The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-12-12
SUN SPOTS.
A Suggestion That the Orb of Day Is AZ
fected with Measles.

A Suggestion That the Orb of Day Is Az
fected with Measles.
A fresh spot has appeared on the face
of the sun, very large one, humanity
speaking. 1t measures about twenty
thousand geographical miles by seven
thousand. Perhaps the sun does not
think it excessive, having such very
broad face, and being able to accom-
modate a great number of pimples of
the same size. But the extent sounds
considerable, all the same Besides,
there are ever SO many smaller ones
about the size of the earth, and, taking
all together, we shall hardly be exag-
gerating the situation if we say there is
'quite RASH" For much less we
should call the doctor in. Indeed, we
terrestrial atoms could not rise to the
dignity of such an eruption, not even if
we put all our faces together and went
shares in the same spot. We talk of
having ''the measles;' nobody thinks
of counting them or asking "How
manyP' But they are mere pin points,
dots, specks. 1t is very different, how
erer, with the orb 'that rules the
day" Astronomers keep regis
Ter of its eruptions, and book
each new ''measle' as it comes.
They diagnose the phenomenon, and
conjecture as to its causes and
results, just as the doctors do over the
baby's red-speckled body; and, like
doctors, they can not stop the process
It must run its course, they say. Some
day, perhaps, they will prescribe for
the. sun. If they already know its
weight, and its temperature and con-
stitution, why should they not find all
about its digestion and habitsp Is it
temperate and addicted to regular
lifeP There is good deal to be said
on both sides. In general way it is
irreproachable, a model luminary, and
pattern to everybody else, doing per-
ennial work conscientiously and regu-
larry. Morally, too, no fault can be
found with body which is all things
to all men-answers the negro accord
ing to his blackness, and never throws
pearls before swine. Early to bed and
early to rise, it ought to be healthy,
wealthy and wise. But is itp There
is another side to the sun. When it
has got out of our sight, and beyond
the scrutinizing vision of civilization, it
conducts itself immoderately. An excess
sive warmth characterizes its conduct
1t blazes out, gets furiously hot over
nothing. People beg the sun to keep
cool, to calm itself. But this only seems
to make it get all the hotter and be all
the more intolerable. From other quar-
tiers, again, we have very different re-
ports. There, they tell us, and the evil
dence is trustworthy, it will not show
itself sometimes for weeks together.
They know it is there, or Whereabouts,
from the reflections cast on the sky.
But, as for melting a glacier or liquefy-
ing an iceberg, no such effects or forth
coming. This gratifies polar bears, no
doubt, but can not be styled impartial
behavior. After all, the Esquimaux are
human beings, which even the best of
bears are not. Still, as the homely
saving goes, we should talk of men
only as we know. Report is liable to be
biased in the transit or unreliable at the
source. So, for ourselves, we ought to
speak well of the great orb. That it
does not, as rule, take much notice of
us, and that when, as an exception, it
does, we grumble, is neither here nor
there. Our temperature is the finest in
the world, our climate second to none,
and the security of our country from
plague, pestiience and famine, from
drouth and flood, earthquake and hur-
ricanes is the envy of all the inhabited
earth. And for all this we have to
thank the sum- London Telegraph.