The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-11
HE THINKS THE SUN
 IS INHABITED.
Indiana Philosopher Gives Reasons
 for His Brief.

La Porte, Ind, Special
 "An eastern astronomer for whom have the profoundest respect said Alex" ander Young, the aged philosopher Of this city, who clings to the belief that the sun is ball of fire encircled by shell which generates the heat; that he has proved that the sun Is too hot body to allow of any habitation there, and that the existence of vegetation on that planet Is to any intelligent astronomer beyond the range of possibility. In taking this view the eminent scientist has merely adopted the conclusions of his forerun- ners during many centuries and has com mitted the fundamental error of attach Ing tho results of his valuable obserVa- tions to a prehistoric theory instead of examining that theory itself in the light of his discoveries and those of others"
 With this introduction MT. Young pro ceeded to elaborate his own views. which are based on a long study of books In cludng the latest, and on extended obser- vatlons made by himself He does not Intend or expect to revolutionize the science of astronomy by his recent an- nouncement of reasons for believing there is life on the sun, but neither does he under a command of silence if he has opinions and can advance arguments in their support.
 Putting aside the fire notion and seek ing q theory with which all the estab- llshed facts could be harmOnized, Mir. Young was led irreslstibly to the result that the sun Is not central source Of heat and light. that 1t Is not a globe Of fire, that it's surface is not a tiame-swept waste. Instead of being flaming or in- candesccnt sphere of lifeless matter 1t Is a habitable and therefore of necessity an inhabited planet. much as the earth Is Observations with the solar spectrum, the solarscope and the soar electroscope have given him new and beautiful idea of the universe and of Gods handiwork therein. In brief, without laying down his line of reasoning step by step, MT. Young has reached the conclusion that the sun Is the universal source and center of electrical energy not of heat Immediately sur rounding the sun is a conductive atnos- phere, outside of which and surrounding 1t Is nOn-conduCtiVe atmosphere, the same being true of the earth and some other planets The covering streams of electricity passing into the sun and the diverging streams passing out into the vast regions of interstellar space meet with resistance in the outer solar atmos- phere and evolve light and heat. the illu- imitation thus caused being the glare that we see in looking at the sun and that scientists have enormously supposed to be the light of that orb itself attribut- ing It. by imagination purely, to incon- ceivable hot fires burning but not con- suming the body of that planet
 In the same way the electrical current passing into and out of earth illuminate and warm its outer nonconductive at mosphere and to other planets our little globe appears as "a ball of everlasting fire in the same manner. but to a far less extent, as the sun appears to them and to us The light and warmth that shed their benign influences upon us and vegetable life in all its varied forms can not by any scientist be traced beyond the terrestrial atmosphere, asserts MT. Young except by pure assumption. The fact Is that they are evolved in that atmos- phere by means of the resistance 1t offers to the great permeating streams of solar electricity passing in and out. According to this theory the sun sends forth electric currents, not rays of heat and light. It is warmed and illuminated by the heat and light evolved by the passage of those currents through its own resisting atmos- phere and not by any fires of its own.