Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-12-17
BILL NYE ON THE HERSCHELs.

BILL NYE ON THE HERSCHELs.
HUDSON, WIS.,, Nov. 1S.-Probably no
two men have done more to promote know
ledge and advance the interests of astrono-
my especially, than Sir John Frederick
William Herschel and Sir William Her
schel deceased.
Sir John was born at Slough, near Wind
sor, in the state of England, March 7, 1892.
He breathed the very air of science at once
and yearned to acquire knowledge. Thus
he fitted himself for the fatiguing and ex.
hausting labors Of scanning the sky and
tracing out the history, location and habits
of the stars.
In 1923 his attention was attracted toward
Margaret Brodie, the daughter of the Rev.
DIR. Alexander Stewart. 1t was about this
time that he began to sit up nights and
rummage the heavens. He never got
over it.
In 1929 he married Margaret, but he still
continued to sit up nights, and nothing
tickled him more than to rambe through
the trackless void to watch the antics of his
nebula, or to follow skittish comet
through space trying to put salt on its little
tail.
In 1884 he began the stupendous task of
getting out a catalogue and price list of all
the stars. No one who has never tried it
can possibly realize fully the extent of this
task. Not only that, but the most Of it had
to be done at night. And yet he never
murmured.
He catalogued between three and four
review the nebule discovered and cata-
logued by his father. While others slepthe
labored on. While the giddy throng poured
into the halls of pleasure, or sought out the
lawn sociable, Sir John, with his forty
foot telescope and a ten-foot pole over his
shoulder, would start out to investigate the
trackless void. Thus he became familiar
with the mannersand customs the planets,
and felt perfectly at home in the sky. He
bly, or not. He could at once detect it If an
orb got sprung. He had it down fine. No
one dared adulterate the milky way while
Sir John had charge of the stars.
In 1917 he published the result of his OBJ
servations from the Cape of Good Hope,
covering the four years from 1884 to 1888.
These we're: I. Nebule, and what to do
for them. II. Double stars and their hab-
it's. III. Apparent size of stars, or how
they look to man up tree. Nv. Dlstrlb-
ution of stars, or why early astronomers
brated comet, with appendix treating. of
bob-tail comets; also hints about shying
comets, and how to evade new laid meteor.
vi. Satellites of Saturn. VII. Solar spots,
and how to remove them without injury to
the sun.
There is one thing that the Herschels
neglected, and would like to call the at
tention of philanthropists and astronomers
to it. I am philanthropist myself, but l
have not been successful in that line, owing
to a lack of means. So wish that those
who want to do kind act and have the
ability as we'll as the desire, would investl.
gate the case of tine gentleman who general
Iy stands in the middle of the zodiac on the
first page of the almanac. We are likely to
have long, cold winter very soon, and no
man ought to die from exposure IN an en-
lightened land where the rest OF us have
all the clothes we need. Besides, this man
seems to be seriously injured, and, though
am not at all familiar with surgery, it
seems to me that he ought to be sewed up;
ought to wear a vest, anyway, II ne wants
to preserve his health Who will be the
first to send in vest ?-Chicago Daily Ne,cs.
THE QUARREL OF BLAINE AND CONK-
L1NG.-The feud between Blaine and Conk-
ling originated when they were members
of the House, and it was first manifest in
May, 1866, when the Representative from
Maine arraigned the Representative from
New York for having received money from
the War Department for legal services,
ber of Congress.
Mr.. Conkling said if the member from
Maine had the least idea how profoundly
Indifferent to him his opinion was on the
subject he had been discussing, or on any
other subject, he thought he would hardly
take the trouble to express it. He apollo
gised to the House for the length OF time ne
had occupied, in consequence of being drawn
into the matter by an interruption which
| l. fn no
manly and impertinent, and having moth
ing whatever to do with the matter.
Mr.. Blaine said that he knew that this
was what they called down East running
emptyings." The gentleman from New
York could not get off on the technical pre-
tense that he did not hold an office as judge
advocate. Many an officer had led bri-
gade, a division or corps, with no more OF
a commission than such one as the gentle
man from New York held. GAS to the
gentleman's cruel sarcasm (Mr. Blaine con-
disdain. His lordly pomposity, grandilo-
uuent swell, his majestic overtowering, his
turkey-gobbler strutting, have been so crush
ing to myself and to all members of the
House, that I know it was an act OF the
grossest temerity on my part to venture on
provoking them. But [ knew who was re-
sponsible for it all. I knew that for the
| last hVe weeks an extra StTuC ldu SelZeu tHe
gentleman. It is not his fault; it is the
fault of another; that gifted and satirical
man, Theodore Tilton, of the New York
Iadependent, who was here spending some
weeks, and writing home letters in which,
among some serious things, he had put some
iocose things, among the cruelest OF which
was that the mantle of the late Winter
Davis had fallen upon the member from
New York. He (Conkling) took it as Sc
rious, and has since strutted more than u.s.
ual. Well, the resemblance was great; as
striking as Hyperion to a satyr, Thersytes
to Hercules, mud to marble, dunghill to
diamond, singed cat to Bengal tiger,
whining puppy to roaring lion. Shade of
the mighty Davis, forgive the PROCLAMATION
of even that iocOse satire."-Ben. Pertey
Poore, IN Boston Budget.
APPLEs.-Prof D. C. Eaton, Of Yale Col
lege, in paper on "Apples," read recent
ly before the Scientific Society Of Bridge
port, says: "The first positive scientific
demonstration of the existence of apple
trees was in the disclosure, made through
a condition of the water, that apple tree
trunks formed part of the foundations OF
the habtatons of the lake dWellers Of
Switzerland. This period, as nearly as
could be judged, was from 1900 to 1900
years before Christ. That the apple with
which Eve was tempted in the Garden OF
Eden, according to the Scripture, is the ap-