Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1902-01-04
BLUNDERS In FICTION
ASTRONOMICAL BULLS THAT LIVE IN
PROSE AND POETRY.
Hall Gaines Wonderful Night, Dick.
ems Stationary Star, Rider Hag-
CARDS Wonderful Eclipse ana Cole

2. CARDS Wonderful Eclipse ana Col
ridges Impossible Crescent.
= 1t Is curious to note in how many
stances strange astronomical errors a
It pear in works Of fiction quite unnece
Is sary to the requirements of the stoi
and resulting apparently from shet
: lack of observation. AS moder
example of such gratuitous blunde
} ing take a piece of description frol
} Mr.. Hall Gaines "Scapegoat:" ut wa
wonderful night. The moon, whc
was in its first quarter, was still Low
In the east, but the stars were thicl
overhead" a wonderful night, in
deed. And strange that such a love
Of nature as Mr.. Hall Caine SHOULD
not have reflected that when the mool
In its first quarter is low in the east
1t is broad daylight. with the sun high
in the heavens.
Nevertheless on this point he erred
In good company. Tie young moon
has proved stumbling block to many
q writer who has attempted to intro
| duce it as a 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 hickering."
in f,,v1t II,
perlor to astronomical niceties, espe-
cially when they in any way inter
fered with the artistic effect of his
stories. In his "Child's Dream of a |
Star the point turns upon one special
star, larger and more beautiful than
the rest which always came out
every night in one particular place and
at one particular time. thereby behav-
ing as no star has ever conceivably
been known to do. This Is undoubted-
~ taking liberty with the solar sys-
TEN, but 1t Is. small indeed compared
with the license sometimes claimed by
authors DESTROYS of calling in the aid
Or astronomy to assist their plots, but
VINO are either insutsiciently acqua.nt-
ad with their subject or count IT no
sin to twist and convert facts to suit
heir requirements.
a very famous and noteworthy in {
tance of this is afforded in Rider Hag-
ards king SolOmon's Mines" where
ne phenomenon of a total solar eclipse
employed with most happy and dra- ,
1atlc effect as far as the story is con. i
erned. but with Il perfect disregard
+ astronomical details which il, its /,
is almost startling. Here. I
Sa1ll, as IN so many other cases. the Il
lAlrn!tH OF the young moon comes v
L. ana th" sun has scarcely set be- /,
'fe the zine crescent rises in the e
ISL. Within wonderfully short space +,
time after this curious event the %
Don Is full, and only Il day later the t!
val eclipse Of the sun takes place. n
spite the astronomical fact that II b
at no moon tor more accurately
eaklng. the last few seconds of the r.
u moon and the first few seconds of
new that total solar eclipse alone
possible
L'ut perhaps the most interesting ~.
lttlre OF this altogether remarkable ~,
lpse is that the total darkness lasts ~,
nearly an hour. Alas, under the
rest and most favorable conditions
zen minutes alone is the utmost limit US
time during which the suns face is Tie
any unsecured, and the observer I'M
ordinary circumstances counts him.
lucky lf he is rewarded for iour. dll
OF some thousands of miles bv an tel
view of the corona for or
ee minutes. two or even less. tho
ONE years ago one of the magazines I
tallled story called THE Portent," ed
motif of which was certain pol
'hSe seeming in the heavens which. Tut
eheVer 1t appeared, BODIED ill to a sOr
tlcular family. This prophetic sign A
none other than the appearance ma
the crescent moon with star be. to
Ell the two horns. Nor was this . mai
[lcniarly novel idea. for it will be r.
ehlpered that in Colcridgc's "An. mai
{ Mariner that veracious seaman n 81
tes now at one period of his ad. aud
lures there rose ,,.
above the eastern bar u
e horned moon, with one BRIGHT star
thih the neither tip.
a purely miraculous and fancifuI C,
tloh like this famous poem If thu
III De ridiculous to cavil at such the
1tail, though in the case of tho the
IL might we'll be questioned how 81
star could manage to appear in 81 ;
position. We may perhaps re.
10 the line in THE Burial of Sir ~,
Moore" where the great soldier -pi
presented as being inferred "by wor
struggling moonbeams mistv
' whereas, as matter of fact A
moon was but day old at the wre
OF the battle of Coruna and there. zine
invisible. This seems like hvner.
ism, especially in poem that
no claim to astronomical accuracv
case is different when an autho,
arately makes statement which
tends shall be believed. In ON
us Abroad" Mark Twain draws
IL notice to the point that on tbe
,e across the Atlantic tbou ~