Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1885-04-24
BILL N1l ON THE COMtl'
What a Comets Character
istic Features Are.
A Humorist Disoourses Learnedly upon
an Astronomical Puzzle

A Humorist Disoourses Loarnedly upon
an Astronomical Puzzle
The comet is kind of astronomleal
parody on the planet. Comets LOON
some like planets but they are thinner
and do not hurt so bard when they MT
anybody as a planet does The Gomez
was so called because it had hair on ~
believe. but late years the pald-
headed comet is giving just as goou
satisfaction everywhere.
The characteristic features Of tne
comet are: A nucleus, anebulcus llghV
or coma, and usually luminous tram
or tail worn high. Sometimes seYeraI
tails are observed on one comet, but
this occurs only in flush times.
When | was young l used to think
! would like to be a comet in the SKY
up above the world so high. with
nothing to debut loaf around and play
with the little new laid planets ana
have good time, but now l can see
where l was wrong. Comets also have
their troubles, their perihelions, Their
hyperbolas and their parabolas. a
little over 300 years ago Tycho Brahe
discovered that comets were extrane-
GUS to our atmosphere, and since then
times have improved. l can see that
trade is steadier and potatoes run less
to tops than they did before.
Soon after that they discovered that
comets all had more or less periodicity.
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 we're two or three
hundred comets all down with it at
once. 1t was an exciting time.
Comets sometimes live to 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 1880 is supposed tC
have been the one that was noticed
about the time of Caesars death, "A B
G., and still when it appeared in New
toms time, seventeen hundred year;
after its first grand farewell tour, Ike
said that it was very well preserved in
deed and seemed to have Ietape1 al
I its faenltieasin good shape
n -s7Esss sss--4s----,s---...es -. 80 - "a
comets are turned from the sun. Iot
not know why they do this, whether
it is etiquette among them or just ;
mere habit.
a late writer on astronomy said tha
the substance of the nebulosity and tn,
tail is of almost inconceivable tenuity
He said this and then death came tC
his relief.
Another writer says of the comet and
its tail that 'the curvature of the latter
and the acceleration of the periodic
time in the case of Encke's comet ir-
dicate their being affected by a resist
ing 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 be
right. Much fear has been the result
of the comets appearance ever since
the world began, and it is as good
thing to worry about as anything |
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 torchlight procession. We
should SO live that we will not be
ashamed to look a comet in the eye,
however. Let us pay up our newspa-
per subscription and lead such lives
that when the comet strikes we will
be ready.
Some worry a 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 exp nses,
will agree to do his worrying about
the comets crashing into the bosom Of
the sun and knocking its daylights
out.-BiH Nye in Detroit Free Press.