found in considerable num-
bers, in Columbia, Tennessee, Pulaski, Muir
freesboro, Tuscumbia. Mobile, Montgomery,
Louisville, Paducah, Atlanta, Austin, Waco,
Dallas, New Orleans, Milan, Jackson, Vicks-
burg, Yazoo City, Galveston, Little Rock, Co.
lumbus Okolona, and other cities and towns.
According to the circular Of one of these
schemes, its objects .''to promote and en-
courage matrimOny, and to endoW its certlfl-
cate holders with certain sum OF money upon
his or her MARRIAGE A certificate holder
must be member four months before he can
derive any benefit from the association upon
marriage. The certificates are for Sl,0OO,
$4,000 and $3,000 For these respectively ad-
mission fees of IS, SO and S12 are charged,
and an assessment of 81. 10 for each thousand
dollars must accompany the admission fee.
Then equal assessments are levied monthly, or
they may be multiplied as the demands in
crease. Annual dues of S4, Sc, and IS are
also charged. The dues and assessments con-
tinue for 30 months, when they are matured.
By a little arithmetical exercise it will be found
that the luckiest members can only get back
what they paid in, minus expenses, which the
promoters, Officers and agents collect as the clr.
Gus moves along For the great majority OF
members there can be nothing, since it is i'm
possible for the best investments to bring back
such returns in thirty months. 1t is simply
a scheme to get something for nothing, and
only differs from the graveyard insurance sys-
tenn in that it has plan for robbing the cradle
instead of the grave. In other words, 1t him
ders marriage, and thus cheats the cradle OF
it's claims.
The craze will disappear after a year or two
and something else will take it's place. The
Pennsylvania ghouls have already subsidized,
their business having reached the end that was
predicted for it, after having driven thousands
into bankruptcy in the effort to keep up their
assessments. The matrimonial insurance sys-
TEN is only to be preferred to that of the Gem
etery in that it furnishes fewer incentives to
murder. 1t can neither compel an insured par
ty to die nor get married. Woonsocke Patriot.
THE DRUM.
Of the original use of the drum there are
rather discordant accounts but very ortho-
dOX myth ascribes the invention OF them TO
ClIle dllU6rlOE GNtll W lClSl VI y cuPio.i'
For it is said that the Corybantes when in
charge of the infant god, and wishing to
conceal him from the very unpaternal designs
of his father Saturn, improvised some drums,
and kept up such din with them as often the
child cried that the murderous parent was un-
able to discover his whereabouts. NOtWlth-
standing this tale it does not appear that the
Corybantian instrument was very early used
in WAL for there is no mention of it in the
Trojan expedition, or in any of the campaigns
of later Greeks and Romans. The learned are
disposed to believe that it was brought into
Europe as a military Instrument by the re-
turning Crusaders in the 18th or 18th century.
But it was clearly known long before in Africa
and Egypt, and as purely orchestral accom-
paniment in times of peace it seems likely to
have been known to the Hebrews under the
term which in the English Scriptures is rem
dered by tabor The family likeness of the
word to the modern French tambour is tco OBJ
vious to escape notice but isalsO very similar
in sound to the Kurdish tambar, said to mean
a guitar, to the Persian tambur, and to our
old English term, ''timbrel." The Hindoo
tom-tom is perhaps, also connected with 1T,
and it has been argued that all these words
have common Aryan root, represented in
our language by the verb "tap." This would
be supported by the view, in which classical
archeOlogists concur, that in early times both
the timbrels and other larger instruments OF
the kind were played by striking upon them
with the finger ends. In its original shape