The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1902-01-18
BLUNDERS IN FICTION
ASTRONOMICAL BULLS THAI LIVE IN
PROSE AND POETRY.


CARDS Wonderful Eclipse ard Cole
ridges Impossible Crescent
1t is curious to note in how many IN
| stances strange astronomical errors ap
| pear in works of fiction quite urneces
sary to the requirements of the story
and resulting apparently from sheer
| lack Of observation. AS a modern
example Of such gratuitous blunder.
Ing take piece Of description from
Mr.. Hall Gaines "Scapegoat:" 1t was
wonderful night. The moon. which
! was In its first quarter, was still low
| In the east, but the stars were thici;
overhead" A wonderful night. in
deed. And strange that such lover
of nature as Mr.. Hall Caine should
| not have reelected that when the moon
| in its first quarter is low in the east
it is broad daylight, with the sun high
| in the heavens!
Nevertheless on this point he erred
| in good company. The young moon
has proved a stumbling block to many
a writer who has attempted to intro
| duce it as picturesque adjunct to his
| description of evening.
| In Dickens Our Mutual Friend
| Eugene Wrayburn. in his walk along
the river bank. finds it has just risen
when the stars were beginning to
| shine in the sky, from which the tones
of red and yellow were flickering."
! Dickens. in truth, was sublimely su-
| perior to astronomical niceties. espe-
| ciallv when they In any way inter
| fered with the artistic effect of his
! stories. In his "Childs Dream of a
| Star" the point turns upon one special
star. larger and more beautiful than
| the r-st." which always came out
| every night in one particular place and
III one particular time. thereby belav-
| ing as no star has ever conceivably
| been known to do. This is undoubted-
| ly taking a liberty with the solar sys-
| TEN. but 1t Is small indeed compared
| with the license sometimes claimed by
! authors desirous of calling In the aid
| Of astronomy to assist their plots. but
| who are either insutficiently acquaint-
| ed with their subject or count it no
| sin to twist and convert facts to suit
| their requirements.
| A very famous and noteworthy In
| stance Of this is afforded In Rider Hag-
| CARDS King Solomon's Mines" where
| the phenomenon of a total solar eclipse
| Is employed with most happy and dra-
matte effect as far as the story Is con-
cerned. but with a perfect disregard
OF astronomical details which In It's
audacity is almost startling. Here.
again. as In so many other cases. the
difficulty OF the young moon comes
In. and the sun has scarcely set be-
fore the fine crescent" rises In the
| east. Within wonderfully short space
Of time after this curious event the
moon Is full, and only day later the
total eclipse of the sun takes place,
despite the astronomical fact that 1t
Is at mo moon" Tor. more accurately
speaking. the last few seconds of the
old moon and the first few seconds Of
the new that total solar eclipse alone
is possible.
But perhaps the most interesting
feature of this altogether remarkable
eclipse is that the total darkness lasts
for nearly an hour. Alas. under the
rareSt and most favorable conditions.
seven minutes alone Is the utmost limit
OF time during which the suns face Is
totally ObScured. and the observer un-
der ordinary circumstances counts him.
self lucky If he Is rewarded for jour-
ney of some thousands Of miles by an
uninterrupted view of the corona for
three minutes. two or even less.
Some years ago one Of the magazines
contained story called The Portent,"
the motif of which was certain
strange seeming In the heavens which.
whenever it appeared. BODIED Ill to a
particular family. This prophetic sign
was none other than the appearance
of the crescent moon with star be-
tween the two horns. Nor was this a
particularly novel idea. for 1t will be
remembered that in Coleridge's An
cent Mariner that veraciouS seaman
relates how at one period of his adj
ventures there rose
above the eastern bar
The horned moon. with one bright star
Within the neither tip
In purely miraculous ard fanciful
creation like this famous poem it
would be ridiculous to cavil at such
detail. though in the case Of the
story it might we'll he questioned how
the star could manage to appear In
such position. We may perhaps re-
fer to the line In The Burial Of Sir
John Moore" where the great soldier
is represented as being inferred .'by
the struggling moonbeam's misty
light" whereas, as matter OF fact.
the moon was but day old at the
time Of the battle of Coruna and there
fore Invisible This seems like hyper
criticism. especially in poem that
lays no claim to astronomical accuracy.
The case is different when an author
deliberately makes statement which
he intends shall he believed. In In
nocentS Abroad" Mark Twain draws
special notice to the point that on the
voyage across the Atlantic they OBJ
served the full moon located just in
the same spot In the heavens at the
same hour every night. He accounts
for this by the motion OF the ship.
which gained enough every day to
keep up with the moon. but he SEEM
fngly forgot that. though for this rea-
son the position of the moon might not
greatly alter. her phase certainly
would. so that ii could not have been