Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1885-11-18
a VOYAGE Through lhe stars

Ballooning has been the dream Of
man for 5000 years and more. He
looks upward at the stars, and feels >
longing 10 discover some agency that
will overcome tue force that chains his
body to the earth from which II sprang.
and bear him through the light and
te1uOus atmosphere that surrounds it,
and, in the height of his most daring
aspirations. he tries to imagine the &C.
stacy of yoyagiDg to the moon, and
after inspecting that lifeless and unin-
teresting cinder, continuing his journey
into the serene depth OF space beyond.
Aud yet, strange to say. this IS not a
dream; it is q fact. Man is actually
sailing amid the stars all his life, only
the movement is so overwhelming in its
magnifcence and vsstness that the poor
creature lives his life of threescore years
and ten without appreheEding it. En-
barked on a vessel which bears him
onward at the rate of $4,000 miles an
hour, which moves, he knows not how,
sometimes faster, sometimes slower,
but never halting, and, through all fast
the second of schedule time, he is per-
petually passing through region whose
shifting landmarks, or sky-marks, he
can note as plainly rs he notes the
changing land marks on the Mississippi
on water voyage from st. Louis to st.
Paul. Anyone who even casually OBJ
serves the heavens at night detects, in
addition to the daily apparent motion
of the stars round the earth from east
10 west, still another much slower mo-
ton of the armament in the same di.
rectioD. 1t is an annual movement.
The whole arch of the heavens Is divi-
ded into $50 degrees, and it makes a
complete circuit in 365 days, The
celestial vault, therefore, slips from
east to west at the rate of one degree
of space or four minutes OF time every
day. This looks like slow movement,
but 1t 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-distant ship appear to move
Ii the sky be watched night after night.
it will be found tina. bright star or
constellation which shows itsslf just on
the eastern horIz0n at Q o'clock at
night, will, six months afterwards, be
on the western horizon at Q o'clock.
The star appears to have moved. But
it has not. Ii is the observed who has
changed his position. Without feeling
it, and perhaps without knowing it, he
has been sailing past the star and left
it behind him. In the SIX months, he
has met and passed other stars and con-
stellations to the east of it, precisely as
n steamboat travels from st. Louis up
the Mississippi, passes Alton, Hannibal,
Keokuk, Rock Island, Dubuque, and
Prairie du Chien, ard at last reaches
st. Paul. This inexpIicable sir-ship we
call the earth, which, in spite of its
enormous weight Of rock and iron,
oceans and mountains, possesses IN
absolute perfection the buoyant quail
ties of a balloon, has in tine half-year
bowled along 4 distance of 275, GOO 600
miles. carrying passenger list of 800
600, 600 souls and revealing to their
unobservant and indifferent eyes, new
celestial region marked with new stars
and signs, at every successive stage of
twenty-four hours. One by one. the
royal stars OF the first magnitude, Aide
BARN. RIgel, Procyen, Sirius, Regulus.
Spica. Arcturus, Altar, Antares, and
Fomaihaut; all the consultations, the
sweet and gentle Pleides, the mystic
Orion, the Lion, the Virgin, the Seor-
pion, the Northern Crown, and the
Northern Cross-all have been sighted,
met, passed, and left behind, till the
end of the voyage Is reached and the
wonderful air-ship, supported, we know
not by what, and moving We know not
how. starts without halting on another
circuit.