St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-01
FROM ALARM TO POPULARITY.

with the crusaders of Delaware.
FROM ALARM TO POPULARITY.
"Perrine discovers a comet distan t
Iorty million miles and coming towards
the earth, whose orbit 1t will cross at
the rate Of 1000 900 miles a day." was
the message that flashed along the
wires and was translated into type and
sent out to the breakfast tables of the
whole newspaper-reading world last
week; and ever since every paragraph
er and squibber and joker and car
toonist has been poking fun at that
wanderer. just as If their ancestors
did not use to go into conniption fits
when a comet famed in the heavens.
and get suddenly repentant for all their
peccadillos. and shriven Of their sins
and make their ascension robes ready.
It is only matter Of some four hun
dred years since the church amended
the prayer so az to ask for protection
from the devil, the Turk and the comet.
and 1t Is a very much less time since
the appearance Of a. comet was a
source Of terror. and regarded as an
omen OF war, pestilence and famine.
The possibility of one Of these Grant
and eccentric bulls in heavens china
shop striking our planet and sending
it and all its Inhabitants to the demni-
ton bowwows is one that yet perturbs
the souls of many good if unlettered
folk, and certain designations of the
face of the old earth have been attrib-
uted to such a collision.
But science came with her probing
ways and calm countenance and posi-
tive statements to brush away the idle
fears that had shaken the souls of
untold generations. Astronomers
turned their telescopes on the strangers
and watched their course and mapped
it out and computed their orbits and
periodicities, tagged them, as it were,
so that they might be known when
they came again our way, and alto
gether got themselves on quite familiar
terms with them. 1t was not speak
ing acquaintance or even a nodding
one. but such one as we all get with
the men and women whom we meet
frequently, and yet never get to know.
And then came the prism and the spec
trum analysis that separated the colors
composing the light of the comet and
told what were it's organic elements
and the gases flung off in the brilliant
tails. So it was found that comets in
the first place could not penetrate our
atmosphere to get at the earth, and if
their orbits should cross the earth's
at the same time and place there would
be nothing left Of the comet long be-
fore 1t touched earth. Then, as men
and women always do when they are
scared by some apprehended danger
that turns out to be no danger at all.
they took their revenge for their fright
by assuming a bravado or by ridiculing
and guying the comets, making them
the points of endless jokes and quips
more or less pointless. The genial
Holmes let his humor run loose among
brilliant comet of 1858, and helped hui
mainly to another laugh at the visit
or's expense.
So it has come about that people who
live in the sunlight Of the civilization
of the nineteenth century feel no
spasm of fear seize their hearts when
they read in the morning papers that
another of these fiery orbs is running
amuck among the planets and driving
directly at this staid old world of ours.
Nor are the eclipses OF the sun and
moon longer events that alright the
people living under their shadows, nor
do wise men shake their heads onhi-
nously when they come and talk In
sober tones about coming wars and
droughts that smite the fertile fields
and send the pangs Of hunger to ma
lions, or pestilences that sweep thou
sands into untimely graves. How real
these fears were, how much horror
comets and eclipses cast on human
lives we who have seen the rayages of
the cyclone and felt apprehension fill
the heart when the darkling clouds
gathered in the west. can form some
idea of, but the nervous dread of the
possible cyclone is only local, while
the comet or the eclipse inspired a uni
versal alarm Possibly when meteor
ology has got to know more than it
now does of the generative causes of
our tornadoes. it may find their mas
ter; and then, instead of shivering with