Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-12-05
A VOYAGE THROUGH THE STARS.

Ballooning has been the dream of man for
5000 years and more. He looks upward at
the stars, and feels a longing to discover
some agency that will overcome the force
that chains his body to the earth from which
it sprang, aud bear him through the light
and tenuous atmosphere that surrounds it !;
and in the height of his most daring aspira-
tions, he tries to imagine the ecstacy ofvoy-
aging to the moon, and after inspecting that
lifeless and uninteresting cinder, continuing
his Journey into the serene depths OF space
beyond. And yet, strange 10 say, this is not
dream; it is O fact. Man is actually sail
ing amid the stars all his life. only the move
ment is so overwhelming in its magniticence
and vastness that the poor creature lives
his life of three scoresyears and ten without
apprehending it, Embarked on u vessel
which bears him onward at the rate Of co.
900 miles an hour, which moves, lie knows
not how, sometimes faster, sometimes slower
but never halting, and through all fast and
slow stages, making it's voyage to the Sec
ond of schedule time, he is perDrtually
passing through a region whose shifting
landmarks, or skymarks, he can note as
plainly as he notes the changing land
| marks on the Mississippi on water
| voyage from St. Louis to St. Paul. Any
one who even casually observes the heavens
at night, detects. in addition to the daily
apparent motion OF the stars round the
earth from east to west, still another much
slower motion Of the armament in the same
direction. It is an annual movement. The
whole arch of the heavens is divided into
$50 degrees, and it makes a complete cir
ha oil
fore, slips from east to west at the rate of
one degree Of space or four minutes Of time
every day. This looks like a slow plove-
ment, but it takes an actual earth-rate Of
travelling of 10000 miles an hour to produce
it. The apparent slowness is due to the
same optical causes which make far dis
tant ship appear to move sluggishly against
the sky background. If the sky be watched
night after night, it WILL bs found that q
bright star or constellation which shows it.
self Just on the eastern horizon at o'clock
at night will, six months afterwards, be on
the western horizon at o'clock. The star
appears to have moved. But it has not. Il
is tho observer who has changed his po
sition. Without feeling it, and perhaps
without knowing it, he has been sail
ing past the star and left il behind
him. In the six months he has met
and passed other stars and consteIa.
tions to tho east of it, precisely ms Il
steamboat travelling from St. Louis up the
Mississippi passes Alton, Hannibal, Keokull
Rock Island, Dubuque and Prairie du Chien
aud at last reaches ST. Paul. This inexpli-
cable airship wa call the earth, which, il
| spite of it's enormous weight OF rock and
iron, oceans and mountains, possesses in alb
solute perfection the buoyant qualities of a
balloon, has in the halfyear bowled along a
distance of 275 100000 m les, carrying pas
senger list Of l 800, 100000 souls, and reveal
| ing TO their unohservant and Indifferent eyes
new celestial region, marked with new
stars and sigus, at every successive stage ot
| twenty -four hours One by one the roya>
stars Of the first magnitude Aldebaran,
Rigel, Procyen, Sirius, Regulus, Spica, Are
turus, Affair, Antares and Fomalhaut; al
the considerations, the sweet and gentle
Pleiades, the mystic Orion, the Lion, the
Virgin, the Scorpion, the Northern Crown
and the Northern Cross-all have been
sighted, met, passed and left behind, ill iht
end of the voyage is reached and the won
derful airship, supported, we know not by
what, and moving we know not how, start;
without halting on another circuit-St
Louis Republican.