The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1899-10-25

He Has n Letter from Arkansas
Describing a Phenomena Out There
Last Month-Metcors Never Hurt
Anybody.
A friend living in Arkansas writes
me about the recent fall OF u meteor
near his home, and he compliments
me by asking some questions that |
cannot answer. The origin Of meteors
and their flight and fall Is yet the un-
solved problem OF tho ages.
He says that on the Goth Of last
month, at 8 o'clock in the morning,
when there was u clear sky and not q
cloud to be seen, there was q run
bling sound Of thunder SO weird and I'M
natural that it was alarming. 1t vas
like the rolling Of heavy trucks over
an uneyen platform. only immensely
louder. 1t was heard In all the neigh-
boring towns, and they all photographed
each other to know II a mill had not
blown up or q magazine exploded.
Suddenly there was an explosion in
the air -nd u dark cloud formed and
meteoric fragments fell at different
places In this vicinity. a small piece
hat weighed one and q half pounds
fell in - field near by and was brought
to town while it was yet hot. 1t was
powder-blackened on the outside, but
inside vas a grayish color, and its
particles shone like gold dust. Under
the microscope they resembled quick
silver.
1t was a full minute from the begin
ming Of the %rumbling thunder till the
explosion came, ana the course Of the
sound was from east TO west. The
event was so unexpected and 50 like
the'mythology OF Jupiter Tons nc throw
ing a bamb from Mt. Olympus that the
| W Mite npnnln unrn ~nallhn unl th,
negroes declared it was u warning and
went to prayer.
Philosopher s and astronomers have
been stud ying these phenomena for
2,5OO years, and have not yet agreed
upon q solution. The archives Of the
Chinese empire record the fall of six
teen great aerolites from 300 to 500
years before Christ. The Greeks and
Romans record a number, and Aristotle
and DiOgenes commented upon them.
SO did Livy, Plutarch and Piiny. They
have been seen 80 large tina the esti-
mated weight Of the fragments after
the explosion vas 30, 600 pounds, and
the light was SO brilliant rs 10 pale
the sun by day and obscure the moon
by night. There is now in the Yale
college cabinet u fragment hat weighs
1888 pounds. This came rom near
the Red river in Arkansas. Many of
the western states have furnished
specimens for the museums Of colleges,
and all OF them are composed of the
same mineral ingredients-principally
iron-and include copper, tin, sulphur,
carbon and other metals known to our
earth. Not a single new sub
stance has ever been discovered, and
for this reason the theory obtained
that they were thrown up from our
volcanoes with such force rs to wander
for a time in the outer atmosphere OF
the earth, and to revOlve with the
earth. But this theory has long since
been abandoned, for they seem to have
an orbit u their own from west to
east. Then came "a theory that they
came from the moon. and were of vol.
canlc origin, aud were thrown out with
such terrific force as to get beyond the
moons influence and within hat of our
earth. But this was discredited be.
cause these fragments have been fall.
Ing, no doubt, for thousands of years
on the land and on the sea, and on all
countries, and would have by this time
materially diminished the size and
weight OF the moon. La Place and
Humboldt favored this moon theory for
a time. But our modern astronomers,
such rs Professors Arago and Almsted
and BOwditch declare hat meteors
are simply clouds or motion Of metcoriC
planets that have a motion and orbi,
OF theil own, and that orbit sometimes
comes within range Of the earth's and
produces u cOmmotion-a disturbance
that causes the fall OF some OF their
w nebuiae. Some of the children
got too far away from their mother,
reckon.
Sometimes meteors are simply lumi.
nous and have no body to explode or
strike the earth. These have periodic
vibrations OF thirty four years. They
come in showers as thick as snow.
tlakes, and fall rs gently to within a
lew feet OF the earth and are extin
guished. They fell in 1799-1S33 and
1867, and each fall vas on the 18th OF
November. But there have boen
minor disp avs at irregular intervals
generally about the 10th of August. |
am old enough to remember well the
" falling of the stars" in 1893. Nv
father held me in his arms rs ne stood
In the pOrtico, for | was scared. Our
old negro, aunt Minty, was praying
and shouting 80 1T scared all OF Us
children. George Lester lived on the
opposite side of the street, and his
mother held him in her arms. Some
times in these later days | would ge,
with my old.time friends, DR.. Jim
Alexander or his brother Tom, or
oSoi 30 1huhlIJ u VIC COulu DOuSU OF
the wonderful era in which we had
lived, and the advent OF steamboats,
and railroads and cotton gins, and
sewing machines, and telegraphe, and
we neglected to say, land we
saw the stars fall In 1888" Dewey never
saw a night like that-but l reckon
the S~paniards at Manila thought they
did on the 1st Of May.
But this is enough about the meteors.
AT least, IT Is about all that | ! know.
Joe Mulhattan, or Munchausen, made
up q big fake u few years ago while |
was In Texas and telegraphed the iall
OF q meteor near Brownwood that was
as big as a meeting house and had
buried itself thirty feet in the earth.
L was at brentwood q few days after
and the postmaster Was as mad as q
hornet with Joe, for kilograms care
to him from all over the United States
and England wanting to know about it
and wanting to buy 1t at any cost. Joe
had to leave there and hide out for a
month or two. The postmaster an
swered u few and then swore off. There
Ia n good thing about meteors.
They never hurt anybody. The books
say 1t Ia remarkable aud perhaps pro.
vidential that In all the earth there Is
no record Of one having fallen on any.
body or destroyed a habitation. Ter
reBtial lightning pets ia sOmetimes