Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-05-19

The Travels Of the Sum.
From the New York Sun.
Some recent discussions of the constitution
Of the sun have turned in part upon what IL
known as the suns proper motion in space.
This is one of the most surprising and interest
ing things that science has ever brought to
light. and yet it is something of which COM
paratiyely few persons have any knowledge 1t
is customary to look upon the sun as If it were
the center of the universe an immoyable fiery
globe around which the earth and other
planets revove while 1t remains fixed In one
place. Nothing could be further from the
truth. The sun is, in tact, the most wonderful
of travellers. He liz flying through space at the
rate Of not less than hundred and sixty
millions Of miles In a year. and the earth and
her sister planets are his fellow voyagers. which,
obeting his overpowering attraction, circle
about him as he advances. In other words If
we could take up position in open space in
advance of the sun. we should see him rushing
toward US at the rate of some 45O. 900 miesa day,
chased by his whole family of shining worlds
and the vast swarms OF meteoric bodies which
obey his attraction. The general direction of
this motion of the solar system has been known
since the time of Sir William Herschel. 1t is to-
ward the constellation Hercules, which, at this
season. may be seen In the northeastern sky at 9
o'clock in the evening. AS the line of this
motion makes an angle of fifty odd degrees with
Tile pane VI tie eaTCu OTDC. IL 1OOWS that the
earth Is not like horse at a windlass. crcling
around the sun forever in one beaten path,
but like q ship belonging to fleet whose
leader Is continually pushing its Prov into
unexplored. waters. The path of the earth
through space Is spiral, so that it is all the time
advancing into new regions along with the sun.
She Is on a boundless voyage of discovery and
her human crew are born and die in widely sep
arated tracts Of space. Think of the distance
over which the travels Of the sun have borne
fhn nnlv ,cinn hoe
history! Six thousand years ago the earth and
sun were about q million millions of miles
further from the stars in Hercules than they
are to-day. Columbus and his contemporaries
lived when the earth was In region of the
universe more than sixty thousand millions of
miles from the place where 1t Is now. 80 that
since his time the whole human race has been
making voyage through space, in comparison
with Which his longest voyage was as the foot
step of afy. Thus the great events in the his
tory of the world may be said to have occurred
in different parts Of the universe. An almost
uncomfortable distance separates the spot which
the earth occupied in the time of Alexander from
That which it occupied when Caesar invaded
Gaul. The sun and the earth have wandered so
tar from their birthplace that the mind staggers
in the attempt to guess at the stupendous dis
lance which now probably separates them from
1t. 1t may be that the motion of the solar svs-
TEN Is orbital and that our sun and many of
the stars. his fellow suns, are revolving around
some common center, but if so, no means has
yet been devised of detecting the form or dimen-
sions of his orbit. So far as we can see the sun
Is moving in straight line.
Since space is believed to be filed with some
sort OF ethereal medium, curious consequences
are seen to follow from the motions that have
been described. A solid globe like the earth
rushing at great speed through such medium
Will encounter some resistance. If the medium
De exceedingly rare, as it must be In fact, the
resistance will be correspondlngly small, but
still there will be resistance. If the sun stood
still, the earth, owing to the inclination of its
axis to the plane of its orbit around the sun.
would encounter the resistance of the ether
principally on it's northern hemisphere from
summer to winter, and on it's southern hemis-
phere from winter to summer. But In conse-
quence OF the motion of the sun shared by
the earth, this law of distribution is changed,
and from summer to winter the earth ploughs
through the ether with it's north pole foremost,
while from winter to summer, although the re-
slstance OF the ether Is encountered more even
ly by the two hemispheres. yet it is still felt
principally in the northern hemisphere, and the
south pole remains practically protected. 1t
follows that the southern hemisphere and par
ticularly the south polar regions, are more or
less completely sheltered the whole year around
1t might, then be supposed that the impact of
the PARTICLES of the ether shOuldered aside by the
earth In its swift flight and the compression pro-
duced In front of the advancing globe would
tend to raise the temperature of the northern
hemisphere as compared with the southern hem
isphere, while the south pole, being more or less
directly in the wake of the earth and in region
of rarefaction of the ether. would constantly
possess remarkably low temperature.
Now. it is known that the south polar regions
are more covered with Ice and snow than those
OF the north, and that the temperature there the
year around is lower. Whether this difference
is owing to the effects of the earth's Journey
through the ether ia question.
The sum- too. moves with his northern hemi-
sphere foremost, and it is worthy OF remark
that it has been suspected that the northern
hemisphere Of the sun radiates more heat than
the southern.
But. whatever effect it may or may not have
upon the meteorological condition of the earth
the fact that the solar system is thus vOyaging
through space Is in itself exceedingly interest
Ing. Not the widest travellers dream presents
to the Imagination such voyage as this on
which every inhabtant of the earth Is bound A
glance at star map shows that the direction In
which we are going Is carrying us toward a re-
g1on OF the heavens exceedingly rich In stars,
many, and perhaps most, of which are greater
suns than ours There can be little doubt that
when the sun arrives in the neighborhood OF
those stars he will be surrounded by celestial
scenery very different from and much more bril-
liant than that OF the region Of space in which
he now Is. The inhabitants of the globe at that
distant period will certainly behold new and far
more glorious heavens, though the earth may be
unchanged.
The English Sparrow Must Go.
From the Philadelphia Times.
The recent formal and emphatic declaration
of war made by the West Chester Microscopical
Society against the English sparrow, is simply
an expression of the practically universal senti-
ment OF city and country about the little pestif-
erous bird. The English sparrow has been