The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-11-14
DID YOU SEE THE STARS
If You Had Been With Jones
and johnson
You Would Have Seen Them
Shoot All Right.
Last Nights Experience With Shoot
ing Stars as Related by the Jour
nails Special Artist on Astron-
omy.

AT exactly 1.17 a. H. this morning.
when the city was wrapped in slumber
and everybody was asleep but the
hackmen. the night policemen. the re-
pOrters and the ticket sellers for the
charity ball: when the balmy. Silly
atmosphere of a. Kansas summer night
pervaded the Shawnee county air. when
nature was at peace with work and the
gentle silence Indicated rest, there We're
no shooting stars as advertised.
This was also repeated at steadily
continuous intervals during the entire
night
A good many Topeka people. who
We're old enough to know better in the
hrst place, want their money back
Who said there We're going TO be
shooting stars last night. anyway
Of course the public viii abuse the
newspapers without taking into con-
siderarlon that a newspaper may Oc-
casionauy be worked by a measIv as
tronomer as Well as by a cheap actor
or a politician.
But that's neither here nor there.
Neither were the stars
Last night when Mr. VIM Johnson
pushed back his chair from the supper
table-this IS not the society column,
and the s o'clock meal is supper here
and looked at his watch, Wiping an
anticipatory smile off its face with
the ball Of his hand as he did 50. he
said.
a "a
early tonight. You have doubtless read
in the newspapers that tonight is the
time set by the astronomers fer the
occurrence of a most wonderful astro-
nomical phenomenon 1t is expected
that sometime tonight the stars of the
celestial canopy that bends IN blue
vastness above us viii have the ap-
pearance Of falling upon US in
shower These exhibitions are ex-
tremely rare and to those in
terested deeply i'm scientific re-
search as / am, very interesting.
remember that once when L was a. boy
my grandfather told me that once
when he was a boy his grandfather had
told him about having seen a man that
had heard of another man who had
seen one OF these exhibitions and con-
sfdered it better than a display of the
Charley Curtis Flambeau club. 1t has
never been repeated since. though it
has occasionally been advertised by
ignorant meddlers in the field of sci
ence- Tonight, however. it is sufH-
GENTLY assured and Prof. Jones has in
vited me to his observatory to witness
it with him through his lens. I can
not say now at exactly what time I
shall be in. but do not sit up for me-
Mrs. Johnson. who knows Johnson.
simply sighed and after he had gone
removed all the furniture from the
front hail, prOpped the front gate open,
the front door ditto. and tied a rope
tightly from the gate post to the newell
post at the bottom OF the stairs and.
locking the rest Of the house. went to
bed
Jones and johnson went to the show.
That put them in a position to insist
today that they had really seen stars,
no matter how poor. and that they fell
several times each
After the show Jones and Johnson
went to the observatory OF a mutual
speaking acquaintance named Sullivan.
who knew enough to not say anything,
second floor back, and there immedi-
ately put themselves i'm position to fur
Their insist today that they really spent
most of the night in looking through
glass at the. proper angle to see stars.
the glass being, of course, upside
down.
To guard against any possibility of
missing anything they paid colored
boy quarter to wrap himself in an
Overcoat and sit on the back porch to
let them know when the star attraction
began its run
This proved to be a very wise idea,
for il kept Johnson and Jones awake
running out to the back porch every
few minutes to wake up the boy
Otherwise they might have fallen
asleep and missed everything
Perhaps it was 3 o'clock before John
son had enough.
II blieve This shing's frost 'nyhow.
Lesh so home. ne said
Jones was willing, although he seem
ed uncertain about his ability and his
legs
Sullivan saw them safely to the side
walk and they sat down on the curb
to wait for a carriage
Jones was almost asleep when John
son gave him a punch that nearly up
set him
excitedly. "zhere zhey go Half
dom Of en- or in a bunch an cloud
dust"
1t was a hack light bobbing along on
Jones stared at it stupidity for a mo-
ment and uttering a feeble 'WhOpee,'
fell asleep again
But Johnson was excited He got
up and leaned against the building. To
him the single hack light. still bobbing
along in the distance, looked like q
half a dozen, and when a couple of
hraxemen began swinging their Ian
terms in the railroad yards two blocks
away, on top Of their trains, ne was
wild with excitement and wonder.
Look at stars he said look at
stars. W0n'erful exhibition Never
shaw 81 many stars n all my life"
Another hack swung down the dis
tant street and around a corner.
Its sidelight was particularly bright
the glass Was clean
Its brilliancy struck Johnson
that's her" he yelled D know
That star anywhere. even in T'pelSa-
That's LHln Russhen Can't foo, me
A-f-- Ia Lille there goes AIrie ~ ain
wright n Fanny Dav'nport- or
frien,s mine How are We, Fanny Of
girl2H
f-1--4fe4A Wd1 GlElpEAArA ~ -IlAA1
downstairs here and stop the noise and
wake up Jones
He went back upstairs and Jones
went back to sleep
Johnson regarded his fellow student
uusteadily for a minute. and still lean
ing against the building said.
Ought be 'shamed yerself, Jones
Come out with gentl' mn TO 'bserve
astronomical wonder and EN- get SO full
had go TO sleep Get up here m be
man an a scholar"
But Jones didn't care a continental
about being man and a scholar and
slept on til q policeman aroused him.