Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1902-08-23
ARP ON ASTRONOMY.
Talks About the Wonders Of tn,
Starry Universe.
smAElness OF the Earth-NO Biggei
Than a Cannon Ball Compared
with some of the Planets
Roosevelt as n Historian.

| Win some OF the Rlnnetn-
Roosevelt rs Historian.
copyrighted, by the Atlanta Constitution
and Reprinted by Permission.
Dog days. So many of the young
people write to me about dog days
that 1 will answer briefly that there
are no dog days. 1t is nothing but q
superstition that has come down tc
us from the ancients. The Dog star
or Sirius has it's time to appear in
the heavens and rise and set like
other stars, but it is a very irregu.
lar time and so what we call dog
days may begin the first of July OF
many days later. The rising of Sirius
in line with the sun begins now
on the Sd of July and will continue
until the 18th of August. Those 40
days were believed by the ancients
to bring very hot and sultry wealth.
er and many malignant diseases, but
this has been disproved by modern
astronomy, for the appearance Of
Sirius is very uncertain and in the
course of time it will rise in the
winter. Now a little more about
this wonderful star. You know that
we have eight planets that belong to
our solar system. They all revolve
around the sun just as the earth
does and the nearer the planet is to
the sun the faster it travels. Nep-
tune is 100000 of miles distant
and it takes 165 years to get around.
But now young people listen. 1t
is now established and proven that
there are millions of stars and solar
systems afar off in space and that
ours is the smallest and the most
insignificant of them all. We are
nothing and less than nothing in the
scale of existence. 1t has always
been a mystery to me why the Crea-
tor of the boundless universe, that
has no limit, should have chosen this
little world of ours for His greatest
work, the Creation of man in His
own image, a little lower than the
angels, man who sinned and fell and
was redeemed by the sacrifice of the
Son of God. I don't understand it,
[ cannot comprehend it. This little
world is not bigger than a cannon
ball compared with some of the
planets and stars afar out in space.
1t has but one little moon that does
not condescend to show us but one
side of it's anatomy. The other
night we went out to Mr.. Changers
beautiful home to look at the full
moon through his great telescope
that cost $5,O00-and is mounted in a
high observatory with a dome that
revolves, as the earth revolves. 1t
was a magnificent spectacle, but the
view of Jupiter with four moons and
Saturn with his rainbow ring and
seven moons was much more beauti-
full and impressive. OF course those
planets must be inhabited, for the
Creator would not have surrounded
dead world with such luminous
and beautiful satellites. We don't
know anything hardly and it fills me
with disgust to see young men strut
ting around like peacocks-acting
like they made themselves and knew
everything and expected to live al
ways-when the truth is they don't
know where they came from nor
where they are going and can't
add an hour or a day to their
existence. have but little hope for
vain or a conceited man and a vain
woman is no better. A conceited
man is close kin to an idiot and a
woman vain of hay, beauty should
sometimes remember that site had
no hand in creating it for it was
God given or inherited, ooh! why
should the spirit of mortal be
proud?" Of all the faults of which
humanity is guilty that of self-con-
ceit is the last to be forgiven and the
hardest to reform.
ruminated on this yesterday
when / read what Roosevelt said in
his speech at West Point. The ed
itor who publishes it speaks of him
as our well meaning but impulsive
president. He should have said our
Connected and erratic president
In speaking of the great men whom
West Point had graduated, he said:
81 claim to be a historian and
speak what I know to be true that
West Point has turned out more
great men and more statesmen than
any other institution in the United
States" 1t was self-conceit and ig
norance that provoked such a mon
strous absurdity, for Col. Sprague
of Yale college, has recently chal
lenged him to the proof and has
shown beyond all cavil that Yale car
number ten times the great mer
that West Point can number. Among
them 1888 ministers of the Gospel
7s justices of supreme courts, Il
chief justices, SAG doctors, 80 gov
errors of states and 3S United States
senators-besides these Yale has
sent forth an army of educators, es
tablished $50 colleges, 100 for womeI
and 5000 high schools while Yves
Point has sent out none but soldiers
Teddy ought to be ashamed O
himself, but he will not be. He j
not yet ashamed that in his so-calleC
history he called Mr.. Davis an arcl
traitor and repudiator and told wha
he did when governor of Mississippi
etc. His attention has been callet
to these malignant calumnies agains
great statesman and whose cur
riculum at West Point that he or
dained when secretary of war is still
in force and who never was a mem
Der of the legislature nor governo
of Mississippi. No, he is too con
ceited to take back anything or t
apologize for his mistakes. The maj
he slandered was dead when he pub
lished those lies, but his widow live