Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-05-24
NEVER TOUCHED US.
Halley's Comet Proved to Be Very
Peaceable and Law-Abiding Wednes-
day Night.

As long as the writer can remem-
ber, new religious sects have been
springing up from time to time, and
self appointed apostles have appeared,
each proclaiming that the earth's ex-
istence would surely end on certain
set day. They have sat up and prayed
and waited, and on the morn when
the sun came up smiling in his ac-
customed place, they lost faith in
their own predictions and found
truth in the statement of Brudder
Gardner of the Lime Kiln club, "De
earth still do moye.'
So it was with those credulous peo-
pie who sat up last Wednesday night,
thinking that Halley's comet was 60
ing to push the earth off it's orbit
and knock us galley west. Sir w.
Hamilton said: ''That implicit
credulity is the mark of feeble
mind will not be disputed That is
what is the matter with too many of
our people-too much credulity.
Many in Wausau, and we presume
elsewhere, sat up Wednesday night
patiently awaiting the end. But it
came not. AS the Norwegian said,
"It ban good yoke on OLE" And the
comet played several ''yokes'' on ou.
wise astronomers as well.
1t was an anxious night for many.
Many of the intermittent church at
.tendants spent the early part OF the
night with their knees on the carpet,
while some old sinners went out and
spent all their loose change for fear
they could not carry it with them to
the Beyond.
A number thought they detected a
.sulphurous gas in the air, but they
were wrong. Some said the smell
was due to the smoke escaping from
Charley Wegner's auto truck, while
others said it was the breath of a
policeman, who had forgotten to wipe
off his chin after eating onions at
one of the free delicatessen tables.
The Daily Record Herald office was
kept covered with tarpaulin, for
fear its gas would mix with that of
the comets and cause an explosion.
One star gazer, waiting at the
Northwestern depot for the 1:29 train
saw sparks coming out of the Curtis
s. Yale smoke stack, and thinking it
the tail of the comet, he started to
run and fell headforemost into the
river.
It is reported that Marathon City
resident, in his excitement, slid off a
housetop whittier he went star gaz-
ing.
Three farmers out on the Smith
road in fear of destruction spent part
of Wednesday removing the lightning
rods from their buildings. 1t is re-
ported that Chris. johnson, editor of
the Merrill Daily News, did the
same. AS only the good die young,
Chris. was needlessly alarmed.
The undertakers were the only
happy people. What a buSiness they
expected TO do
But the earth did not come TO an
end we are still all here, and will be,
until the old fellow with sickle beck
ons us to come his way singly. not
in bunch.
But the greatest joke is on the as
Itronomers. On Thursday morning
the tail of the comet, detached from
the comet itself, was observed in the
east. and in curved form. This
brings to our mind an old jingle We
theard in our boyhood days, which We
have revised TO read as follows. sub
Istituting the word comet for coat:
"A man without wife,
A ship without sail.
But the oldest thing in life
Is comet without tall
| The astronomers have been scratch
ing their belfrys ever since, trying tc
figure out how Halley's pet got sepsr
ated from its yermif0rn. appendix.
A touch of rheumatism. or twings
of neuralgia, whatever the trouble is
Chamberlainss Liniment drives awal
the pain at cnce and cures the com
plaint quickly First application
- --xs~e c1fl - IN 49,