St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-15
A RED-HOT THEORY
Which Involves a Cold Day for
Those Who Witness 1t.

W lDs
The peculiar theory published in the
GLOBE the other day, respecting the
tipping of the earth, has called out the
following answer:
Theories are not what the generality
of people believe them to be. They are
but the guessings of great minds. They
may be right. They may he wrong. A
schoolboy making gueSses at the an
Swer to problem is doing something
similar to what is done by scientific
theoriZeE- If the theorZer hits 1t, well
and good. If not, he may blind men
with glamOrouS scheme that accounts
for some points in the case without ac-
counting for all. Such theory is ac-
cepted as a truth and reasoned from
until some man comes along who shows
its faiiacy. Then men go back and exert
their Inventive faculties in developing
new theory.
And this is the real trouble with the
scientific student. AS rule he is not
searching for truth. He is busy in in
venting theories to account for existing
facts. He is DESTROYS to steer clear of
the musty beliefs of long, long ago.
They smack of ScholaSticlSm. They
smell of theology. They are mildewed
with age. Something newt something
new! is the cry. We have found dross
aud superstition in the old; therefore
all the old is wrong. Alas! for the dark
groupings of blind minds. Because
men were mistaken in the past in some
things is surely not sufficient cause to
throw the dali glare of doubt on every
olden truth. One hundred years hence
men will laugh at our beliefs as we are
laughing to-day at the beliefs of one
hundred years ago.
The most deceptive of all theories,
however, is the one that accounts for
everything without accounting for
Itself. 1t wheedleS us into accepting it
as a truth. We believe such state
ment before we are aware that we have
accepted it. A theory of this nature has
letely been put before the public. 1t
has attracted considerable attention. 1t
has drawn editors into its glorious EN-
brace, and has given the preachers a
theme by which to brighten their hear
erS into Righteousness. 1t has a smack
of reality about it that is simply en-
chanting. 1t is enticing; weirdly fas-
cinating. 1t purports to account for
ever SO much; even the vagarles and
hlde-and-go-Seek game of the 'ihard'
| and soft winter. l refer to the theory
of the sudden shifting UT the poles. Ac-
cOrding to the theorist an ice cap
has been forming on the south pole for
| the past 100000 years. That ice cap is
still forming. When it has grown large
enough, away it will swing the pole,
tilt the globe and set it oscillating for a
year or two. After this it will settle in
| such position that the polar diameter
will have an opposite inclination from
| that which it now has. This sudden
! Shift Is going to start a huge wave
| a-galavanting around the earth. The
! oscillating will keep it gamboling and
| friskiDg about like lamb in Maytime
| 1t will make mud pies out of continents,
uncover the OOZy. Shiny bed of the I'M
fathuined deep, take a couple of the
| Rocky mountains over to the ST.
| berian wldS and have game of
| dice with the theoretic open sea
| Of the north pole, mix things up
| generally, and wind up by selecting
old continents for its new bed and max
| ing new continents out of its old bed.
| Now that is certainly glorious theory.
| The theorist says it happened a thou
| sand years or SO ago. Surely, he ought
| to know. 1t accounts for the ''semi-
| tropical animals found in the 100000
! year-old glacier" 1t accounts for the
seashells on the mountain tops. 1t ac-
| counts for the remains of fish so often
| found in the rocks. 1t lends a scien-
| tiic realism to Plato's tabled Atalantis.
| 1t accounts for everything except itself,
| 1t strikes me that this theorist is a
follower of Confucius and a believer
in Thor. Thor. you know, with or with
| out large delegation of Cinnamon,
| chiseled the earth out of-something.
| Our theoriSt seems to believe that he
| also riveted to her rock-ribs pivots that
| keep her in the inclined position she
| holds, and that these pivots allow her
to swing bit every time the ice cap
| gets sufficiently large to overcome the
| friction.
Ii the theorist will account for his the
DRY it will be accepted. How will an
ice-cap at the south pole cause the
| earth to tip? Admitting the fitting can
be so caused, the sudden fitting must be
explained. He holds the cap is gradu-
ally forming. What is to prevent the
earth from fitting gradually? Why is it
| going to kick out its south foot all Of a
| sudden? If the awful velocity at
| the equator has been unable to over
| come by centrifugal force the power
| that holds the sea in its bed, how will
| the single tilt of the earth spill things