Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-09-22


equally at home in the club and in tho
drawing room, being attractive to mon
and women alike. His manners were,
from an American standpoint, unusually
good for an Englishman, and in converse
tion as well as In qutGkncss Of apprehen
sion, he was far ,Jaore like an American
than ike Brfton. Ile used even TO ap-
preciate American jokes about Boston,
for l@ had been In that city and had had
mis- own experience among the lion hunt
crs there One Of these, n lady of ''cul-
chaw." he told tho writer about, who, as
an Anglomaniac, thought IL fine TO decry
America in comparison with Europe She
specially objected to the climate on this
side and spoke rnpturously Of the beauty
Of Italian skies. 81 shall never forget"
she said, "the sight Of the crescent moon
over the Bay of Naples, with big star
blazing exactly In tho center of tho cres-
cent line"
The astronomer lost his breath for an
instant, but said promptly, eyes, in
deed. Tho atmosphere Is SO pure that the
moon itself In those climates becomes
Transparent. *~*
1t IL not, perhaps, very widely known
that his dream in life was to be connected
with series, or rather an associated set,
Of mammoth observatorics In this coun-
try. These. as no planned the outline of
tho scheme, were to be Lcated--one in
Florida, ono on some elevated point in the
Rocky mountains. and one possibly in
Alaska, If any site could bo found there
where the atmosphere Is sufficiently clear.
With this chain Of obseryatories, In con-
nection with the Lick Observatory in
California, he deemed that Americas
part of the worlds astronomical work
hn bn ian nf hn
dream was, of course, to be the establish
mcnt of such observatories all over tho
world, under different governments. His
ambition was to he identified, under tho
sanction of tho American government,
with tho three mentioned. and he was
saLgune Of the early realization of at
least the beginning OF tho work. He be-
lievcd and had told some of his intimate
friends that the year 1891 or 1892 would
SEQ the work of establishing tho Florida
observatory fairly under way. BY his
death of n disease undoubtedly contracted
In Florida that state lost one of its warmest
and most influential friends, who would
doubtless have become one OF her citizens
If he had lived. Ho had filed his declara-
tion Of becoming a citizen of the United
States. and he was making his homo in
Florida.
Tho work of these observatories, he
firmly believed, would corroborato the
theories he advanced in "Other Worlds
than Ours" In that book no stated his
belief that the other planets were In q
condition similar to that of tho earth in
past geologic ages, and, wild as tho belief
may seem, he thought that telescope oh.
servation would confirm this belief. In
Brooklyn, during his first course of lect-
ures. he predicted that Jupiter would be
found to be in an intensely heated condi-
tion, similar to what the earth must have
been in the ante tc.metamorphic periods, and
that the planets Mars and Venus would,
II the telescopes power could be sufn-
ciently increased, show u condition analo-
gous to that of our own globe in compar-
ntively recent geologic epochs These
predictions have been partially confirmed
by the latest observations Of the planet
Mars. -
Another theory which he maintained in
private conversation was that the old
division of heavenly bodies into nebule.
suns, planets and satellites would be done
away with by telescopes Of higher power
and greater accuracy, and that with these
1t would be found that every stage Of
cosmical growth was exhibited in tho
heavens. He even went so far rs TO sug-
gest that tho astronomy OF the future
would recognize first, unorganised nebu-
le; second, centered nebulp, similar to
the solar system in tho beginning accord,
ing to La Place; third, nebular systems
dissimilar TO the foregoing, in which the
law of development would be more com.
plicated; fourth, multi-centerod nebular
systems; fifth. systems intermediary
between the centered nebular and solar
systems. and so on. Last of ell he
thought there would be found dying sys-
TENS such as our own win be untold ages
hence. At least two Of these suggestions
have been proven correct by tho discover
los within the past year, made at the Lick
observatory.
The genial, many sided nature OF this
wonderful man was shown in his appre-
citation Of Artemus Wards famous WITH
cism-perhaps his greatest ono-which
that great man perpetrated at the expense
of astronomy. Artemus Ward said that
he could understand how distances be-
tween stars were measured, and was pre-
pared to acknowledge that accurate in
formation might be obtained about the
weight and chemical composition Of those
bodies, but he would DO hanged II he
could understand how the astronomers
ever found out their names. Mr.. Proctor
never heard or repeated this joke without