Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-04-18
copERN1crs AVN wHAr HE rHoraur.

CoPERNICCS AND WHAT HE THOUGHT.
About 800 years ago there was man
named Copernicus. He lived in the city OF
Rome and taught mathematics in one OF
the great universities. He watched the
motions of the sun and stars and studied
them carefully. He could not believe that
the sun and moon and stars, each, was fas-
tened in a crystal arch that Whirled around
the earth once a day. This is what other
people thought but he believed that such
beauty as he saw in the skies must be due
10 some simpler and more beautiful ar
rangement.
You remember the little rhyme,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what YOU are.
hut must tell you that al stars do not
twinkle. If you look at them at night
when the sky is clrarest, you will see how
lively the light of most of them sparkles
and flashes, as if they were laughing at
you, but if you look carefully you may find
a few that do not twinkle at all they shine
with n clear and steady light. These are
called planets. The earth is one of these
planets, and if you could get far enough
away from it you would see it shine as
bright as any of them.
Now, Copernicus saw that the sun and
all these planets are in a system by them
beyond them all He believed the earth to
be n globe, turning around upon its axis
once day. He believed the sun and all
the other planets to be globes, too, and that
they were whirling on their own axis also
He watched their motions through the
heavens, and found that each one has its
own path in which it travels around the
sJn They leave no track behind them,
and yet their way is never lost. Time after
time has each one travelled over and over
again its noiselesS journey in its smooth
and unmarked pathway around the sun.
Copernicus hardly dared to tell the world
his new ideas about the heavens, for it was
then dangerous thing to believe anything
different from what others thought to be
true. He who did, would sometimes be
driven from his home, shut up in prison
or punished with painful torture. SO Cop
ernIcus kept his thoughts to himself, but he
wrote them out in little book. and not
until the very day on which he died was
the first printed copy of it received. What
he did not dare to teach while alive, every
body has. since his death, learned to be
true. The sun is the center of the system,
the earth and all the other planets 90
around him at different distances in the
heavens Prof. /. C. Cooley
MONKEYS AT THEIR TOILETS.
In India, where the monkeys live among
men, and are the playmates of their chill
dren, the Hindoos have grown fond of
them, and the fOur-in-hand folk participate
in all their simple household rites In the
early morning, when the peasant goes out
TO yoke his oxen. and the COW wakes up,
and the dog stretches himself and shakes
oil the dust in which he has slept last
night, the monkey creeps down the peepul
tree, only half awake, and yawns and looks
about him, puts a straw in his mouth, and
scratches himself contemplatively Then
one by one the whole family come slipping
down the tree trunk and they ALI yawn
and look about and scratch. But they are
sleepy and peevish and the Youngsters get
cuffed for nothing, and begin to think life |
dull. Yet the toilet has to be performed, |
and whether they like il or not the young
ones are sternly pulled up, one by one, to |
their mother, TO undergo the process.
The youngsters know their turn quite |
well. As each feels the moment arrive it |
throws itself on its stomach as if over
whelmed with apprehension, the others
meanwhile sitting their satisfaction at the
so and so Is doing il, and the instant the
maternal paw is extended to grasp the tail
the subject of the next experiment utters a
piercing shrek, and, throwing its arms for
ward in the dust. allows itself to be dragged
1iSiis - mn anu ElC-9 tdltdSS,
all the time no doubt, al its brothers and
sisters at the way it is imposing on the old
lady. But the old lady will stand no nom
sense, and turning the child right side up.
proceeds to put tito rights. takes the kinks
out OF It's tail and knots ont of its fur, pokes
its fingers into its ears and looks at each of
its toes, the irrepressible brat all the time
wearing on its face an absurd expression
of hopeless and incurable grief, those who
have been already cleansed looking on with
delight at the screaming face, and those
who are waiting wearing becoming aspect
of enormous gravity.
The old lady, however has her joke,
which is to cuff each youngster before she
lets il 90, and nimble as her offspring are.
she generally. to her credit be it said. man.
ages to " fet, h them one on the ears " be-
fore they are out of reach. The father,
sits gravely with his back to all
these domestic matters waiting for his
breakfast. Presently the mats before the
hut doors are pushed down, and women,
with brass vessels in their hands, come
out, and while they scOur the pots with
dust, exchange between songs the compli-
neuts OF the morning. The monkeys by
Ibis time have come closer to the prepara- ]
lions for food. and sit solemnly house !
hold by household, watching every move
ncnt. Hindoos do not hurry themselves |
n anything they do. but the monkey has I
plenty Of patience, and the end, when &
he crowd has stolen a little, and l
he dog has had his morsel, and the chill g
iren are all satisfied, the fragments of the t
neal are thrown out on the ground for the
blundcr orgue" the monkey people, and
I soon disappears, the mother feeding the '
,aby before she eats herself London Tel {
graph q
CANT RUB IT OUT. {
Don't write there, said father to his c
on who was writing with diamond on I
he window. a
Why not ," t
Because you can't rub it out" I
Did it ever occur to your, my child, that !
'ou are daily writing that which you can't 0
ub out? a
You made a cruel speech to your mother a
he other day. 1t wrote itself on her loving a
leart, and gave her great pain Ii is there t
low, and hurts her every time she thinks Y
# 1t. You can't rub ii out. o
You whispered wicked thought one dav a
n the ear of your playmate. 1t wrote p
tself on his mind, and led him to do v
wicked act. 1t is there now; you can't rub a
out. S
WHITTIER AND TIE CHILDREN. u
A little while ago number of children q
n public school in Girard. Penn. wrote Il II
etter 10 the poet Whittier, telling him that
hey had learned to recite several of his
oens, and closing thus " If it would not 4
e too much trouble, write = verse for US u
that we could learn and ALWAYS =
emember as having been written by you =
specially for US In response, he sent II !,
le following: 81
Faint not and faltcr not, nor plead -
Your weakness: Truth itself is strong -
The lions strength, the eagles speed, p
Are not alone vouchsafed to wrong CT
Your nature which through fire and blood, -
To place OF gain can find its way,
Has power to seek the highest good bl
And duty's hottest call obey. Iii
--------- ~---------- to
\ Death and n Dream. E,
Francis Meeks, q negro boy of Is years of
&c, died suddenly Saturday night, at his
RI