The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1899-04-06
BILL ARP ON ASTRONOMY.
HOW LUNACY IS GROWING.

Tho Moon and the Sun Are Having q
Dlsagreenent-The Moon Has AT
fected u Preacher Who Denies tho
Truth of the Bible.
DR.. Baker says that all these late
disturbances Of The elements are owing
to the moon, and that we haven't had
u left. handed moon before in forty
years. Inc moon has been passing
through cycle Of years, and is just
turning back TO 60 the other way,
sOrter like the SUI whom 1t crosses the
line and makes the equinoctial gales.
"Anditha''s the reason" says ho, "why
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 extraordinary weather
and the storms and floods and cyclones;
and this ieft-hunded moon seems 10
affect the people, too, and SO We are
having q hullabalOo about the jug and
whiskey busiDl So, and they have got
it down SO fine now that If q rattle
snake WAS to bite q man he would die
before they could geta drink Of whisky
to save him. And hero Is all this de-
vilment 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 q man goes crazy
they call him a lunatic, and that word
came from Luna, the mOOu, and SO
reckon that about this time we arc all
crazy more or less, and don't know it :
[ am, | know, or else would have sold
my. cotton when it was at tho high
water mark, and dident."
DR.. Baker is an old fashioned philo-
sOpher and has his opinions and some
o.. ~ =,
about screech owls and graveyard rab-
bits, and the like; but he is wrong
about the cycle OF forty years. 1t takes
the moon only eighteen years to COM
plete its cycle, and l remember that
eighteen years ago we had a very late
spring, and never got Il chance to
break up the land at all, but had to list
it in April and plant anyhow. We
made u good crop, though, and so we
will trust in tho Lord, who said that
seed time and harvest should not fail.
This moon b4siness has perplcxed
me all my life. [ can't keep up with
it can't foretell whether the next
moon will set hat and hold water or
set up and dow IL and spill it, nor whether
it will ride high in the zenith or course
low down in the southern sky. 1t io
the most mystcI iOus orb ii the hcav-
ems, and its movements the most COM
plicated. but TO the astronomer it is
the regularity CT regnlarities. 1t re-
wolves around the earth in twenty
seven days, but AS the earth Is speed
ing 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. 1t wabbles
and has new path around the earth
every time for nine years, and then
gets back again in niue years more.
1t has its lihrAtions on latitude and
longitudes and it's nodes and aspides,
and, with all these complications, no
wonder the people have their signs
and superstitlons, and believe in wet
moon and dry moon and Il left-handed
moon, and see bad luck in looking at
the new moon over your left shoulder
or through brushy tree top, and
almost everybody has theory about
planting in the light or the dark Of the
moon.
But If tho moon ever does makes
lunatics it is making them nowadays,
and we are deeply concerned about
those Northern Methodist preachers
we see from the Now York papers that
400 Of them recently held a conve ntion,
with Bishop Andrews at their head,
and listened with approval at the ut.
USiauCCo VI 1SSN. lhIs OuS hlauS VI WIG
Metropolitan church, who declared
that the time had come when the only
test OF religious faith should be Christ
and his teaching, and that all the
miracles OF tne Old Testament should
be discarded as fables and as contrary
to human reason. 1--WE must cease to
believe" said he, "that Moses opened
d way through the sea for the children
OF Israel to pass over, or that he made
water to gusb from the rock, Or that
Lots wife turned into pillar of salt,
or the tower OF Babel story, or that
Daniel went into the lions den, or that
Shadrack, Moschack and Abcdnago
walked through the fiery furnace, or
that the sun stood still at the command
= of Joshua, or that the whale swallowed
Jonah, and 80 forth" The papers say
that there was almost unanimous ap-
plause when he ciosed and no one re-
piled or C0ntrOverted the argument OF
the reverend gentleman.
What does all this mean? The press
says 1t looks like q perfect upheaving
and overturning OF the very founda.
tions OF Methodism and orthodox
Christianity, and that this was the
most representative body Of clergy
men that ever met in America Car
this be possible? Have they ignored
Muses. and the prophets Of whom this
same Christ whom they pretend tt
believe quoted and indorsed time and
again to his disciples. Dident he say
to the Pharisees Remember LJL'
wife ?" Dident He say in ono OF Hi
parallels "If they will dot believe
Moses and the prophets neither woult
they believe though one rOse from the
dead" Ddent Paul preach q sermon
on faith and quote Moses and Eli jal
and speak OF the very miracles the.
performed
I confess that [ was shocked whom
read the Rev. Cadman's new departur,
from the faith Of the fathers; and still
) more shocked when the 400 checret
: :5,him. 1t seems that they were not sur
XXEHrlsed, for Cadman had been for SOM
y .,time delivering himself on this sam
! line, and had made many convert
among them. "Our belief must con
B.. form to human reason" said he, an
yet the idiot can't tell how his vii
y raises his hand nor how he winks hi