The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-01-09

By millions and more millions there either
has never been grave collision between
earth and comet or tbs earth has passed
through so many hundreds Of thousands
OF comet tails. comet heads. comet parts
of every kind-and they puffed them
selves into harmless star showers on
striking our atmosphere.
In either case there appears to be moth
ing in the scare aboUr comets. If the
planets appear as the big. protected chill
dren of the sun. the comets are like gauGy
soap bubbles that Play around the chill
drens heads Who Is afraid TO run a
soap bubble with his hard head?
But suppose the sun We're some Gay to
eat her child. the earth
Suppose the fight of the earth were to
lessen. Immediately the attraction OF ;he
sun would become predominant The
earth's path would change from a Giro e
TO a spiral The great power would pull
the little planet to its heart \ shock
and the earth-p planet goes up in steam.
turns into flaming gases. The sun. which
-perhaps-gave birth Il the world uu-
counted millions OF years ago. has taken
it back. An awful mystery play!
IF THE Sun DIES
or: some day the sun becomes dark.
Not as the result Of harmless eclipse.
It's spots have been growing alarmicgly-
In that day the veil viii not lift at all. \
cold rind has formed over the Kissing
hearth OF the giant.
Then. to the eyes of distant Observers
on some fixed star. a star viii have died.
But ninety millions of miles from that
fixed star something else has di5d-jhs
life Of the earth Polar cold spins its If
around the globe. The last power If
blosSoming BY the help q light varnishes
in the last plan-cen
Heiplessly dance the Northern Lights.
helplessly the Isn't % phosPhorosce1t
creatures iHuminates the sea Tor the last
time. The oceans freeze solid Water and
life. the inseparable allies. die together
With the last drop o. E9O. the great sun
flower Of earth. Life, disappears.
Is this to be the final catastrophe? The
threads do. indeed. weave themselves
very closely together here.
The plaret-spneres arr preserved only
by their monstroGs speed in their race
around the sun from falling headlong into
its open fire-sea. They are lost in that
instant in which any cause arises 10 hem
their desperate flight Ii may be a very
tiny cause. II may develop very. very
slowly through millions Of years What
are millions OF years compared with eter-
nifty? II the cause is there at all, TIE
hour Of reckoning Will come and no pow
er Of heaven or earth can stop Il
And the cause exists.
The space through which the planet
darts is not absolutely empty.
Dust, meteoric dust, the finest Of me-
teoric mass. the thinaest OF comet stun.
drifts oeasslessiy against the planets ii
their path
Well, then: 4 lightning express train
whizzes along Swarns 81 gnats strike Il
and are hurled away Now and then a
caterpillar or a bug gets on the raj ana
IS slnas shed into nothing How could they
check the trains
Bat let the lightning express whiz thus
for millions. biiIloas trt!lions u years
Time is terrible. memorable accountant
II has built sky piercing mountains oUt
OF microscopic kernels OF sand; il has
burst those mountains again with the fan
ing drops of water, sent coNawavd. year
after year through thousands - years
The erdless. lsmitless swarnns 81 Suats
viii bring the lightning express 10 stop |