Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-04-16
ID EMARKABLE views and

y
~ concerning comets have been held by
| men throughout the ages in every land.
They were held-0nd are still held by
| countless millions today--as omcns of dis
aster or portcnts of war, pestilence or
| famine.
Particularly we're they supposed to be
| the hcralds of death to those in high places.
Every generation or SO witnesses n resur-
| rcction Of the ancient belief that this planet
will come into contact with one Of these
fiery visitors some day and be annihilated.
doIcn years ago. when one of these
| periodic comets which appear at regular
intervals was due, thousands of Negroes in
| Philadelphia were thrown into great fear
lest the earth would be destroyed by colli-
| sion with it.
THE late s. p. Langley, the eminent
| i scientist. once writing about comets,
| said that In their spectroscopic analysis the
most prominent element was carbon.
1t was suggested fifty years ago that
! comets kept UP our atmospheric supply OF
| carbonc acid gas--that even the carbon
found in our own bodies was supplied by
comets Langley said with fine scorn con-
cernng this:
That we may be partly made of old and
uspd-up comets? Surely it might seem that
maddcr fancy never came from the brain
of lunntiC at tho full Of the moon
In 1897 Prof. Falb of Vienna, announced
that on November 13. 1890. comet would
would be the result.
But the professor was fooled. The old
planet still swings on in space.
There is little doubt. though that the
globe has several times passed through the
tail Of n comet. Some comets have ap-
preached very close to the earth, too.
CEpTEMBER. 1905. was, according to
- Camille Flammarion. the hottest and
dricSt September known in Europe in 200
years.
From this lit was inferred that Faye's
comet of that year had passed very close to
the earth and responsible for the
drought and heat and ycllowish haze that
pcrvadcd the atmosphere on the continent.
Fortunately. il Is only tho comets that
are visible TO the naked eye that count with
tho aIarmist dcnizenS of earth. What they
cant sec does not bother them very much.
In November 1899. the Holmes comet was
fitting through space. The word was passed
around that there was to be a collision be-
tween the earth and the comet and that the
end of all things was ut hand.
The announcement sent shver Of ap-
prphcnsiOn down the spine Of millions.
On the Sunday before the comet was sup
posed to strike us. the largest congregations
that the churches in various sections of the
country had over known assembled.
II was finally agreed by the wags that the
comet was the prophetic portent that w. J.
Bryan was to be waloped by Mckinley for
the presidency in the election that followed
q few days later.
There are good reasons for believing that
the earth passed through the tail Of this
comet. though no one seemed to suspect IL
Mt the time.
Dr. Henry Draper examined it spectro-
scopicnIly and it was also photographed. the
first time that any comet lRu been subjected
to such terrestrial indignitiPs.
The hOodOO end of comet lore, il there had
oyer been anything 70 1t. certainly should
have developed in 1892.
In the fall of that year there were no
fewer than seven comets in the field of
astronomical vision.
The following celestial tramps we're cut
ting capcrs over the highways Of the night
SwftS comet, Winncckes thc one now
duc|. Demning's. Brooks, Barnard's,
Holmes and FrPeman's.
The curse failed to work and the joke was
on the frightened star gazers
Tn 1881 J. Tcbbutt. an amateur astrono-
i NOR of New South Wales discovered
comet which ultimately became one of the
most splendid appartions of the sky in the
last century.
The superstitious afterward declared that
II had foreshadOWCd the assassination of
President Garfield, which it preceded by a
few months.
II would be very remarkable thing il a
comet did not appear in the sky few months
such as war, famine or pcstilence. seeing
that during the century just past 34S comets
were observed by astronomers
This number included eighty four re.
appearances Of periodic comets though only
twenty six were visible to the naked eye.
7 ET us go back n few years.
IL \ comet which appeared in the year
3T1 B. c. was thought at the time not only
to have been III" visible prediction of but
actually produced the earthquake that caused
the Greek cities OF Iiclice and Bura to be
ruined and submerged
Ioscphus vOuchcs for the story that the
| fall of Jerusalem was prcSaged by "a comet
in the form of n sword that hung over
| Jerusalem whole year together
In the Middle Ages when a comet blazed
! in the heavens It was looked on as an omen
Of death TO some king or prince. Shakes
| pcare couldn't escape the superstition. He
| declares that
when beggars die there are no comets seen
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death
of princes.
The Emperor Vcspasian cracked n Joke
about comet and the augurs or soothsaycrs
! or some similar cult vowed that he suffered
| for it.
A comet in \. p. 70 was said to be the
| forerunner of his death.
| That hairy star doesn't mean evil 70
me-" he said with laugh. 1T points to
the king Of the Parthians. lie is hairy, but
| am bald,S
Vespasian's light went out within the
year Just the same.
| TOMETS as death warnings, according to
| y the creduOus. were: That Of 445 A. ID.
which preceded the death of the Emperor
Valentinan; of $50, the death of Mahomet,
| and ST5, the demise Of Louis II
When the year 1000 4. ID. dAwnPd every.
body in Europe looked for some awful catas-
trophc or the end Of the earth. They had
! thpir fears for their pains.
! In 1872 n petition was sent to the French
Academy asking that it announce that the
| earth would not be destroyed by the comet
of that year.