Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-12-07

Can you imagine anything with tail
a mile long?
Probably not, ever with the inspira-
ton Of Kentucky's most joyous jag
juice.
Famous explorers have returned from
wanderings in the dank, dark, dismal
swamps of unknown lands, with weird
wondrous stories of ring-tailed monkeys
boasting caudal appendages stretched 10
inordinate length.
Nature fakirs have filled the pages oil
geological fiction and romance with &C
counts of serpents ornamented with talls
too long for the most credulous To swal-
low All the ages of the past nave pro-
duced the teIlers of lengthy tales of long
faiIs. until the surfeited world longed to
arise as one man and swat them I'm
the face of the earth.
And now the record is fractured ana
by a comet, of all things.
Casually careering through the celestial
realms. along comes Halley's comet, ana
produces a tail that makes the snuous
convolutions of the mythical sea-serpent
look like the raveled end Of bob-tailed
life. For this wanderer, this weary
Waggles" of the heavens, boasts a tan
that is a paltry 100000 miles in length
and that is some tale to tell, as well as
some tail TO drag around through the
trackless void, missing up the starht
vault of heaven.
COMETS BACK HAIR
wben the earth passes through the back
hair of Halley's comet next May theh
weather will probably be badly dlsar-
ranged. The government weather Of
ficials of Atlanta declare that they nave
no idea what effect the tail of HALEY
comet will have on climatic condluons'
but thehy are sure that they VIII nave
to figure on absolutely new conditions
HaTev's comet is so called because
HALEY did not discover it. In fact this
particular comet had been used on state
occasions many years before HALEY ever
saw it. But he did do several things to
II i'm addition to adopting it, such as cal
cuIating its orbit-whatever that means
and predicting it's return.
HALEY was a close friend of Sir Isaac
Newton familiar to all as the man who
Uncovered why apples fall down instead
of I'D. and between them they hXed II
IN so that the comet would go on IN a
sort of continuous vaudeville, appearing
at brief intervals of a hundred years or
so. In this he was considerable, giving
the neonIa time to partially forget the
NaIlev was also foxy. for he figured out
that in case he had made mistake about
the return date he would be dead any
vav. so it didn't matter much.
OWNERSHIP IN DOUBT.
uauev's comet has been claimed by
number of different people, but nobody
has succeeded in proving their owner
shin. In 1866, when the followers of Will
liam the Norman invaded Merry England,
both sides claimed the celestial visitor
as their particular property. William said
it was a guide set for him in the heavens,
and on the strength of it he launched
campaign against the English King Har-
old that materially reduced the popula-
ton of the British Isles Harold thought
at first it was his own star of destiny.
but later decided that he had the wrong
dope on it after all.
In 1856 all Europe was thrown into com
niption fits by a fancied league of the
comet and the Turks. Fearing Moslem
invasion, and the crop of crusaders having
died off. Pope Calixtus III had every
church bell in the world rung at noon
daily, hoping to scare the "Turkishaa
tar of Fire" fro mthe heavens. Apparently
the scheme worked and the comet dis