The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1909-10-09
Titanic Pendulum
Swings Into View

Dice again the great pendulum is
swinging into sight Within a week
verifcation has come to the prediction
made long years ago that at or before
October 1, 1909, Halley's comet would
come into telescope view. Tuesday
night it was seen, Wednesday night 1t
was seen, far out in the Orion region,
out beyond the track of Jupiter, 300
millions of miles away.
To few men isSit given to see two
strokes of this great pendulum, for
the years of man are threescore years
and ten or even by reason of strength
fourscore years in labor and sorrow
with pride. But the clock ticks once
in a long, long life and the next beat
comes after seventy-five years. The
clock beat is memorable, mathematical;
the expectation of the years of man
is none the less mathematical, mex
orable. OF any thousand old enough
to be impressed by the flame of Hal
ley's comet next year not more than
eight will live to see it come back in
1885.
For 1000 years this comet is known
by it's steady beat, the reckoning of
time. Look at but a few of its more
modern comings, those which have
been verified and looking, remember
that comet was long a sign of dread,
a portent.
Tick.
451. Attila and his hordes we're
sweeping out of Hungary in the long
train of wagons hooded with hides,
not men and women but demons their
leader no king or chief but Attila the
Scourge of God. The comet blazed his
path to the fat week.-Mrs. of falling
Rome, ana behind him lay a desert
And the trembling Romans believed
that it was the comet that brought the
destruction Attila wrought.
Took.
1866 Saxon and Norman and Dane
are We" a modern poet may sing, but
far other was the Sayon feeling when
the comet was IN the sky and William
led his Norman hosts across the Chan
mel The ruin of Saxon England was
on the shore and the faith of the rude
age SOW in the comet the cause of the
impenGfnS danger.
Tick.
1873. The comet spreads its threat
across the sky ana Holy Church is
rent by the great schism, Rome and
Avignon discharging thunderbolts &c
clesiastical, and faith failing into de-
cay. Evil still followed the comets
sweep, that was thing every thinking
man believed.
Took
1856. This is the next beat of the
great pendulum Hunyadi makes the
asst STAND for Christendom and beat.
the Turk at Belgrade but Athens goes
down, the Crescent floats above the
Cross. This is the comet that Pope
CaliXtus is fondly believed to have
fought with illumination of a papal
bull.
Tick
1881. PiZarro sweeps down on the en-
pire of the meas Christendom no
donger fears its comets, it looks upon
them with as little reason as the har-
bingers Of good fortune
Took.
1907. English settlement fnds It's
way to jamestown, the comet beams
upon the beginning of a new and
greater empire.
Tick
1852. La Sale opens the Mississippi
! through a savage fallow waste which is
to be the granary of the world
Took.
1853. The comet looks on the Plains
of Abraham, where Wolfe and~Mont-
calm fall equal heroes in the combat
that decided the fate of America, This
was the critical beat (Or the great pen
dulum.
Men had covered in their dread of
the comet. Men had taken a Drawer
view and had followed the comets
leading to high success For twenty
centuries it had beaten the seconds OF
world time, every second the lifetime
Of a man full of years. 1t was not
until this beat that the identity of this
great metronome was proved.
Edmund Haley who rounded out
his active career in the high Office or
Astronomer Royal of England, was
the first astronomer to recognize that
hn at NH he