The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-10-21
THE CELESTIAL TRAMP.
Halley's Comet is Beginning to At
tract Attention Everywhere.

In Leon, as elsewhere, interest
in Halley's great comet is growing
and the coming of the celestial
tramp is looked forward to by many,
who are wondering what he will look
like The astronomers have given
much attention to this vagrant in
space and know considerable about
him, but they are unable to say what
he will look like when he becomes
visible to the naked eye. He has
appeared as blood red sign of dis
aster that hung in the heavens and
was visible during the day time, and
again as a flaming sword, that was
stretched across the blue arch of
heaven at night, and again he has
differed but little from some of the
more brilliant of the planets.
One of those very pleasant people,
who have read much history. and
| who do not keep their knowledge to
| themselves. writes of the last visit
which the tramp paid to this section
| of the universe, and what he beheld
upon earth, as follows in the St.
Louis Globe-Democrat of recent
date:
Far out beyond the orbit of Mars
a visitor is speeding toward us at the
rate of 100000 miles a day. This
is Halley's Comet. In the next sew
en- or eight months the world will
read and hear much about this call
er. During part Of this time the
world will see him. Long ago the
world also read of him and saw him,
for this will not be his first appear
ance. He has been here many times,
but at intervals so widely separated
that very few persons are fortunate
enough to be able to greet him
twice. The persons now living who
recall his latest visit must be more
than eighty years of age, for nearly
seventy-five years have elapsed since
he passed this way before.
When in 1852 the British astron-
omer, Edmund HALEY, followed
across the armament as far as his
telescope permitted, the course of
the comet, which blazed in the sky
in that year and aroused the world S
wonder, he thought he detected
some resemblance between it and the
comets which were here in 1907
1881 and some previous dates. This
led him to assume that the comet OF
1882 had period of seventy-five
or seventy-six years, and therefore
that it would return in 1857 or 1853
1t came to hand in the latter year
and made it's appearance once more
in 1885. 1t travels in a very elong-
ated eclipse, which carries it out
60O,0O0,000 miles beyond Neptune
the remotest of the planetary mem.
bers of the suns family. 1t will be
near enough to us in January to be
seen with the naked eye and will be
hp,io nct IN, >~;1 Nd Mo-
next
If our approaching caller could
talk what an interesting story he
would be able to tell us. At his
last visit Andrew Jackson was
president of the United States, Will
liam w ruled in England, the either
king, Louis Philippe, was at the from,
in France, Nicholas 1 bore sway il
St. Petersburg, Isabella II ruled
through a regent at Madrid, while
Ferdinand l, who was destined tt
be pushed off the throne in 184S anc
to be succeeded by Francis Joseph
. was in power in Vienna The
French republic, the kingdom O.
Italy, the empire of Germany and the
empire of Japan were far in the
future. The western boundary O.
the United States stopped at the
Sabine and the Rocky Mountains.
Marco Polo had visited Asia in tina
year he would have found but little
change since his time Africa's darl
continent was as dark as it was il
} the days of Mungo Park. Only {
few miles of railroad were laid il
America and Europe. On the oceal
} the steamboat was in it's expert
mental stage and was seldom seen
J Telegraph, telephone, electric ligh
and many other conveniences which
are familiar to us, were as non
J existent then as were the automobile
or the acceptance. The whole fac
of the earth has been TRANSFORMS,
since our. coming caller was here be