Evening star., 1924-11-16

would soon be enveloped in corona.
of hydrogen.
But take 1t all in all, II was a de-
pressing period.
And then, strangely enough, the
entire outlook altered The astron-
omers having finished their calcula-
uons-announced to the public that
, the comet was coming straight at US.
and was due to hit US; and to nv
| surprise I heard a man only last
night telling another about it as they
hung on the straps Of a street car
II see," he said, that a comet Is
dus to hit us next month. You didn't
| notice It? 1t was in the paper this
afternoon. 1t seems 1t is coming
straight for us, and it is to collide
with US on the 10th, / think it said,
anyway sometime early in Decem-
ber."
And at this they both laughed.
l find the same attitude everywhere.
| heard little boy last Sunday, on
his way into church, say to his
| mother, Mother, is 1t true that a
comet is going TO hit the world?"
And she said, Yes. dear, the news
papers say So" And where shall
we be after it hits us?" I suppose.
| darling" she answered, with a touch
| OF reverence, l admit, in her voice,
that we shall be dissolved into a
|
corona Of incandescent hydrogen"
After that they passed into church,
and / heard no more
| The situation puzzles me. Here we
| are about to crash into a comet in a
| few weeks time, and nobody seems
to worry at all. Tht world goes on
Its way as it nothing were going TO
happen. In my own town we are
going on building a new hotel to &C
commodate thousand guests Why?
| Where Will those guests be after the
comet hits them? Asteroids. In
! Washington they are starting prep
arations now for the 4th of March.
What will be left of the 4th Of March
when 1t comes? Gas. and nothing
| else.
| II I were g. psychologist I should
start up theories about the impos-
sibiltty OF frightening all THE people
all the time: l would explain that as
| long as everybody is going to be
destroyed all together nobody minds
| it; it's only the invidiousness of be-
! ing destroyed alone that is distress
| ing. In fact, l find that, now that
the others don't mind l don't care
either. l have raised a second note
at the bank payable on the 11th or
December, and as a matter Of fact II
the world is not destroyer on the
10th. l shall be, personally, a rather
worse KIND Of asteroid than If it Is
\
WHEN L had written all this I
w took the manuscript over to a
friend at the observatory to see il
had got the astronomical part of it
right. And he says that it is wrong.
He says that 1 have misunderstood
things. 1t seems that we don't hit
the comet in the sense that ordinary
plain people understand it. at ALL He
| SAYS that the intersection Of our
| orbits will be confined to a conjunc-
ton of our path with the corona OF
the comets tail, or words to that
| effect.
l asked him if we shall know II
when 1t happens. and he said that by
going up to the top of high build
ing and looking through a piece of
smoked glass toward the constellation
or virgo the comet will be visible.
presenting the appearance of a speak
of dust with its tail comparable to
the wing of mosquito.
That's pretty small business for a
world catastrophe, isn't IT? AS for
me, having got used to the idea of
destruction. | am worried now about
the llth of December
((Opvri0ht