The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-20
rr mAY nr rmponrAxr.

The alleged crack on fair Luna's face is causing considerable discussion among the astronomers and other scien- tifc fellows. It was one Perkins at the Lick Observatory in California who an- nounced with something of a flourish that he had discovered crack about eighty miles long right across the moons eountenance. as if that appar- ently dead iuminary had opened It's mouth to enjoy a good laugh at some thing, Probably she Is a Republican l and smiled a hdge smile at the great Republican victory pulled of. Or may l be she is tired and disgusted at the way we do things down here and couldn't help yawning at us.
 But if this Californian thought he was getting ahead of our Yankee brethren he got up entirely too late, for another P, real name Pickering who regulates the planets from liar yard. tells us that Perkins hasn't dis covered anything new. and declares 1 that there arc at least q thousand cracks of various sizes on the moons face. If he is correct that knocks out our theory of the reason for this one |. However that may be, like The Hart ford Courant. i've feel like saying to the moon: Let her go, Gallagher! Crack yourself in streaks, and criss- cross. and all the way around. if that is your idea of comedy. Twentieth Century lunar style; only. please. do not crack into separate pieces. We | are sure that this point of keeping to- gether-of standing pat, so to speak, with things as they are beyond the clouds--is not a matter of taste but of judgment.
 l This. however, Is on the assumption that the old lady will stick together. A few cracks, more or less, will make l no difference down here. we guess, pro- vided 1t stops there. but there's the danger. and the apprehended trouble. While there are nothing but cracks, we can go on with our politics and canal building, and other affairs in peace and content, but suppose ,he moon should I eP hhsO PiCScSy Whdt tHcu As our earth is the nearest planet, the fragments would naturally come in this direction and then we would be in for it. There is always more or less ap. prehension lest a wandering meteor strike some thickly inhabited spot on the earth and ffatten few of us, but that danger is remote. The meteors which reach the earth are usually small and we do not now remember that one of them has hit any one. They generally pick out a lonely place to fall as if they disliked or feared pub licity.
 With the bursted moon 1t would be a very different matter. Some of its fragments would probably weigh mil lions of tons, and If one of them should strike us when we are not looking Il would upset some of our plans very de. eidedly. It might break up a po1iti- cal convention. To again acute The Courant, the moon. we suppose, goes on cracking it's surface like a chapped hand The moon has been a good standby for great many years, and so far as The Courant crowd takes an interest in lunar doings, we should hate to lose 1t. Whether the cracks ir which 1t Is indulging itself are a dec. oration or a danger, the two assistant professors do not say. If they are 6 danger. then of course we have a new and conclusive argument for placing lights upon all vehicles that are moved decoration, then 1t all comes down te a question of taste. We confess that we do not understand how the moon can gain in beauty by wearing cracks but, obviously that is the moons bus mess and not ours"