The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-22

asking some questions that | cannot an
| swer. The origin of meteOrs and their
| flight and fall is yet the unsoved pros
| blem of the ages.
He saws that on the Goth of lasr
month. at O'Clock in the morning.
| when there was clear sky and not 4
| cloud to be seen. there was a rumbling
sound Of thunder SO weird and unnatural
! that it was alarming. 1t was like the
| rolling Of heavy trucks over an uneven
| PLATFORM only immensely louder. 1t was
| heard in all the neighboring towns, ana
| they all telegraphed each other to know
| if "a mill had not blown up or magazine
| exploded Suddenly there was an eXpl0-
sion in the air and dark cloud formed
| and meteoric fragments fell at different
| places in this vicinity. A small piece
that weighed one and Il half pounds fell
in a field near by and was brought to
| town while it was yet hot. 1t was pow
der-blackened on the outside, but inside
was a grayish color, and its particles
shone like gold dust. Under the micro
scope they resembled quicksilver.
1t was a full minute from the begin
ming of the dull rumbling thunder till the
explosion came, and the course of the
sound was from east to west. The event
was so unexpected and so like the my
thology of Jupiter Tonans throwing Il
bumb from Mt Olympus that the white
people were spellbound, and the negroes
declared it warning and went to
prayer.
Philosophers and astronomers have
been studying these phenomena for 1910
years. and have not yet agreed upon a
n. I, o,F tin
empire record the fail of sixteen great
aerolites from 300 to 600 years before
Christ. The Greeks and Romans record
number, and Aristotle and Diogenes
commented upon them So did Livy,
Plutarch and Piny. They have been
seen so large That the estimated weight
of the fragments after the explosion was
10000 pounds, and the light was so bril-
liant as to pale the sun by day and OBJ
scure the moon by night. There is now
in the Yale college cabinet Il fragment
that weighs 1,635 pounds. This came
from near the Red river in Arkansas.
Many Of the Western states have furn-
ished specimens for the museums of col
leges, and all Of them are composed of
the same mineral ingredients princi-
pally iron-and include copper. tin, SUI
phur, carbon and other metals known 10
our own earth. Not a single new sub
stance has ever been discovered, and for
this reason the theory obtained that they
were thown up from our own volcanoes
with such force as to wander for time
in the outer atmosphere of the earth, and
to revolve with the earth But this theo-
ry has long since been abandoned, for
they seem TO have an orbit of their own
from west to east. Then came Il theo7
nv that they came from the moon, and
were of volcanic origin, and We're thrown
out with such terrific force as to get be-
yond the moons influence and with that
of our earth But this was discredited
because these fragments have been falI-
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 as Professors Arago and Al1nsted
and Bowditch declare that meteors are
simply clouds or nebulae of meteorlc
planets that have a motion and orbit of
their own, and that orbit sometimes
comes within range of the earth's and
produces Il commotion-a disturbance
that causes the fall of some of their own
nebnlae. Some of the children got too
far away from their mothers, | reckon
Sometimes meteors are simply lumin-
Gus and have no body to explode or strike
the earth. These have periodic vibra-
tons of thrty-four years. They come in
showers as thick as snokfakes, and fall
as gently to within a few feet of the
earth and are extinguished. They fell
in 1799-1333 and 1867, and each fall was
ON the 18th of November. But there
have been minor displays at irregular
intervals generally about the 10th of
August. l am old enough to remember.
well the failing of the stars" in 1888.
Ny father held me in his arms as he
stood in the portico for was scared.
Our old negro aunt Minty, was pray
ing and shouting so it scared
all of us children. George Les
Ger lived OH the opposite side of the
street, and his mother held him in her
arms. Sometimes i'll these later days |
would get with my old-time friends, Df.
Jim Alexander or his brother Tom, or
George Adair, and we would boast of the
wonderful era in which we had lived, and
the ADVENT Oh SltduiDu1io hihd ifA'AiN''N|
and cotton gins, and sewing machines.
and telegraphs, and we never neglected
to say, "And we saw the stars fall IN
1888 Dewey never saw might ike
that-but / reckon the Spaniards at Ma
Mia thought they did on the LIST of May.
But this is enough about the meteors.
At least. it is about all that / know.
Joe Mulhattan, or Munchausen, made
ND a big fake Il few years ago while l
was i'm Texas and telegraphed the fail OF
n meteor NEAR Brownwood that was as
BIG as a meeting house and had buried
itself thirty feet in the earth. / was at
Brownwood a few days after and the
postmaster was as mad as a hornet with
Joe, for kilograms came to him from
all over the United States and England
wanting to know about it and wanting
to buy it at any cost. Joe had to leave
There and hide out for a month or two.
The postmaster answered few tele-
grams and then swore off. There is one
good thing about meteorS. They never
hurt anybody. The books say it is re-
markable and perhaps proyidential that
in all the earth there is no record of
one having fallen on anybody or de-
stroyed habitation. Terrestrial light