Democratic messenger., 1892-12-31
cRAzED BY THE COMET.
The Prospective Arrival Of Bielas Orb
left Its Influence Behind.

LEFT Its Influence Behind.
There are wise people to-day who be-
lieve that tho proximity Of comet to
the earth brings with il various diseases.
mental rs we'll rs physical disturbances.
Il never took any stock i'll this comet
business" said a practical friend Of
mine I've seen several comets in my
time and read all sorts Of rot about
them, very little of which | believed
But this comet tt
He paused and drew me away from
the crowd Having glanced about him
uneasily, he continued:
This comet nearly drove my wife
crazy! Yes. sir: fact, And she's nearly
driven me crazy Do you-have you
seen anything queer about mo lately"
told him had not-that no looked
as sane rs his average fellow mortal.
well. he resumed, I've run a
mighty narrow chance, tell You. But
| she's cured now. If this Internal comet
hadn't gone away just when it did |
should have been locked up by this time.
My wifo Is ordinarily quiet little
woman and takes no particular interest
in the newspapers except when there is
mysterious murder case like the great
\ Mayhrick poisoning case or the Carlyle
! Harris case, or something like that
/ something mysterious, you know. Then
/ she grabs the newspapers and reads up
/ on il. and thinks about it, and talks about
! il. and advances theories about it, and
/ thoroughly masters II, hanging the de-
! fendaut every day. She can find more
clews than the whole metropolitan po-
lice force. She pounces down upon me
at breakfast with her theories and clews
and suspicious. and rs these are changed
after reading the evening papers | get
another dose at night.
But this comet. She has been
strickcn-yes sir. stricken-by the mys-
terious influence the comet Is said TO
have upon the human mind. II was
manifest in her the very day she read
the dispatches and the differences of
learned opinion as 10 whose comet ii
WAS ana is probable orbit. its distance,
the number Of sparks III its tail, etc. If
il had been straightforward comet
apd come right ont where everybody
could see it and where everybody ex-
pccted il, Size would have been all Sc
rene. But the mystery Of the thing the
uncertainty. the disagreement of aStron-
omers-that settled her. She began
reading up ON the comet from the news
papers As every newspaper differed.
aAd every authority IN every newspaper
differed with every other authority ia
that or any other newspape:, she found
herself suddenly plunged into whirl
of excitement.
''She sprang comet on me every hour
in the day and swept the heavens with a
2-inch opera glass every night. She
had sort Of idea that redhot chunks Of
iron were liable to drop into our fiat
She went up on the roof To see the me
teuric shower and got locked ont up
there 10y the janitor. II hadn't missed
her she'd have been frozen to death. She
got up ten times night 10 look out. aud
once she SAID she sineled sulphur. She
slipped out Of bed the fist thing III the
morning ami read what the papers said
about tine comet. then went back 10 bed
again. When | sat down 10 breakfa
with my paper She WAS loaded for me.
You could ste Il hazy red light hanging
over the Jersey horizon from our WIN
dows. and she had those windows open
so much at night we all got colds and
snuff,cs On SUNDAY night the sky over
there was bright red at intervals Well,
She was just wild Then she smelled
the sulphur in the air. lnever saw a
woman get so excited. She scarcely
slept wink.
The next morning. when she found
that il was the Jersey meadows on fire
and that She hadn't seen the comet al
all, she was tho most dissusted woman
vCu ever saw. She won't touch a news
Taper now. she says the newspaper:
are the biggest l.ars-next 10 the astron
u,ners-on earth. II | say comet al
her now She is Us mad as hornet
In my opinion. its been confound
ed fraud all along. This man Biela. ol
Beely. ought to get six months on IT,,
island. New York Herald