Democratic messenger., 1893-01-07
CRAzED BY TIE COMET.
Tie Prospective Arrival Of Biela's Orb
Lett Its Influence behind.

There are wise people to-day who be-
lieve that the proximity of comet to
the earth brings with it various diseases.
mental as well as physical disturbances.
/ Il never took any stock in 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
I But this comet"-
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 shes nearly
driven me crazy. DO you-have you
seen anything queer about me lately"
/ told him had not-that he looked
as sane as his average fellow mortal.
well" lie resumed, I've run
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 mp by this time.
My wife is ordinarily a quiet little
woman and takes no particular interest
in the newspapers except when there is
a mysterious murder case like the great
Maybrick poisoning case or the Carlyle
Harris case. or something like that
something mysterious, you know. Then
she grabs the newspapers and reads up
on it, and thinks about it. and talks about
il, aud advances theories about it. and
thoroughly masters il. hanging the de-
fendant every day. She can find more
al. Il
lice force. She pounces down upon me
at breakfast with her theories and clews
and suspicious. and as these are changed
after reading the evening papers | get
another dose ut night
But this comet! She has been
stricEen-yes, sir, stricken-by the mys-
terious influence the comet is said 10
have upon the human mind. 1t was
manifest in her the very day she read
the dispatches and the differences of
learned opinion rs To whose comet il
was and its probable orbit. its distance,
the number of sparks III its tail. etc. If
it had been Il straightforward comet
aqd come right out where everybody
could see it and where everybody ex
pccted il. sac 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.
and every authority in every newspaper
differed with every other authority in
that or any other newspaper. she found
herself suddenly plunged into whirl
of excitement.
''She sprang comet on me every hour
in the day and swept tine heavens with a
2-inch opera glass every night. She
had a sort of idea that redhot chunks of
iron We're liable 10 drop into our Hat.
She went up on the roof to see the me
teUric shower and got locked out up
there by the janitor IL hadn't missed
her she'd have been frozen to death She
got up ten times Il night 10 look out, and
once she said She smelled sulphur She
slipped ont Of bed the first thing in the
morning and read what the papers said
about the comet. then went back to bed
again. When | sat down TO breakfast
with my paper she was loaded for me-
You could see a 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
snuilles. On sunday night the sky over
there was bright red mt intervals Well,
she was just wild. Then she smelled
the sulphur i'll tho air. never saw n
woman get 80 excited. Sne scarcely
slept wink.
a. l..