Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1900-12-18
WHAT We CALL OUR WEIGHT.
And What 1t Would He In Entirely
DlRQrent Circumstances.

| And What 1t Would he In Entirely
Dl1arent circumstances.
You step upon a weighing machine
! drop a penny in the slot, the hand goes
around the figured dial and, stopping at
| a certain point, tells you that your weight
! is so many pounds. You know by this
In a sort Of comparative way, that there
Ia certain amount of the matter which
composes the universe confined under"
your skin. You have appropriated a GER
tain portion Of it in the construction Of
your flesh and bones. There is definite
amount of the elements combined togeth-
err which produces an effect upon the
machine, and that effect is translated in
to pounds. You do not know exactly
what pound is. but it is some sort of
All arbitrary measure Of the force Of
gravitation. and after reading the fig
ures on the scale you know about how
much there is Of you by comparison with
other objects that have weight and
density.
! When you stand outside OF yourself,
there seems to be no reason why you
should have any weight. The mind, which
is the most important part OF you, does
not appear to have any weight, is mat
ter entirely outside Of yourself. You can
not Increase or diminish it by any act of
| will, though sometimes in dreams you
seem to have Invested your body Of the
| downward pull which you call weight
and find yourself floating as easily as q
mote In sunbeam. 1t may he that this
is sort Of recollection on the part Of the
matter which enters into our compositions
Of time when it was really not subject
to this Juggling called gravitation and
fnH fro In 1,ir
| however, this law Of matter has us in fulE
CONTROL and we cannot escape it for the
smallest fraction Of second. 1t operates,
| steadily all the time, and we are obliged
| always to take it into account.
F.; But does the scale actually tell US how
much we weigh? 1t simply calculates the.
balance between two forces that are
working against each other, the one tend
ing to drag us down to the center of the
earth and the other to send us spinning
out into space. The pull Of gravtation
,, has the advantage by so many pounds.
otherwise we should leave our happy
homes in hurry and start on a journey
| from which we would never return-go-
ing out into space to hobnob with comets
| and asteroids and other celestial wander
ers. This old earth is whrler and q
! twirler. 1t has more curves than base
| ball in the hands Of an expert pitcher:
! You have seen the experiment of swing
ing pail of water over the head without
| spilling the water The earth is giving
| us the same sort Of u swing.
1t is us If some giant were stationed at
| the point Of space where the center of the
| earth is. with string upward of 5000
miles in length attached to us and were
| swinging us around at the end Of it. This
rate Of circular motion is approximately
1000 miles an hour. 1t Is pretty rapid
| swing, and the fact that on account of
this rapidty we have a considerable tend
ency to take long jump several thou
sand miles into space must make a con-
siderable difference in the pressure when
we step OH the weighing machine II the
earth were to stop its whirling some day
for short time, we should all suddenly
become heavy weights, and it is ques-
ton whether the ordinary weighing ma
chine would be adequate to measure the
tendency which our bodies would have to-
press toward the center Of the earth. 1t:
is plain, therefore, that We should weigh:
good deal more if it wasn't for the giant
swing given us by tho planet upon, which.
we are involuntary rcsidents.-Ii ttsburg-
Times.
The Kentucky Pnrson's Guarantee.
A good joke is told on certain minis
ter of the gospel living in this city who
likes to trndc horses By way OF rpcrea
ton BY some means the preacher came
into possession Of a hol,y That wouldn't
pull ut all when he came to n hill. The
parson found purchaser who inquired.
particularly as to age. condition and quail
tiles Of the parsons stced. At last he
asked il he was tried pullcr. 1T would
do your soul good to see him pull" was
the enthusiastic response. The trade was:
made, and in few days tAe new owner
came back and claimed the parson had
misrcprrsencd the qualities Of the ami
NAL 81 told you it would do your soul
good to see him pull, and would it not
have done so?" The purchaser saw the
point and dropped the subject.-Winches-
ter Democrat.