St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1891-12-19
TALKING WITH MARS.
Plans Suggested by Some Vision
ary Astronomer.



lady had j6st died in Spa leaving one
the astronomer, French or foreign. who
within ten years will be abe to COM
municate with any planet or star, he
read it through slowly once, then he
read it twice more rapidly. Finally he
picked it up. held it at the proper dis
lance from his eyes, and squinted at it
just rs he would ssq6int At Mercury
through his telescope if he wanted to
find the big tortoise-shaped spot on its
northern hemisphere
IAN old lady-an old lady, the vet
eran astronomer finally exclaimed.
Now. isn't that pretty way to treat
such q piece Of philanthropy rs that?
An old lady, indeed! Now. why under
the sun do you suppose they keep hack
her name? / am inclined to believe
that some good-looking young man
one of those smooth talkers-has
/. been getting close to her and talking
lot of astronomy into her ear.
! Prom, the very form her bequest
takes I am aware that somebody
Flammaxion FOR some other man-has
beer talking to her about the proposed
triangle. The project is a very curious
one. but can be explained quite easily"
Prof Davidson picked up blue PEN
Gil and drew on white sheet Of paper
a rightangled triangle.
This that have dra wn," he said,
SIS the old triangle of Pythagora&
That triangle has a right angle and
the square built upon the side oppo-
site the right angle is equal to the sum
Of the squares built upon the other two
sides. The proposition is said 70 be
the fundamental one of geometry. 1t
has been proposed to draw such .
figure as that in the desert of Sahara,
or some other great plain. the lines, of
course, to be hundreds Of miles long.
and made 50 they would be distinct on
the desert sand One way would be
to plant palm trees so. that the forests
should take the shape of lines in the
figure. Certainly. the green of the
palms would be SO bright in contrast
with the white Ut the sand that the
drawing, when completed, would be
plain enough.
These are suggestions that 60
that there are people on some Ct the
planets. It least on Mars 1t is sup.
posed that the people on the planet are
civilized and capable of looking
through telescopes, and it is con-
eluded that II this is SO they must
know the Pythagorean proposition.
$50 If the people on Mars look
through their telescopes at the earth
they will be sure to see that enormous
figure ON the desert, and seeing it they
viii realize that the earth is inhabited
by men of knowledge and that the
drawing is = signal. Then, of course,
they win set TO work to answer It BY
building just such figure on Mars.
That will be talking from star to star
But all this is bosh and nonsense to
me, and dare say it was bosh and
nonsense 20 the man who wheedled this
Frenchwoman into setting aside lOO,-
600 francs. But whoever he was he
knew on which, side his bread was
buttered. aud knew that such . trust,
for whatever purpose, would bear in
terest
but even surprising that the desert
of Sahara b one great plain, and that
it is large enough for the purpose. and
even surprising thpt it was possible TO
make such an e9brmous figure, am
in doubt Whether the people ON Mars,
with such telescopes Is we use, would
be able to see it.
s.Atcertain times Mars is but 81, 000, 900
miles from the earth, but il gets further
and further away until the distance is
81, 500, 900 miles. That is . good way
of to see trianglcs. But il Mars is in
habited. am inclined to believe that
the inhabitants are not fools II they
saw = triangle shaped object on the |
face Of the earth they would not jump
to the chimerical conclusion that there !
were idiots enough down here to build |
such an affair.
The truth is we do not know |
whether any of the planets besides the ,,
earth is inhabited. We think we know |!
that it might be possible for men to |
live on Mercury. The situation and |
condition Of things on the other planets
are altogether different from those on |
the earth So, when we talk about |
the inhabitants of the planets we
enter the realm of surmfse, and Jules |
Verne has . better chance than the |!
scientist
THE four planets nearest the sun !
are Alercury, Venus, the earth and
Mars. Mercury is only 81, So, 900 miles |
from the sun. which isn't very far when |
you take the heat into consideration
Consequently we believe It is . good
many times hotter than Arizona or
Mercury. There are other disalvan-
tages. such rs lack of space, enormous |
mountains and no certainty of atmos-
phere. Mercury is only 5000 miles in
yet there are mountains on 1
its surface over II miles high.
Venus is 6. lS4. 600 miles from the
sun and is plenty hot enough. although |!
nearly twice rs far rs Mercury from the
great heater. Then there is some
question about the atmosphere - yet
and the year is only - days long.
THE earAA comes next, being o.
$50, 900 miles from ~ sun. After this
planet is Mesalpa.s $1,000 miles from
the luminary.
sAll astronouers sIRmis that II pso-
pie like those on 18th liye q any Of
tLhe other planets M isProbsbsy tho
one. The reason Thy il esav to till.
although Mars il further from the sun
han the earth. his ortiz Is 50 eccentric
hat 1T certain times he is only III. $751;
700 miles away, consequently the tenn
peratures are. likely, merely . little
more moderate than those on the earth
Then. too. the diurual motion OF the
TWO planets is about the same. 50 that
rom one years end to another the
distance from the earth to Mars varies
,nly from IS. SOC. 0n6 miles to 81, 900. 90
niles. Mars has its seasons and its
>oi:- ice inst like the earth.
.sThr0agh IL telescope vNonnNfeh |
e -