Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-04-10

munity amid such o rain Of DEATH.
threatening bolts, I became aware
that their velocity was sensibly di-
minishing. This fact / explained by
supposing that I was drawn along
with them. Notwithstanding the alb
sence of any collision with my
body, tho overpowering attraction
of the whole mass of meteors was
overcoming my tangential force and
bearing me in their direction. At first
/ rejoiced at this circumstance, for at
any rate the comet would save me from
the dreadful fate Of becoming an as
teroid. A little further reflection, how
ever, showed me that had gone from
tho frying pan into the fire. The d.
rection Of my expulsion from Menippe
had been such that had fallen into On
orbit that would have carried mo
around the sun without passing very
close to the solar body. Now, being
swept along by the comet, whose peri
helion probably lay in the immediate
neighborhood of the sun, saw no
way of escape from the frightful fate
OF being broiled alive. Even where I
was, the untempered rays of the sun
scorched me, and I knew that within
two or three hundred thousand miles
of the solar surface the heat must be
sufficient to melt the hardest rocks. I
was aware that experiments with burn
ing glasses had sufficiently demonstrate
ed that fact.
But perforce I resigned myself to my
fate. At any rate it would the sooner
be all over. In fact, almost forgot
my awful situation in the interest
awakened by the phenomena of the
comet. was in the midst of its very
head. was one of it's compo-
nent particles. I was meteor
among a million millions of others. If
could only get back to the earth,
what news could I not carry to Signor
Schiaparelli, and Mr.. Lockyer and DR..
Bredichin about the composition OF
comets! But, alas! the world could
never know what I now saw. Nobody
on yonder cleaning earth, watching
the magnificent advance of this specter
of the skies, would ever dream that
there was lost astronomer in it's blaz.
ing head. I should be burnt and rent
to pieces amid the terrors of it's peri
helion passage, and my fragments
would be strewn along the comets
| orbit, to become, in course of time,
particles in q swarm of aerolites. Per.
chance, through the effects of some un-
foreseen perturbation, the earth might
encounter that swarm. Thus only
could ever return to the bosom of my
mother planet. took positive pleas
ure in imagining that one of my cal.
cined bones might eventually flash for
moment, a falling star, in the atmos-
phere of the earth, leaving it's atoms
to slowly settle through the air, unit
finally they rested in the soil from
which they had sprung.
From such reflection I was aroused
by the approach of the crisis. The
head of the comet had become an ex.
ceedingly uncomfortable place. The
collisions among the meteors were
constantly increasing in number
and violence. How I escaped de.
struction could not com.
prehend, but in fact I was unconscious
of danger from that source, I had
become in spirit an actual component
of the clashing, roaring mass. Ire.
mendous sparks of electricity, verita
BILE lightning strokes, darted about me
in every direction, but I bore q
charmed life. AS the comet drew in
nearer to the sun, under the terrible
stress of the solar attraction, the mo-
teors seemed to crowd closer, crashing
and grinding together, while the whole
mass swayed and shrieked with the
uproar of million tSrmented devils.
The heat had become terrific. saw
stone and iron melted and dissipated
in vapor like snow. Stupendous cata,
racts of this vaporized material shot
upward, and, driven off by tho electric.
al repulsion of the sun, streamed
backward into the tail.
Suddenly myself became sensible
of the awful heat It seemed withou,
warning to have penetrated my vitals
With yell jerked my feet from 8
boiling rock and flung my arms de-
spairingly over my head
"You had better be careful" said
my wife, who had been sitting by me,
"or you'll knock over the telescope. >
I rubbed my eyes, shook myself and
rose.
II must have been dreaming" ]
said.
II should think it was a very lively
DREAM" she replied.
At this moment the occultation be.
gam. Y. Sun.
Woods for Fine Furniture.
Oak-finished antique will be as much
11so6 IA avnr in tho manufactures ~