The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-04-05
BILL AR.P'S LETTER.
Arp on Astrononly---Say the Moon and the
Sun Are Disagreeilg.
-Atlamta Const, tuition.

owing to the moon, and that we havn'
had a left-handed moon before in forty
years. The moon has been passing
through cycle of years, and is just
turning back to go the other way,
sorter like the sun when it crosses the
line and makes the equinoctial gales.
.And that's the reason, says, he,
4swhy everything is out Of joint both
in the heavens above and the earth
beneath, for the moon is pulling one
way and the sun is pulling another.
And that accounts for the extraordi-
nary weather and the storms and floods
and cyclones; and this left-handed
moon seems to affect the people, too,
and so we are having hullabaloo
about the jug and whisky business,
and they have got it down so fine now
that if rattlesnake was to bite man
be would die before they could get q
drink of whisky to save him. And
here is all this devilment going on
about mobs killing up the niggers,
and to my opinion it's all owing to
this left-handed moon, for you know
that when mau goes crazy they call
him lunatic, and that word came
from Luna, the moon, and SO reckon
that about this time we are all crazy,
more or less, and don know it; ] am,
I know, or else I would have sold my
cotton when 1t was at the 'high-water
mark, and.I didH't.
DR.. Baker is an ol6-fashioned phi
losopher and has his opinions and
some superstition about the moon, and
also about screech owls and grave
yard rabbits, and the like; but he is
wrong about the cycle Of forty years.
1t takes the moon only eighteen years
to complete its cycle, and remember
that eighteen years ago we had very
late spring, and never got chance to
break up the land at all, but had to
list it in April and plant anyhow. We
made good crop, though, and SO we
will trust in the Lord, who said that
seed time aud harvest should not fail.
This moon business has perplexed
me all my life. l can't keep up with
i'll can't foretell whether the next
moon will set fat and hold water or
set up and down and spill it, nor
whether it VIII ride high in the zenith
or course low down in the southern
sky. It is the most mysterious orb in
the heavens, and its movements the
most complicated, but to the astrono-
merit is the regularity Of irregularities.
It revolves around the earth in TWEEN
ty-seyeu days, but IS the earth is
speeding around the sun it takes the
moon twenty-nine days to keep up
with it and make the circuit. Its
orbit is an ellipse, and sometimes it
is near us and sometimes more remote.
It wobbles and has new path around
the earth every time for nine
years, and then gets back again in
nine years more. It has its libratlons
on latitude and longitude and its
nodes and aspides, and with all these
complications, no wonder the people
have their signs and superstitions, aud
believe in . wet moon and a dry moon
and left-hapded moon, aud see bad
luck in looking at the new moon over
your left shoulder or through brushy
tree top, and almost everybody has a
theory about planting in the light OF
the dark of the moon.
But if the moon ever does make
lunatics it is making them nowadays,
and we are deeply concerned about
those northern Methodist preachers
we see from the New York papers
that 400 Of them recently held con-
yention, with Bishop Andrews at
their head, and listened with approval
to the utterances Of Rev. Mr.. Cadman,
Of the Metropolitan church, who de-
clared that the time had come when
the only test of religious faith should
be Christ and his teachings, and that
all the miracles Of the Old Testament
should be discarded as fables aud as
contrary to human reason. "We must
cease to believe, said he, that
Moses opened way through the sea
for the children of Israel to pass over
Or that he made water to gush from
The rock, or that Lots wife turnet
into a pillar Of salt. or the tower o
Babel story, or that Daniel went int
the lions den, or that Shadrack
Meschack and Abednago walked
through the fiery furnace, or that tn
sun stood still at the command 0
Joshua, or that the whale swallowed
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