The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-06-13
Bill Nye on the Comet.

-
cal parody on the planet. Comets |
look some like planets but they are |
thinner and do not hurt so hard when
they hit anybody as a planet does.
The comet was so called because it
had hair on it, | believe, but late
years the blad-headed comet is giving
just as good satisfaction everywhere.
The characteristic features of the
comet are: A nucleus, nubulous
light or coma, and usually lum!n-
Gus train or tail worn high. Some
times several tails are observed on
one comet, but this occurs only in
flush times.
When l was young l used to think
| would like to be comet in the sky,
up above the world so high, with
nothing to do but loaf around and
play with the little new laid planets
and have n good time, but now | can
see where was wrong. Comets also
have their troubles. their perihelions,
their hyperbolaS and their paraholas.
A little over 800 years ago Tycho
Brahe discovered that comets were
since then times have improved. l
can see that trade is steadier and pO-
tatoes run less to tops than they did
before.
Soon after that they discovered that
comets all had more or less perindi-
city. Nobody knows how they got
it. All the astronomers had been
watching them day and night and
didn't know when they were exposed
but there was no time to talk and
argue over the question. There were
two or three hundred comets all down
with it at once. 1t was an exciting
time.
Comets sometimes live to a great
age. This shows that the night air is
not so injurious to the health as many
people would have us believe. The
great comet of 1850 is supposed to
have been the one that was noticed
about the time of Caesars death, Al
B. c., and still when it appeared in
| NeWton's time, seventeen hundred
years after its first grand farewell
tour, Ike said that it was very well
preserved indeed and seemed to have
retained all its faculties in good shape.
Astronomers say that the tails of
all comets are turned from the sun. |
do not know why they do this,
whether it is etiquette among them
or just mere habit.
A late writer on astronomy said
that the substance of the nebulosity
and the tail is of almost inconceiva-
BILE tenuity. He said this and then
death came to his relief.
Another writer says of the comet
and its tail that "the curvature of the
latter and the acceIeration of the per
iodic time in the case of Encke's com
ct indicate their being affected by ii
resisting medium which has never
been observed to have the slightest
influence on the planetary periods"
do not fully agree with the emf
nent authority, though he may he
right, Much fear has been the result
of the comets appearance ever since
the world begun, and it is as good a
| n oil |, i,,c /
know OF. If we could get close to a
comet without frightening it away,
we would find that we could walk
|, through it any where as we could
|, through the glare of a torchlight
. procession. We should so live that
, we will not be ashamed to look IA
comet in the eye, however. Let
} Us pay up our newspaper subscrip-
ton and lead such lives that when
the comet strikes we will all be
|, ready.
Some worry good deal about the
chances for big comet to ploW into
the sun some dark rainy night, and
thus bust up the whole universe.
wish that was all | had to worry
! about, If any responsible man will
agree to pay my taxes and funeral
expenses, | will agree to do his wor
, rying about the comets crashing in
to the bosom of the sun and knock
} ing its daylights out.--BW Nye IN
. Detroit Free Press.
Imaginary Ailments.