Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1902-08-15
BILL APPS LETTER
Wonders of the Solar System is
Barlow Mans Theme.
We OF EARTH ARE "SMALL POTATOES"
Dog Days OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES PIexus
Punch at President Roosevelt,
Commends Captain Howell
in His Race for Mayor Of
Atlanta.

people write to me about dog days that
( will answer briefly that there are no
dog days. 1t is nothing but super
stition that has come down to us from
the ancients. The Dog star or Sirius
has its time to appear in the heavens
and rise and set like other stars. but 1t
is very irregular time and so what
We call dog days may begin the first
of July or many days later. The rising
OF Sirius in line with the sun begins
now on the Sd of July and will con
tlnue until the 18th of August. Those
forty days were believed by the an
clients to bring very hot and sultry
weather and many malignant diseases,
but this has been disproyed by modern
astronomy, for the appearance of ST.
RUS is very uncertain and In the
course of time 1t will rise in the win
ter 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 fast
er it travels. Neptune is 100000 of
miles distant and it takes 165 years
to get around.
But Sirius is away outside of our
solar system and is 10000, 900 600 of
miles from us and gives 400 times
pore light than our sun 1t is the larg-
est and brightest star in the heavens.
1t is called the Dog star because it ap-
pears to be in the tail of the constella-
ton that the aneients named Major
CAMS or the Big Dog. They we're a
smart people and we still keep their
map of the heavens and their names
of the stars, but they had no tele-
scopes and did not know that thers
were any stars or suns except those We
see with the naked eye.
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
i
1t has always been a mystery to me
why the Creator Of the boundless uni
verse. that has no limit should have
| chosen this little world of ours for His
! greatest work, the Creation OF man in
| His own image. little lower than the
/ angels. man who sinned and fell and
was redeemed by the sacrifice Of the
| Son Of God. | don't understand 1t.
cannot comprehend it. This little world
Is no bigger than a cannon ball com
pared with some of the planets and
| stars afar out In space. 1t has but
| one little moon that does not conde-
! scend to show us but one side of Its
4 anatomy The other night we went
out to Mr.. Changers beautiful home
to look at the full moon through his
great telescope that cost S5,O00-and
! is mounted in high observatory with
a dome that reyolves as the earth re-
wolves. 1t was a magnificent specta-
Gle, but the view of Jupiter with four
moons and Saturn with his rainbow
ring and seven moons was much more
beautiful and impressive OF course
| the Creator would not have surrounded
a dead world with such luminous and
| beautiful satellites. We don't know
| anything hardly, and 1t fills me with
| disgust to see young men Gtrutting
around like peacocks-acting like they
made themselves and knew every
thing and expected TO live always
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 lit
| tie hope for a vain or conceited man,
and a vain woman is no better. A
| conceited man is close kin to an idiot
and a woman vain of her beauty
| should sometimes remember that she
had no hand In creating 1t for it was
! God given or inherited. "Oh why
should the spirit of mortal be proud?"
| OF all the faults of which humanity is
| guilty, that Of self-conceit is the last
| to be forgiven and the hardest to re.
form.
I was Illuminating on this yesterday
| when | read what Roosevelt said in
his spetch at West Point The editor
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 E
| historian and | speak what | know tc
be true that West Point has turned out
more great men and more statesmen
than any other institution in the Uni
ted States" 1t was self concelt and
ignorance that provoked such a mon
strous absurdity, for Colonel Sprague.
| Of Yale college. has recently challeng
ed him to the proof and has shown be
! yond all cavil that Yale can number
ten times the great men that Wes
! Point can number. Among them .3sS
ministers of the gospel, rs justices OF
supreme courts, II chief justices, SAG
| doctors, 80 governors Of states and 3
United States senators; besides these
Yale has sent forth an army of eduoa
tors. established 4s0 colleges, 100 for
women and 5000 high schools, while
West Point has sent out none but sol
diers
Teddy ought to be ashamed of him
self, but he will not be. He is not yet
ashamed that in his so-called history
| he called Mr.. Davis an arch traitor
and repudiator and told what he die