The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-10-20
NEW HAVEN COURIER MONDAY OCTOBER 20 1902

ing imagined he had solved the difficult
II lucidly and briefly: "As the earth
! rotates On its axis the ends Of the axis
/ gradually change places: the North
Pole very slowly gets to the position Of
| the South Pole. and the South Pole be-
| comes the North Pole. Mention of the
poles will recall the famous example
cited frequently by Sir Robert Ball in
his lectures. Of the sunhOwer thought
! lessly planted within The Arctic Circle.
AS is well known, during the summer
months in the extreme northern regions
the sun never sets, but circles round
the horizon all the twenty-four hours.
The unfortunate sunfower, therefore,
so the tale runs, twisting it's head
round, as is its wont, to follow the sun
beams, was finally reduced to complete
strangulation in its fruitless efforts to
adapt itself to the unfamiliar condi-
tions.
Some little while back the pages of
Punch were enliyened by an astronom-
zeal joke. A girl is asked if she can
identify the planet Jupiter in the even
ing sky. She answers she can. for it is
exactly two yards and a half to the
right of the Great Bear; and she
further explains that she has measured
1t carefully with her umbrella. At the
time when all England was waiting
with deepest interest the great shower
of meteors foretold for the middle of
November two years ago, a lady went
into a small grocer's shop near Dub
lin, and while waiting for her parcel to
be made up remarked she hoped the
night would prove fine enough to enjoy
the expected display. Its my belief,
ma'am, the public will be very hard to
please in the matter of these shooting
stars remarked the grocer; you see
the fireworks nowadays are so grand"
OF jokes connected with observatories,
public and private, there are no end,
though many Of these are necessarily
of a personal or highly technical ma
ture, and would, therefore, scarce bear
repetition. One can sympathize with
the astronomer at one of the great
American observatories who was re-
ported on one occasion, though usually
of placid and accomplishing nature,
to have given way to unnitigated bad
language. For the special observations
he was making it was necessary for
him to count with extreme care the
beat out by an astronomical
clock. While thus engaged, with every
nerve on the strain. whip poor will
bird established itself on tree outside
and commenced uttering its shrill and
remarkable cries with the monotonous
iteration for which it is famed These
calls 1t repeated with extreme regular |
ity at intervals of exactly seven. |
eights of second, and soon the mad |
dened astronomer found himself IRE |
counting bird calls instead of I
to the wreck of his observa-
tons, and with the lamentahle result |
already mentioned. At Greenwich OBJ |
there is story related of |
.wo Scotchmen standing one day before !
the great twenty-four clock face out
side the building, which is always such
an object of eager attention. almost
1ne might say of awed reverence, to |
oassers through the park. "Jock." one |
If them was heard TO remark to the
'ther, dye ken whaur We are?" Jock
admitted his ignorance. why mon +"
'eplied the other, with due solemnitv
we are at the vera center of the
Standard.