The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-06-05

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has already collided with about fifty
comets. .contradictinE .Arrago and Bab-
met. MI. Emerson declares that great
wars ,i follow comets The negroes may
such heroes as Hannibal and MithrI-
dates killed themselves from fear of q
comet. King Louis the Debouair and
sS h ann the Of sayoy died h 6p9m th
gave, up his throne and nut OIL a
monks cowl.i Several writer's quote
| the great father OF French surgery, DIR
Amboise Pare, who says that the
French peasants were made very iii
or died In numbers from intense ter
ror OF comet. which he saw and dc.
scribed as a bent arm. holding an Inn
mense sword of blood surrounded by
!; other axes and swords and hdeous hui
man faces with boards and bristliny
! hair; me unknown quantity is always
Terri lying. once saw n child fright
ened into ,convulsion by Il very sim
pie thing--ller. grandmother's black
bonnet, hung above register. The
gusts sai, /, OF {. not air waved the long black
that tina, appalled,, app her, and 1t. was some
time before any. one could find out
what had SO frightened her
+, seem. more More Comet. 80,
same same comet figuring in the I,ayeux
,apsstry as q cogwheel attached to
modern lampshade, 1866 A. D.. while
s ser e excite people point to it. and chat
a sensationalist. He pictured posi-.
bic comet with a tidal wave 1000 feet
nigh. out of which only the Alps and
o ore iiinalayas protruded. and scared
ought to reasonably expect a collision
every lo,ooOooo years. Professor Pick
e eig says 4oooo.ooo. The only oues-
rio,, then Is whom was it. last Sc
HALEY, who ought to know more than
ANYBODY else about his own comet
says says, IF SO large a body with so
e eaptb a motion; were to strike the
n.lke-the shock might reduce this beall-
ti1ul world to its original chaosn1 This
Is cheerful! Well. when we got rid
S Da -. liaiieys comet this time we will
velopments. A comet can sweep
through the entire solar system with.
out getting disarranged. 1t seems. but
C %a De captured by planet. Perhaps
job by the time the next one bursts
upon our telescopes, terrifies our peo-
PIE ana sets all our astronomers to
"rSulns, nguring and disagreeing.
Scientific Remedies.
f1ammarion. in his clever and most
IN the throes of carbon monoXid gas
i Klmea off by ~, cyanogen and dancing off
atmosphere into an anesthetic future
AZ humanity. first Mortified and gasp-
ing for breath in the tail of a comet
interesting es az Fin du Monde" shows us
are sober folk. and assert that we
must look for traces of these gases
IN our vegetation, but that no chemist
cal, in 40, them In our atmosphere and
cheerful scorn. One highly ingenious
scientist, determined not to leave tho
world. thinks he could arrange to have
me world leave him instead by shut
ting up his house (family and friends)
Dramatically and breathing through
tupe filled with neutraliZing gas
until the little disturbance was over
Long live science!
The Sun.
Then. as If we had not trouble
enough, the sun is said to be In diff
culties. We have got used in these
United States to lots of worries-graft.
a aI a,e. the certain d;sappearance Of
probability. of two oceans rising up
aud smashing the Panama Canal, the
riyalries Of the breakfast food manu-
lecturers a. me discovery. that We can't
that we can't live simply If we go on
taking coffee for breakfast every
morning instead of Postum. and that
II trusts continue. which is more than
70 eat except each other-certain can
nibalism. in short--well, we have all
these muddles and miseries on earth,
and millions more. and stagger along
perhaps. But when the heavenly
bodies conspire against US, we do feel
imp. and now one-half of the astron-
omers declare that the sun is burning
II 1t had been made of coal, it would
have been gone long ago. and the other
half of the professional pundits boot
and laugh and ponder and peer. and
falling I'M" Faites be jeu! LIE jeu ,es,
fait." Gentlemen, take your choice!
The Upper House, Indeed.
;, That was notable dinner given in
scendants Of the great poets met in
London, and the names represented
by direct, collateral or next Of kin
we're certainly redolent OF Olympus:
Burns. Scott, Wordsworth. Shelley.
Byron, Helen, Lady Dufferin. Henry
Howard, Earl of Surrey, Lady Mary
others more modern and minor. the
''priors to" and the 'Elizabethans," sat |
at the top table. the succeeding CEN
turtles, offspring at other mahoganies.
speech was charming aud well worth
quoting: II am not quite sure whether
We are here to testify to the sound
ness ness Of the hereditary principle or
are al of US poets. either actual or
potential and illustrate the saying.
,poeta nascitur non flt.' Or 1t may be
that we are ranged around these
tables waiting for tho spark from
heaven to fall. I wish that, as with
Halley's comet. there was q period
lefty, and that at stated intervals the
divine aff!atus revisited the descen-
dants Of the poets. This Is said to BIO
a material age. but 1t is sentiment.
pure sentiment, that has brought us
all together here tonight. While we
are said to be a nation proud Of ous
deeds rather than our arts, and truly
we are proud of the great men of ac-
ton that our race has produced. still
we may claim to surpass all other ma
lions upon tho habitable globe as q |
nation OF great poets. Wonderful,
truly wonderful Is the output of our
poetry right down from Chnucer to
the present day. Here we are, inhabi-
tants of quite a small country. living
In foggy arr given over to indus
trial pursuits, dubbed nation of shop
Keepers; yet no country, not Palestine,
not Greece. not Rome. no European
country. not even America, can vie
with US in tho wealth. tho variety, the
continuity OF our poetic thought. II
cannot even conjecture nm explanation.
It may lie In the inspiration that we
have received from our struggles for
liberty. 1t may lie In the variety, the
flexibillty, the music OF our mother
tor i, IA