The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-03-14
Scheduled to Hit the Earth To-day

astronomers ana scientists in gen
, eral are trying TO figure out what vii
happen to this little earth ofou Sat
urday, March l4th. If they know
what they are talking abont, that da,
should be rcd letter day in th,
worlds history. They claim that
great big comet is going 10 smash into
US. Whether it will knock pool
Mother Earth completely into smith
Greens, or merely push her into
another part of the universe, is qucs
ton.
This commet is estimated to be nine
hundred millions of miles long. The
exact number of millions has not yet
been figured out, but even if it were
only one hundred millions in length
it is sufficient to appal anyone who ha:
been in a railroad collision where the
contending traius were only one bupd.
red yards long. What chance this Ill
tie earth, which is only about eight
thousand miles thick at the biggest
part, will stand against a monster
whose length is measured by hundreds
of millions OF miles, is too severe for
the Imagination to picture.
A RARE PRIVILEGE.
Besides, some scientists claim that n
comet only hits the earth once in fif-
teen hundred million years If that is
SO, no one else will enjoy the sensation
until the year 1,500,001.S96. Some
ancient histories GO back few thous-
and years, but none OF them attempt
to cover the period when the last
comet hit the earth. So the people of
this generation are absolutely without
any precedent as to how they will act
when the comet comes booming along.
What TO do, and how to do it, must be
formulated by the individual jot of
humanity at the critical time.
The exact hour of the day on which
the comet is to crash into as has not
yet been determined, for the reason
that ii is travelling toward us at the
rate Of 100000 miles a day. This
means that it is flying through space
at the rate of $4,000 miles an hour, or
1900 miles minute, or 20 miles a
second. Under these conditions, it is
quite impossible for even the most
learned scientists to determined the
exact hour of its arrival.
For the same reason, no one knows
whether il will first hit us in Africa,
Europe, Asia or America. But that
does not matter much, because comets
have habit of coiling around anything
they bit, like a big boa constructor en-
circles its victim. The comet keeps
on coiling and coiling until its humid
reds of millions of miles of length are
all wrapped around whatever il hits.
ASTRONOMERS EXCITED.
Prof. Perrine, of the famous Lick
University. is responsible for this
comet-that is, he discovered it, aud il
viii! go down 10 posteri!y, if it does
not aunihilale all chance of there be-
ing any posterity. as Perrine's comet.
Since Prof. Perrine made the discovery
astronomers in all parts of the world
have been In feverish slate of excite
meni. S. w. Burnham, of the Lick
Observatory. famous as the greatest
observer aud discoverer of double
stars that the world has yet known, is
excited. SO is E. E. Barnard, the re-
nowned discoverer of the fifth SATELLITE
of Jupiter, and ofinnumerable comets,
and whose planetary observations and
photographs of nebulae and stars are
Of unrivaled excellence. The same
can be said of j. E. Keller, who stands
al the front ia astronomical spectre
scopy.
1t is not often that the mental bal
ance of these weighty scientists is
moved sufficiently to allow of the emo
ton of excitement, but at this timo it
is nevertheless true. Of course all
these men differ as TO what will hap
pen when the comet hits us. Some of
them are kind enough to say that
there is possibility of the comet
steering away aud not hitting us at
all, or, il it does. it will only be a
glanciug blow which may shake US a
bit, but do no serious damage.
ANOTHER DANGER.
But there is still another danger.
even if it docs not bit us, and it is
more unnerving to contemplate il
than the original. Prof. G. A. Young,
of Princeton, is well informed on
comets, aud he AYERS that there is
some danger of the Perrine comet Slip
ping by us and falling into the sun.
This would be real catastrophe, for
all learned astronomers acknowledge
that if a comet fell into the sun it
would produce such an increase of
solar heat that we would all be broiled
or frizzled or fried up. With this
danger staring the word in the face.
it seems that if the matter were left to
a popular vote the people on the earth |
would elect TO have the comet hit us
aud take the attending chances rather
than have il fall into the sun and burn
us up.
Other astronomers who wish, evil
IDENTIFY, to reassure the public, claim
that in 1861 comet several times
larger than the one now heading for us
hit the earth while travelling at the
rate of &c, 000,000,000 miles day and
nobody knew it. How they discovered |
it so many years after they refuse to
make plain. But if these astronomers
a ro foliinu tho trufh "a placas tho or or