The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-01-28
SCANDAL FOUND IN The SKIES
Stars VIII Furnish Some Rare Cos
sip During Present Year.
Astronomers Preparing for EcIipses
and other stellar Seasations-
Mercury To Furnish Most Talk

The stars are going to keep the as
/ Economical gossips busy in 1851 They
have already started the tongues wag-
I ging.
Like their fair sisters on eartn, the
/ stars have their scandals, their ups and
downs and their successes and ecIipses.
/ There are men on earth who, az the end
I OF q telescope. make a life study Of these
c0smic scandals. They have been rolling
/ the salacious gossip on their tongues for
ages, and can tell of all the misdeeds Of
the spheres from the first talk that the
humble shepherds banded about camp in
| the primal days of Galilee.
Compared with that Of the reporters
/ of the Thaw episode and other terrestrial
disturbances, the life of the astronomer
[ is a bed of roses proper. for so well has
/ he got his subject in hand that he can
I figure out all the principal scandals cen
turtles ahead. take his calendar in hand
and complacently await the arrival Of the
moment when Mercury cuts out the sun.
/ the earth dims the refulgence Of the moon.
I AMI the planets raise Cain en- wholesale
| The first Of the 1907 scaHdals took place
/ on January q when one star cast an
/ odious shadow across the fair face Of Il
sister planet. but it evidently did not
/ create much commoti0n. as the press
| agents OF the two heavenly bodies in
volved in the disgraceful 8fair did not
rave about il in print Then. too.
the country was nerying itself for the
I Thaw trial. and If anything was sent 10
/ the newspapers it probably landed In the
waste basket on the ground that IL in
y0lyed only a pair Of secOnd-rate chorus
girls who help make 'the music Of the
/ spheres
/ The next row in the skies VIII take
place tomorrow when the moon will have
! trouble, old Mother Earth throwing her
/ shadow athWaTt the cold white lunar
/ disk in such a reprehensible manner as
/ 90 make il look like a broken giugersnap.
/ This upheaval On the celestial social world
/ Tuesday promises 10 attract some at
1 tentioH unless. indeed. il should have
/ the misfortune 10 have a rival i'm Ev-
! elyn Nesbit Thaw on the witness stand.
/ on July 10 there will be some quiet lit
tie gossip about the sun, but the at
tempts of a lot Of jealous stars TO shut
out the splendor Of the sun are SO COM
mon as to become a joke. and the blase
astronomers no longer pay attention 10
this form OF celestial diversion. They
/ leave that 10 the dilletantes with smoked
] glasses.
/ The real scandal OF the stars. however.
will take place in November. Salons"
/ failed 20 stir the Eossips as the very
/ prospect Of the transit Of Mercury on
/ the morning Of November IA has already
worked up the astronomical Sharps.
I Scientists even now are making extern
\ sive preparation for recording this event.
which Will be visible all over the United
/ States. On that day the sun rises with
the little planet visible across its great
disk. a phenomenon of great unusualness
/ and scientific value. The theory of Mer-
/ cury's movements has always done much
| to upset ideas Of astronomers, as IL is
/ said 20 be the most irregular and dscon-
| certing planet of the system, and has
thrown discredit on many schemes
/ evolved by the students.
/ This sad conduct on the part Of the
| bright but eTTatiC Mercury will not ap-
peal 20 the common peepul' with their
! smoked glasses. but when they look at
/ the papers the next morning and find the
/ astronomical color artists Taving over the
! sensation in the skies, the average man
will feel that a good deal of delightful
! scandal is getting by him because he was
1 not born an astronomer.