The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-08

If one of those inhabitants of the
planet Mars, about the possibility of
whose existence the public has been
kept fully informed during the past
three or four years-but concerning
which 1 prefer to hazard no conjectures
if one of those superstitious person
ages should succeed in transporting
himself to earth, it is possible that
he would discover nowhere on this
planet an object OF greater interest to
him than a certain picturesque mount
ain in one Of the coast ranges Oft Call
fornia, rising out of landscape OF
gold into a sky of sapphire, and
crowned with a white dome which,
long after the Atlantic sea board has
been shrouded with night, shines re-
splendent in the parting rays of the
SUN about to sink behind the Pacific.
Being, of necessity, by the nature of
his mission, an astronomer, the mag
mary tourist from across the ether
would not be long in aScertaining that
the high perched dome belongs to the
Lick observatory, seated Ion Mount
Hamilton, the Olympus of terrestrial
a strange world what could more re-
sistlessly attract him than the work
of men, like minded with himself who
had constructed and put into operation
an instrument of magnificent power
for the purpose of scrutinizing the
other globes surrounding them in
space? What a welcome would he re-
ceive in the spacious halls Of that OBJ
servatory, and how breathlessly would
the astronomers up there listen to his
words as with eye applied to the gil
ant telescope, he explained the mys-
terry Of all those singular features of
his planet which had so long stimu-
lated their imagination and baffled
their science. He might find the great
glass superior or inferior to his own
telescope at home, but in any event
1T would not lack interest in his eyes.
And the attention he would inevitably
bestow upon it might result in awak-
ening among ourselves a keener inter
est in the most powerful instrument of
our astronomy. I call it the most pow
erful because it has not yet been DEM
onstrated that the still larger glass
about to be erected on the prafries of
Lake Michigan will effectively excel its
huge predecessor on the California.
peak.
And could our Marian visitor carry
home a more extraordinary travellers
tale than that of the eccentric benefi-
cence Of James Lick, who becueathed
100000 for the purpose of CONSTRUCTS
ing and putting up a telescope 'Istper-
aor to and more powerful than sanv'tel-
escope yet made;'' and whose BODY nv
his own request, now lies in the base
OF the great pier, from which nightly
swings the enormous tubes, questioning
the heavens?
DE- HOlden's Connection with the
Observatory.
James Lick'S own idea smacked Of
QulXotlsm, but, fortunately, the execu-
ton of that idea fell into hands which
moulded 1t into scientific practicab bill
lty. The man to whom, more than TO
any other, except him whose name it
bears. the world is indebted for the
LICK observatory, is Edward S. Holden.
LII D. In 1S47, when D. O. Mills. one
OF the trustees under MIR. Lick's will.
went to Washington to consult Profess
sor Simon Newcomb regarding tha
plans for the proposed observatory. fa
met Mr.. Holden, then an assistant to
Professor NeWcomb in the naval OBJ
serVatcry, and in October of the same
year Holden was appointed director of
qhe new enterprise. With the collah-
Grafton Of Professor Newcomb he inn
mediateiy prepared plans covering the
entire undertaking, and it was essen
TALLY in accordance with the plans
then submitted that the observatory
was constructed, and it's work laid ont
and organized. DR.. Holden has, there
fore. been personally at the head of the
institution from its beginning. and ali
of its achievements have been effected
along the lines indicated by him.
DR.. HOIdeR's Career.
So much of the life of an astronomers,
is passed far aside from the ordinary
currents Of human affairs and human
interests that he is sometimes ,a-
garded as having little or no connec-
ton with them. 1t is true, there are
men devoted to certain laborious
branches of practical astronomy. who
do not seem to have cut themselves Off
from the world, but the leaders in the
science have as many points of con-
tact, and as much sympathy, with the
life Of their time as are possessed bv
any men of similar intellectual endow-