, 1922-01-16
Sagebrush Astronomy
By A. 0'DoNo6HUE

beings aid really tread tails t~errssttai
orb. Judged by modern standards. they
were an exceedingly insignificant
crew at best Their exploits were
largely Of the -erows and kites" va
rIety-petty brawis. personal encoun-
ters. or battles with beasts
These reflections gave Dirt hto what
may be n peculiar idea-perhAps an
absurd one As reform seems to be
the an-absorbinE passion Of the day
towing to the heiiish cost Of clothing
within the last half decade, I re
formed an old pair OF trousers -four
timeD would Il be go utterly incom-
patfbls with the spirit OF the times
TO rename. at least. a few Of these
celestial bodies. or stellar groups. aft
er certain modern heloes-men OF
real flesh and biood-men whose
achievements ara so colossal as TO
transcend. a thousandfold, the I'M
aginative capacity of the classical
mythologis;s7 How petty. even II
true. would be tho feat of Perseus In
rescuipg his Andromeda from Cetus.
compared with that of President wa.
son or Pershlng In resculns France
from the monster OF Prussia7 As to
the potential change OF nomenclature.
let Is assume a few Instances. What
n nne Napoleon or wellington would
Sirius or Jupiter makei Or. Jet MS
fancy the name OF Foch or Jof-s re-
placing that OF the fabulous Orion.
But there Is q negative. as wen as
a positive side to all questions. Would
the eognomens OF n Of the great
soldiers or statesmen OF the entente
for instance. be acceptable 10 all ma
tons? That Is the rub. We must ad
nit that those heroes and divinities
of the ancient world ave become
automatically neutral, or interna-
tional. so 20 speak, through their IN
tiquity. Consequently. as such they
are accepted by most modern nations
II Is unlikely that the names OF Foch.
Joffre. P~ershing or Haig would be
popular in the Teutonic states, not
w~ithstandlng the fact that these mod
ern Titans were indirectly the deliv
ersrs OF those people from their I'm
periai masters. 1t is not improbable
hat some among them might Eve
wish TO substitute a few OF those
neurological names for some OF those
of their own heroes Quite likely: and
1t would be the quintsssence OF fancy
to imagine the entente nations taking
kindly, for instance. TO the cogno
mems OF Hindenburg or Ludendorr
supplAntlng those OF Castor and Pol
lux. on the other hand. perhaps not
a few, IN Britain and France. would
consider It highly appropriate to su
persede the appellation of the ancient
sea monster CetuS. by that OF Won
Tirpitz. the alleged arch spirit In tho
submarine hellishness.
But regardless OF international
prejudices. or the impracticabiiity of
any league of nations agreeing on the
modernization OF celestial nomencla
-ture, we must not, for an instant, for
get the fact hat we are living at an
aga of wholesale holiness and super
Christian virtue unparalleled since
the boyhood days OF Adam. There.
fere. is 1t ROT the acme of unholy IN.
consistency that most of the major
luminaries. In the stellar and planet.
AIRY systems. should be suffered to
bear the names of old pagan divini.
ties and un-Christian heroes (yes, and
some heroes" who were not q bit
better than they ought to bel in these
days Of piety and prohibition7 Hor-
rorsi Come to think Of IT, the same
is true Of our days and months.
Rollicidng old Bacchus has been
drummed and hymned out OF our
happy land. Cwas forgetting about