Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-05-18
COMETS TAIL
CREATES PANIC
Negroes Are Fleeing From
the Fields Into
Town
CLOUDY SKY ALLAYS FEARS
Churches Crowded With Colored
Brethren Seeking Quick i
Salvation.

Atlanta, Ga, May 1S.-Dealers in
"conjur' bags in the negro sections Of
the city carried on a thriving business
today, the result of the scheduled trip
of the earth through the tail of Hal
ley's comet tonight. Meetings will also
be held in all the churches today, thou
sands of negroes refusing to return to
work until the passing of the comic. "
The fact that there's cloudy weather
throughout the south today and clouds
tonight will obscure the heavens, is
.eXpected to ally the fears Of the su-
.perstitious.
Panic Stricken Negroes Flee to Town.
Stanford Ky, May 1S.-Scores Of
negroes professed salvation at the all
night services held in their churches
last night to prepare themselves for
whatever may happen, when the earth
passes through the tail of the comet.
The fields are denuded Of farm hands,
the negroes fleeing to town.
Will Catch Part of the Tail.
Pasadena, Cal, May 18.-The char
acter of the solids and fine dust Hal
ley's comet is supposed to be carry
ing with it in its sweep through space
is interesting members of the United
States geological survey who will
have a representative at the Carnegie
observatory on Mount Wilson tOmor-
row to trap some of the particles as
the earth passes through the comets
tail.
A high tower has been erected at
the observatory with a plate coated
with glycerine surmounting it, to
catch any dust the comets tail may
contain but, Dr. George Hale, direc-
tor of the observatory has little hope
Of the success of the scheme.
DR.. Hale issued a statement today
in which he said that the earth would
enter the comets tail about o'clock
u the afternoon and emerge about
midnight.
But in my opinion" he states, "the
passage of the earth through the tail
is not likely to be signalized by any
conspicuous phenomenon.
Spectroscopic observations show
that the tail consists of gases far toe
attenuous to affect appreciably the
chemical composition of the earth's
atmosphere. Associated with these
close to the head of the comet, are
solid and liquid particles which reflect
perceptible amount of sunlight. In
the part of the tail through which the
earth will pass, these are not likely
to be present in sufficient number OF
size to produce meteors. The illum
i ination Of the tail might perhaps be
sufficient to cause a slight increase il
the brightness of the night sky soo1
after the transit were it not for thu
moon, which will probably preven
any such effect from being seen.
1T is possible that the electric pc
tential of the earth's atmosphere ma,
be slightly affected by electrical.
charged particles in the comet or by
reduction in the number of electron
received from the sun, caused by TIN
screening effect of the tail"
Not Visible in the United States.
| Berkeley, Cal, May 1S.-The frs
part of the calculations on Haley
comet undertaken by the astronomio
al department of the University O
California at the request of the AstrC
nomicai and Astrophysical Society O
America was completed today:
The main result of the calculation
is that the prediction of transit
fully verified. The comet will eros
the sun three degrees of arc abov
the suns center from west to cas-
The instant of geocentric conjunt
tion is May Is, 16 hours, minutes
three seconds, Greenwich time. TIL
phenomena will not be visible in an
lpart of the United States. The come
will not be nearest to the earth a
the time of the transit, but closer al
proach will occur a day or two latel
In statement given out tonight D
rector Leuschner said:
According to photographs take
May IL the tail of the comet was tw
million miles in diameter at the di
tance from the nucleus at which th
earth will cross at, but according
information received from Lick ol
servatory the tail is diminishing RAJ
idly in absolute width and length, q
is always the case after the comet ha
passed it's perihelion. Thus phot
: graphs taken at Lick yesterday Civ
) the estimate that the width of the ia
through which the earth will pas
, will have shrunk to 100000 mile
On the basis OF the latter figure
will take the earth about six hours
l pass through the tail, the relative We
7 Getty of the particles of the tail an
/. the earth being approximately fiji
miles a second. We may expect