The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-01-12

cause my conveyance did not show TINT
the wife of tile convoyer had been taken
apart and examined by the notary as
required by law.
This proves that we live in q cold.
selfish world, and also that most liter
airy men are not practical. 1 am not.
Neither was Milton. Still I am n little
more businesslike than Milton. He got
$40 for Paradise Lost" however, aud
that shows that no was pretty keen on .
trade, l think, for I had to analyze it
III my school days, aud when I heard
maj John got $40 for it the idea came
10 my childish mind that literature was
q clnch. OF course / do not use slang
now nor even think slang, but That was
inc way tho matter struck me in nv
caiiow days. But the practical poet of
Today is careful to write in such o way
as to fill ont columns that need one or
two stanzas only. Milton today would
be unpopular, and if he sent Paradise
Lost to one of our old season cracked.
editors he would send the poem down
the dumb waiter to the room of a palo
girlish youth, with orders to boil it down
to lG lines to Justify" with the Holmes
murder.
But since my real estate deal in tho
comet line L have been reading up more
III regard to these cratic bodies. I am
surprised to find that they are Irregular
Ill their habits and move in a parabola,
like a presidential candidate.
l had made some calculations covering
both sides of the barn and was sure that
l was coming at tho date of my comets
return when l ran across this caution
1T has been remarked that when an
ephemeris of g%eooentrio positions bright
ascension and declination) for any length
of time is required it is convenient to
calculate with rectangular equatorial CO.
%ordinates instead of by the process we
have followed i'll comparing the orbit
with tho middle observation"
So then l had to buy II new barn and
begin all over again.
AT one time l had the whole back
yard full of logarithms, and u person
going out after coal in the cleaning
would fall owe and skin his nose Oh an
equation almost invariably.
After l bad worked my multiplier till
I had to build on u lean to for my null
tiplicand 1 ran upon this little para
graph of instructions:
we may now refer to the calculation
of ephemerides of the geocentric places
of n comet from the parabolic clements
which are required during its visibility
to facilitate observations"
Now, what sort of reading matter is
that to place before a family?
1Nhp oor,oral rocnoot ,,,l 49,. z--
by comets toward tho SUI have endeared
them to the thinking mind. 1 have read
of every comet since the savant was en-
abled first to ramble through the sky,
and no comet has ever been known to
turn its tail toward tho sun during that
time. Comets for many years were re-
garded with disfavor and were unpopu-
lar among the masses, tho general opin-
ION being that they preceded pestilence
and congressional legislation. In the
fifteenth century to tho "Ave Maria''
was added Lord, save rs from tho
devil, the Turk and tho comet"
The chemical construction of comets
has for many years occupied the alton
ton of Il greatest scholars and atmos-
pheric explorers. Generally they are
thought to contain nothing but carbon
ferrous gases and scenery. AS ono may
comfortably observe the stars through
thet tail of n comet, says the astronomer,
we are led to believe that the whole
substance of the comet is merely a neb-
ulous gas illuminated by other bodies,
such rs the sun or moon.
If | had known that in April, it would
have been worth something to me, but 1
am too apt to purchase things and then
read about them afterward.
Donati's comet, 1 think, gave the most
general satisfaction. 1t was here i'll 1858
and returns regularly every 1850 years,