The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-07-26

sometimes curved tail; now and then one
carries two tails more--or seems to- though
by some 1t Is held that all these phenomena are
receivable into the same tail viewed from diff
ferent angles. just as, for instance, Progressiv-
ism may be always Progressivism, Though
from one point OF view it is interpreted as
meaning a revenue tariff and no Trusts and
from another good dose of protection, and
! practical attitude toward combinations in
restraint of trade.
And TO the course of comet? A distin-
guished British scientist. after sketching the
orderly movements of plain, substantial, COM
monplace bodies like our earth, describes the
comet as "repudiatiRg all the regulations by
which the planetary convention Is restrained
coming in what direction it pleases, and NOV
ing in every plane but the right one. But,
! by way of calming our fears, he adds that the
fact that earth continues TO be fit abode
for life Is proof after all, that the comet has
considerable soidity.'
Even the code in which professional comet
watchers conduct their correspondence VIII
have a significance for the future Whately.
| He will find that the astronomer upon whom
a comet suddenly bursts notes Its position as,
say, I3 degrees "a minutes, and, opening a
lexicon in common use among his craft, turns
to page 49, hunts up the word with when
! line 50 begins-"Bully," for example--and tel
agrapAs- that-single- TO his Colleagues IN
/ other obseryatores. They run 1t down in
their turn. and at once train theT telescopes
upon 173 degrees "a minutes. In like manner.
Crook" Infamous, Liar" ''Mendaco3s,'
+ predatory" and other words in such general
use that even telegraphers blunder could
! hardly confuse them for the of the elect,
may be used in the cometary code. to Indicate
what novel and unpredicatable departure the
erratic visitant may be taking at any moment
From the earliest ages. comets have been
objects OF more or less awe 70 the unthnking
multitude. Although the mathematicians nave
figured out that the earth stands only a siagie
chance In an average period of fifteen miihan
years of being struck by one and II noted my
sieist assures us that. even though sach col
! ision should occur we should discover that a
comet is made up nothing worse than a swarm
of widely separated particles ike pln~1eads'
each carrying about 1t an envelope or gas,
We are still reminded that the ADVENT OF
great comet preceded the destruction OF Jeru-
salem the descent OF the Goths upon Rome,
the forty years schism in the Catholic Church.
the first colonization Of America by the Eng
fish and the most prostratlng commercial Crisis
suffered by our infant republic. And the re-
turn of a particularly portentous comet IN
1910 with its sequelae of political upheaFal
and other fluctuations of all sorts recalled the
familiar English rhyme;
Eight things there be Comet brings,
When it on high doth horrfd range:
Wind. Famine Plague. and Death 70 Kings,
War Earthquake, Floods. and Dire Change,
Let the Whately now in training fix his eye
upon Chicago about the fifth day OF August
coming What material for his Historic
Doubts" may he not find there? And who can
saw that the sponsors for the party may
not themselves recognize sundry obvious analo-
turning their backs upon tire trtTo"
lous Bandanna and the too suggestive Bnti
Moose set up the fascinatingly uncertain comet
/ az tho most fitting emblem for their movement
and its leader New York Evening Post.