The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-17
THE STRANGER ALoFr.

There is splendid foreigner coming
this way, even into our family circle
our nice, coy family of planets-and is
making himself at home about our
hearthstone-the Sun The juvenile por-
tlon OF our household, the little fellows
of Asteroids, huodle together to keep
warm-we hope he will see them in time,
and not tread on the childEAn.4 Jupiter
may be, will grid his belt little tight
err and Herschel, we see. wears as much
JeWelry as ever: while the only fighting
member of the family, Mars, with a flush
In his face, keeps going about as if no
body was coming
The foreigner. however, is not alto
gether~s stranger. He has visited us be-
fore, n Icing time ago, and his So
1ourn Vas as brief as ballad Very
grand is, with his splendid train, a
numbeiSbf miles longer than the army
Aerxes led; and in a great hurry he
seems to be, like one on business bound;
but If he could or would tarry a moment
before he goes a-visiting just long
enough to comb his hair, we think it
might be safely passed to the credit of
MS personal appearance. But this be-
ing none of our business. il will not do
TO be strenuous: and indeed who knows
what sights he may have seen to cause
each particular hair to stand on end like
quilts upon the fretful porcupine?-l
sights in that upper deep, stranger than
Clarence saw in his dream.
Whoever he is or wherever he has
been, he is just now guest: and we are
all hospitable people, we planets, and
wish him. like good Christians right
welcome; for is ii not written: Forget
not TO entertain strangers, for thereby
some have entertained angels unawares.
We have called him a foreigner and
stranger; perhaps We were little too
fast. for it may be he is only travel
ing gentleman, and one of our folks"
and, in fact. a first cousin who has been
abroad and returned at last. with the
news, to the old homestead
plain family we are: rural people
indeed, as anybody can tell who. in a
clear night, looks off at the lights of the
great astral city, so far and SO many
that they seem woven INTO silvery
scarf of delicate lace; as if God had.
flung ii down from His great central
throne, and ii fiuttered there in sight
and forever as a token,s Now, Tor any
thing We know, our illustrious cousin,
the comet, is now on las way from the
capital-a kings courier, perhaps-and
has threaded the crowded streets, and
has passed the suburbs, and crossed the'
great azure fields of the country of God
and has gone out of his way. for mem
ory's sake, and come to our little set
Element.
But il is strange what queer stories
some people tell of him. as if he was
lawless fellow, and was out on lark
instead of on duty. We think ii unkind,
this gossip, and We protest. He is "a
dashing fellow, We know; but, then,
they are not Sabbath-day journeys he
takes. The country we liYe in is one of
magnificent distances; and even the
thought is brea that only goes to
the neighbors. and flies to the starry
cottages whose small lights twinkle in
the outskirts OF, our hamlet. Who knows
but he has seen the Lost Pleiad in his
wanderings; has met Orion in armor on
sword-hilt of Perseus? Perhaps he has
huttered the hair of Berenice, or paused
at the Northern Crown, or heard the
Harp of Heaven as he passed, or beard
ed the Lion in his starry den. Aldebaran
may have glared at the stranger; the
river Pc, that flows through the field of
the blest, perhaps he forded dry-shod
a pilgrim to the Southern Cross, he
may have played st. George to the
Dragon. distanced Pegasus, and paid
court to Andromeda. Did Arcturus delay
turn him aside? Did he dash along
among the NebuIae, Those morning
clouds of creation, those visible breaths
of Deity? Did he solve the mystery of
Cassiopeia, and linger around the ruins
of the beautiful world that went out like
a taper three hundred years ago?
The laboratory of God is somewhere;
did he pass ii when the doors were ajar?
There is a sinless world among the
stars; did they see the Comet in their
offing?
And our guest himself; is it solid
globe, making mighty wake of life,
and glowing like a furnace; or Is it a
magnificent Will-o'-the-Wisp floating
about the universe? What if it should
be an abandoned world, arifted from
it's mornings, dismantled and lost, and
wandering like a ship in winter sea
Or wild outlaw, madly plunging from
system to system, and making terrific
descents upon peaceful planets, scatter
ing confusion and death?
And if this last should be, and the as
teroids are indeed the sparkling ruins OF
J, iS the