The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-01-29
What the Shadows Tell.


In the pamphlet noticed elsewhere,
s'Errors in School Books, - ]. F. MILLS
PAUGH, of this city, is quoted as point
ing out on page 10. lesson 2, of PorTER's
s.New Elementary Geography the
statement that cit meaning the SUM
really stands still'' To this the pub
fishers of the topography replied:
"ReIating to the two (alleged) errors,
you name, we beg to say that the one on
page 10 OF the Elementary is correct ac-
cording to public estimation, as the sun
is supposed to stand still, and for all
practical purposes does stand still"
The publishers probably remembered
the command of JOSHUA, and never
heard of the sun starting up again. In
this fxity of opinion they are not so
liberal as that great astronomical author
ity. JOHN PHOENIX, who declared that,
though the sun obeyed the command, it
might have wobbled just little when
JOSHUA WASH t looking at it.
1t is known to sky-sharps that the sun
turns on its axis once in about twenty
five days, its equator always remaining in
one plane. The SUMS diameter is given
as S5O. 900 miles and the shadows it throws
upon the earth are an interesting subject
1t is not generally supposed that shad-
ows are worth writing or talking about.
l Of lin
are regarded as the most insignificant of
things-if things they areas fitting and
and vanishing nonentities, which perish
the moment darkness overtakes them.
But it may be as well to remember that
the darkness which swallows up all other
shadows is nothing itself but shadow.
The solemn, vast and ever recurring
phenomenon we call night is but the
earth's shadow, in which it calls its
many children to sleep upon its bosom.
There is no substance in shadow, but
there cannot be a shadow without sub
stance. and little as man esteems the
small inseparable black spot on the
ground which persists in following him
wherever he goes, it would give him a very
uneasy feeling to find himself without it.
And yet there are places on the earth
where, at certain times of the year, a
mans shadow does vanish and leave him
alone and shadowless.
In the morning, shadows fall to the
west, in the evening to the east, and in
this they teach that lesson OF the earth's
rotation on its axis which it took man
kind nearly six thousand years to dis
cover And they have still another move
ment: they lengthen in the winter and
shorten in the summer, and thus teach
the astronomical lesson of the earth's
revolution round the sun. 1t gives man
curious sense of his amazing stupidity
to know that his own insignificant
shadow had been following him around,
hour by hour, day by day, and year by
year, for sixty centuries, before he had
the intelligence to recognize the lesson.
The inter- tropical man has this advant-
age over the one who lives in the temper
ate zones: his shadow makes a complete
revolution round his feet, and falls to
every part of the compass once every
year-and twice every year, when the sun
at noon is directly overhead, his shadow
goes into the ground, or under the soles
of his feet, and disappears. On American
soil, however, there is no point where a
man can experience this strange sensation
of being forsaken by his faithful image at
mid day. 1t is curious fact that this
revolution of the shadow around the feet
is privilege enjoyed only by the Esqui-
maux and people who live north of the
Arctic circle, and also by people, if there
are any, who dwell in the south polar re-
gion. Now, when summer prevails, the
sun circles round the heavens about the
horizon without rising or setting, and
there if anywhere it even apparently
squares its conduct to the philosophy of
Mr.. PorTER's work.