The daily sentinel., 1910-01-29
WHAT DOES THE COMET MEAN

In Grand junction the inter
est III the appearance OF the big
| comet in the west has been very
Keen indeed ana last night many
people throughout the city and
valley as wen as throughout The
nation, watched the 1ery strang-
er. Some exceedingly Interest,"
ing coment concerning the big
comet Is found in the following
editorial in yesterdays Denver
Republican:
II was a good joke on the astron-
omers that while they were stralnng
their eyes to catch glimpses of the
long expected HALEY comet through
their telescopes, there should have
swept into the vision of all eyes a
great, unheralded visitor from infin-
lte space. 1t was as though the new
conner had deliberately ignored the
highbrows and dropped in to play to
the gallery, honoring the hum bic and
scorning the great
Halley's is expected TO become Wis
iblo to the naked eye next month.
but in the meantime the unheralded
glory of the Western heavens shines
with a brilliancy which the astrpn-
omers are beginning to say Halley's
can scarcely attain on this return en-
gagement.
Seen these evenings, this huge WIS.,
itor which slipped from the binding
light of the sun a week ago and
threatens to leave us in some two
weeks more, Is calculated to let t.,is
generation understand how 1t is that
from the childhood of man the comet
has been viewed with superstitious
fear and charged with presaging ia
mine, plague and war. There is
something awe-inspiring in its ma
1esty. None can help but be i'm
pressed. 1t seems to make apparent
that omniscient force which moves
the universe, keeps the stars in their
courses, man in his world. 1t looms
out of the twilight of the evening
sky as the expression of creative pow
er; omniously it hangs there, fearful
ly. wondrously made; we know IL as
a body of almost inconceivable mag
nltude shooting through space at a
speed with which nothing in our
earthly knowledge can compare, a
vast onsweeping monster plunging
headlong on its way, as blind, as i'm
potently moving, yet as responsive to
the compelling force of creation as
the least of its expressions.
Little has been determined con-
cerning the visitor Whether II fol-
lows an elliptical orbit and hence is a
periodic visitor, whether a parabolic
one of infinite dimensions. and hence
is making its first appearance TO our
gaze and will appear no more, has
not yet been decided by the watchers
of the stars. Certain IL is that il Ia
giving this generation. which has
been singularly denied its share of
heavenly vagrants, a splendid view.
Since 1882 there has been no comet
TO compare with II. Previous to that
year memorable comets had shown
with Donati's in 1858, in 1861 and
1874. Halley's, due this year, was
with us last in 1895 and has been
traced since many centuries before
the birth of Christ. making regular
visits every rs years and never fell
ing to convince the children of earth
that its appearance spelled universal
disaster in some form.
These thoughts and fears of child
ish men We are outgrowing grad
ually, and longer seek to trace such
connections, but If it is a clear sky
tonight all can readily gather from
the present visitor some understand
ing of the impression such a sight
must have made on simple minds and
sense turn something of that fear
of the infinite and the unknown
which prompted men of the long ago
TO read ruin in the bursting of s4ch
an object upon the sky of night