The Washington herald., 1910-03-30
STARS AND DOLLARS.
Certain Rich Mans Fortune Com
pared tn the MILKY Way.

certain Htch Mans Fortune COM
pared tn the Milky Way.
Garrett T. serTis. IN New YORK American.
was looking at the Milky Way the
other night. when a curious thought came
to me. suggested by what the newspapers
have been printing about a tremendous
eleemosynary foundation which GER
tain marvelously rich American wishes
to establish with HIS name and fortune
I asked myself: How do the hosts OF
the stars Of heaven compare in number
with that mans doIlars?"
/ Well, the census Of the starry sky is
/ concerned almost entirely with the Milky
Way. The number Of stars not connect
ed with IL Is negligible-of no greater
relative Importance than the bank ac-
count of a corner grocer compared with
/ the vast accumulations of the creator Of
the proposed great foundation.
| But when you look at the Milky Way
the idea Of numbering its stars seems
! the dream Of mailman. It stretches all
round the sky: It's extent is so unthink-
ably immense that science has never IN
dertaken TO measure 1t. and the imagi-
nation could not grasp the figures that
, such measurement, If 1t was possible to
make it. would involve.
Yet that whole enormous expanse Of
space occupied by the Milky Way Is so
| crowded with stars that they make upon
the eye the impression of siivery scarf
wound round the brow OF the universe.
-
broad zone Of glittering points instead of
an almost uniform band OF whiteness in
the armament
In some places they are more thinly
scattered, so that as you gaze through
the glass you almost think that. with in
finite patience, you might count the num-
Der included in q space as large as the
face of the moon.
But In other places they seem TO be
packed together like the sands Of the
seashore. They stretch away over thou
sands Of square degrees OF space, hang
ing in great festoons. spreading out in
vast banners, where billions upon billions
OF cubic miles seem TO be filed with stars
thicker than the fakes in a driving snow
storm.
There are begemmed knots in that
starry scarf so rich that the eye is daz-
zled and the mind confused by the spec
tacle which they present
Yet science. although It shrinks from
trying to estimate the space which they
occupy. has succeeded in forming a fair
ly correct enumeration Of the stars Of
the Milky Way.
The most extravagant estimates do not
put the number az more than 300, 600 coo,
and the most Trustworthy probably make
them a third less.
A hundred million stars, then. Is the
total population of the glittering uni
verse. and when we see what a marvel
GUS effect Of innumerableness they pro
duee we begin 10 appreciate what a hun
dTed million means.
Now. compare that with the dollars
which the financial genius of one man
has accumulated. have read, and I
suppose II is true, that the man owns
500 10000. For every star in the spark
ling universe, every star that the eye
sees, every one that the mightiest tele-
scopes show, every one that the marvel
Gus Photographic plates reveal. he could
count down a dollar, and yet leave four
ffths of his stupendous fortune IN
touched,
II the stars were for sale, az that rate
he could buy them. every one. and have
enough left TO purchase four other uni
verses!
He could corner the starry product OF
infinite space. and laugh at those who
had imagined that such a tria.ng trans
action would strain his resources.
Let all the stars fail; let them come in
glittering. flashing multitudes; let them
pile themselves in glowing heaps - he
could wrap every one in dollar and
put it aside In his storehouses. and when
the universe had no more to give he
could still cry:
Il buy stars! Come on with your stars,
Discover another and another universe;
I'll take all offerings. If your andre
media Nebula is made Of stars. as you
say. throw ii down to me; I'll take II in
the lump; no need Of stopping to count"
Fortunate that the stars are not for
sale! Fortunate that there is a founda-
ton not built upon dollars. and in which
every human soul has a birthright, not
based upon charity