Evening star., 1932-09-04


evening and find him parading
solemnly around the piano lamp
with an orange poised on his finger
tips, do not assume that he has sud-
denly gone potty. The chances are that
he is merely demonstrating, for his own
satisfaction. what happened last We'd
nesday afternoon. You are witnessing
not the alterations of a diSordered mind
but the evolution of an eclipse. Every
little movement is of cosmic significance.
Solar phenomena no longer strike ter
ror in the hearts of men, Signs and por-
tents in the heavens are viewed esthetic-
ally rather than emotionally. Some of
us with bills due September might have
hoped that the world would come to an
end on Wednesday, but if so we were
disappointed. The MilleriteS have given
way to the mathematicians, and modern
prophets must substantiate their claims
with figures. If Solomon Eagle croaked
his threat of doom today he would be
hustled off to Bellevue for observation.
And Chickie Little stands fast among the
falling leaves, secure in his knowledge
that the sky will stay where it belongs.
Yet we are not utterly Indifferent to
natures parlor tricks. We know that
they are tricks, but, like skepticS at
seance, we want to find out how they
are done. The eclipse sent none of us
scurrying to the mountain tops in long
white robes but it awakened a sudden
interest in interplanetary affairs.
In the interminable struggle to make
ends meet, it Is refreshing to pause for
a moment to consider the limitleSs
spaces where ends never meet. When we
feel that the world is too much for us
and yet not enough without us-we can
remind ourselves that it is only one of
thousands. There is a certain solace in
the reflection that, although mortgages
are foreclosed, wages cut, old friends
parted and mullins burnt, the spinning
spheres will continue to function as per
schedule
Thus the accountant, earching
through his ledgerS for that missing 81
cents, StraightenS his bent back and
turns his myopic gaze skyward to the
blue inflnity where everything is COM
puted in good round numbers, like tril-
lions. The disillusioned speculator, after
scanning the financial page, refers to
the almanac for a reliable tip on the
rising of the sun and moon; they, at
least, are running true to form. And
the Tilted lover, sitting alone beneath
the stars, realizes that the words "for-
ever and never" mean nothing when
measured in light-years.
But though the average man is only
an innocent bystander at the celestial
sideshow, nevertheless, he has a natural
curiosity concerning such astronomical
antics as eclipseS
IN order to understand these phenomena
it is necessary to reduce the universe
to tangible proportions AS the sun is
about 100000 miles away from the
earth and the earth itself is almost 5000
miles in diameter, all experiments must
be conducted on a fiea-circus scale The
first thing the amateur astronomer
does Is to provide himself with an
orange. This represents the earth.
pancake would be better, no DOUBT. For
years DR.. Wilbur Glenn Voliva hAS been
insisting that the world is fiat, and
recent survey of the international eco
nomic situation indicates that he is right.
A couple OF weeks ago at the AGilfretS'
attended dress rehearsal Of last We'd
nesday's eclipse. 1t was an imprcmptu