Arizona republican., 1910-01-29
Comets and Superstition.

|
 western sky has been sufficient to
 terrify Mexicans of the ignorant class,
 the blazing comet of Haley, when it
 appears next May. will give them a
 scare. indeed. Not only the unedu-
 cated people of Mexico, but the ig-
 norant classes of all lands, will be
 badly frightened when the Haley
 comet takes it's place in the sky And it is only fair to admit that
 belief in the. malevolent influence of
 comets is not confined to the Hitter ate. There is a disposition in France l to attribute the phenomenal floods and their attendant catastrophes from
 which that- country is suffering. to the influence of the tramp comet,
 or to Halley's. upon climatic condi- | tions. There is more or less ground
 for the French opinion. if Frenchmen
 pay any attention to astronomers of
 the sensational school, who have hint
 ed that Halley's comet may affect the
 weather.
 It is regarded as so certain that the visit of the Haley comet will
 have an unfortunate influence upon
 the minds of superstitious people that
 the British government is already
 considering the advisability of taking precautions to guard against racial
 and religious troubles in some sec
 tions of the empire. A few days ago
 Lord Crawford. ex-president of the British Astronomical society. who has widely travelled in Africa and India, expressed his fear that a general na- tive uprising and a massacre of Chris follow the appearance of the Haley comet. Agitators. he said, will seize the opportunity to stir up the un- educated, superstitious natives. using the comet as a fiery sign of Allah to drive out Christians He advised the government to issue placards with pictures explaining the phenomenon, throughout north Africa, especially in Egypt. and in India.
 History shows that comets have been alternately regarded with terror and with welcome in the popular mind. The appearance of Halley's comet in 1456. just as the Turks had become masters of Constantinople. l and threatened an advance into Flu rope. was regarded by Christendom with a superstitious dread; and to | the Ave Maria was added the prayer. | Lord. save us from the devil. the | Turk. and the comet" At Constan- tinople, the occurrence of a lunar | eclipse at the same time, increased ] the portentousness of the event.
 The discoveries of science as to the magnitude of the space filled by | digious velocity. together with the confessed inability of always pre- dieting their approach. have from time to time awakened fears. even educated people. In France. these fears have more than once taken an exaggerated form. The ground lessness of such alarms. from the ex- treme improbability of a collision be- tween a comet and the earth, and the probable innocuousness of con- tact with the extremely attenuated ''tail' of comet, are not considered when an alarm is started. The un- precedented magnitude of the French floods is sufficient to convince many French people that there is a direct between comets and great disasters.
 Even the men of science. while they 10 not concede that comets have any influence upon weather conditions, are not willing to express positive opin- ons on the question whether comets nay affect the salubrity of the at nosphere. Astronomers are generally agreed that it is probable that on many occasions some of the attenu- ited vapor in the tail of comets must nave come within the earth's at traction, and been absorbed in it's at nosphere; and that during the com ng visit, at any rate, a portion of the all of Halleys comet will be pene- rated by the earth, is general pre- licted. If weather conditions during he coming summer happen to prove abnormal in any part of the world. or a pestilence happens to visit any and. or, if there happen any world catastrophes. Halley's comet will be generally blamed.
 The Title and the Man.
 In one of the New York papers, an