The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-16
MR. wARDER AS A JOKER.

The latest humorist to attract serious
attention is q certain Mr.. Warder who
in a recent magazine article emphatic
ally denies that the sun is hot and that
the earth receives heat from it, two
facts so generally accepted as to be
considered almost self-evident, and at
tempts to prove his theory by pseudo
scientific methods. He is so far from
successful in this that the average
reader comes away from his article
without any very definite idea of the
theory which he wishes to substitute
for that of the heat of the sun, except
that it is in some way connected with
electricity All bodies, he says, shine
be reflected light, but he neglects to
explain where the light which they re-
fleet comes from. People who never
knew anything about the subject or
have only a vague recollection of what
they once learned in astronomy and
physical geography about the solar
system may be impressed by the novel
ty of his views and his use of technical
terms. He talks glibly of radiation,
philosophers, aurorae, nebulae, corona,
and some things hitherto unknown to
modern science, such as heat atoms,"
indicating that in his opinions he harks
back to the seventeenth century phil
osophers' theory that heat was a sub
stance.
It ought to be evident to almost any
one that Mr.. Warder is a joker and
that his article to prove that the whole
universe is cool and habitab1e and that
heat cannot exist where there is no at
mosphere is merely his idea of humor.
No doubt it is a source of much JOY to
him to have as eminent a scholar as
R. w. Wood. professor of experimental
physics at Johns Hopkins university
answer his absurd arguments, as he
does in the current number of Har-
pers Weekly. Professor Wood exposes
the fallacies and impossibilities of
the Warder theory and although his
disgust with his task is apparent he
shows n moderation which would be
admirable if one were not convinced
that the Warder article were all a joke
intended for the misleading of the in
nocent and the confounding of the
learned but unimag inative like Profess
sor Wood.
The whole thing calls to mind Mark
Twain's SOLITARY aesophagus which
slept on silent wing, far in the STAIN
less blue" in his Double barreled De-
tective story and which was read and
accepted in unqUestioning faith by the
majority of his readers, received with
scofn and sarcasm by others who
prided themselves on their critical dis
cernment and recognized for the joke it
was by an inconsiderable minority.
few years ago a clever student in
the school of electrical engineering in
the University of Kansas wrote a
bright, nonsensical article, a burIesque
pure and simple but quite in the scien-
titic manner on electricity. 1t was
first published in University paper
but was afterwards copied by a scien-
! tific magazine devoted to electricity
and read with much amusement by
electricians all over the country Here,
however, it attracted the attention of
some pedantic layman who supposing
that he lad discovered an electrical
most ridiculous mistakes and display
ing utterance ignorance on the part
of the author fastened to write a letter
to another magazine exposing the alb
surdities and incongruities of the Kan
sas students clever burlesque. 1t may
be that Mr.. Warder's article was not
conceived in a like spirit but the ig-
norance of scientific facts which it dis
plays makes inevitable the suspicion
that he has been indulging in a little
joke. the key of which he may be called
upon to publish for the enlightenment