National Republican., 1883-09-26

forty-throo years before our Saviour. In
1i02 u comet was seen SO brilliant IL could be
discovered at monday In 1856 came tho
great comet which tho pope excommunicatcd,
which has been classified and its period cal
culatcd. Its next appearance will be in 1910
The great comet Of 1850, lIalleys comet, had
tail 06,00O,O00 of miles long and when
nearest tho sun flies with tho
inconccivablo velocity Of 100000
of miles an hour. Astronomers have
| ooniecturod that when nearest the sun IL was
exposed to u heat $1,000 times greater than
sand times greater than red hot iron. Away
out in space its temperature was reduced
to the absolute zero of tho scientists, at
least 457 degrees below zero, Fahren.
het. This Is tho comet which tho
learned Winston thought doluged the world
in the times of Noah. Winston thought this
was hell, where the souls and resurrected
bodies of the wicked were confined. They
must have had a pretty hot and cold time Of
It. The tail Of this comet extended from tho
horizon to the zenith.
The great comet of 1s11-12, which is sup
posed identical with tho present one. had
nucleus 2.G17 miles In diameter, or nearly as
equal to one-tonth Of tho full moon. The
envelope surrounding the nucleus was
| $4,000 miles thick, or 500 times
deeper than the atmosphere Of the earth,
making the diameter of the comet over so 900
miles. IL had a very luminous tail, whose
greatest length was 100,000000 of miles |
This comet moved in its poriholion with an
almost inconceivable velocity, 1900 times
greater than that of q ball bursting from the
| mouth of n cannon. If the present comet Is
the great one of 1911 it will be magnificent
spectacle If IL possesses any density of mo.
inent, should it hit the earth while moving
| with such tremendous velocity our planet
| would Instantly rp1nnn1 In N irnr In IA h1n
| gus.
Another strange thing about comets is that
on their first observed visit to the solar sys-
TEN they put on n great deal of style; APP
pearing sometimes with tails 100,O00000
miles long. With each recurring visit they
get shorn of their glories more and more till
at last they don't have any tail at all.
One thought or speculation may not here
be impertinent. Many able and wise men
have thought that the flaming comet and the
blazing star which heralded our Saviour's
birth made periodical visits to the earth.
These savants have concluded that Tycho
Brabo's star, which shone out at monday with
brightness surprising that of Venus at her
| greatest brilliancy, was the star of Bethlehem.
According to these savants, its period is about
| $40 years, and II is due about this time. This
| speculation, of course, deals too much with
| imaginative hypothesis TO be accepted by
scientific men, even though they accept a moro
miniforous ether.
| OF all the literature of comets tho most
profoundly startling, tho most harrowingly
terrible, is wrapped in its confagratory
splendors in Edgar Poe's wild story of " Eiros
and Charmion." On the shores of the dim
Helusion Eiros watches the grand and awe
inspiring spectacle of tho earth--the earth
he had lived in before death-sud-
denly blazing up into fervent heat
and surprising brilliancy. The soul
OF his beloved Charmion is waited
across the unimaginable gulrs of space from
the blazing earth to Helusion Burning to
know all of the catastrophe he had seen,
Eiros questions his beloved, who tells him
that in the latter days comet of strange
guise and unhistoric aspect appeared
in view. Science interrogated the
strange visitor and found that it
was composed Of impalpablo gas. Though
science thus comforted, the world refused to
be comforted, and grow wild with strange
nervous dread The theologians from the
pulpit preached the prophecies of holy
| writ that the earth would be destroyed
by fire, and that the comet could not, there.
FORE affect them. In vain were their
within tho scope of the earth's atmosphere,
and science began her investigations
anew, this time on the constituents of the
atmosphere. This as all men know, was
composed Of oxygen and hydrogen. What
would be the oilcct of a total abstraction OF
tho hydrogen, leaving the oxygen untouched
! Combustion total, overwhelming, omni-
prevnlent-fultilling in all their minutest de-
! tails the fiery denunciation of the Holy Book
| And thus did Eiros learn the secret of the
fiery mystery he had seen.