Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1910-05-17
COMETS TAIL WILL
HIT US IN THE NIGHT
Sleep Sound and You Will Probably
Not Know it Until the Dan
ger is Over
ger is Over.

through space, directly towards the
earth at the rate of 26 miles a Sec
$4,000 miles an hour. 1t is due to
pass the earth tomorrow, so close
that its tail, which stretches across
one-fourth of the heavens, will en-
velope the earth for 81 hours.
Many people arose at 2:3O Sunday
morning to see the comet rise, and
they were richly rewarded. First
the mighty tail arose above the east
ern horizon and expanded to the
southeast, until it stretched like the
milky way across the sky. Then the
comet itself appeared, a brilliant
star with halo about it.
Observation parties viewed it from
the roof of Bethel College, from the
High School building and from many
points of vantage about the city. The
night was wonderfully clear, with
every star shining. The moon had
set and everything was favorable to
view the wanderer in the sky.
On the same night Mayor Howse,
of Nashville, ordered the electric
lights turned off to let the Nashville
people see the sight. The same thing
was done at Columbia, Tenn.
Rev. Geo. H. Means, of the Meth
odist church, preached on the comet
Sunday night to a large crowd of in
terested hearers. His morning SER
.1rnon was also on the kindred topic Of
"Superstitions and Delusions.
WILL Nor COLLIDE WITH EARTH.
On the 10th of April the comet
passed "perihelion, nearest the sun,
was going its swiftest, 1873 miles a
minute, and determinedly rounding
the curve to push on toward the
earth. as if to drive straight into our
orb and end all things for both
bodies. At the same time the earth
was coming around its curve in the
opposite direction and almost as ca
gerly rushing toward the comet, its
speed being about 1850 miles min
ute. And though the two, on the
10Th of April, were still 95,OO0.OO0
miles apart, the combined move
ment of earth and comet has been
steadily filling up the great gap at
the rate of forty three miles per
second, and the great events that
are to follow the middle of May are
consequently at hand.
That there will be no collision is as
evident as that an elevated train may
safely cross a surface road above or
subway beneath. When the comet
crossed the earth's path early in
March--for it is even now within our
orbit-it was 10, ,O00,0 900 miles above
US, and when it will pass out beyond
the same, May 26, it will be 100000
miles below US. Prof. w. H. Picker
ing estimates that on the 18th of May
we shall be 14,300,000 miles distant
from the comet. From these figures
million or two may be clipped in
the day or two following. The bril-
liancy, too, of the comet will be
greatest on the 10Th, no less than
6,966 times what it was when dis
covered by Professor Wolf.
But the 18th of May is the great
day-the day of the transit and the
day of the earth's plunge through
the comets tail.
THE QUESTION OF DANGER.
The first question is, of course,
that of danger. Will the earth, and
all things therein be destroyed, as
the 10000 inhabitants of st. Pierre
were laid low in three minutes by
the poisonous fumes Of Mount Pelee?
Our answer is that if the earth
should Craze the comets head pos
sibly its vapors would so fill our at
mosphere that nothing thereafter
could live. But at a point in the tail
l4,O00,OO0 miles from that head we
are perfectly safe, as we should be
k(ndeed at one-half or one. fourth that
Tdistance. The comets tail is liter
ally next to nothing. The little that
it is will not affect our atmosphere
in any unpleasant or harmful way.
There is as much danger in the rays
of a searchlight or rainbow and in
initely more in the fumes of the