The Nome daily nugget., 1935-12-02

sGII0'Cy with 1t had made the most ex-
 ' planet of our solar system: had dis
 covered planets in other solar sys- tems: had obtained n distinct view of objects in the moon, fully equal to that which the unaided eye commands of terrestrial objects at the dis tance of 100 yards: had afirmatiyely settled the question whether this satellite be inhabited. and by what order of beings; had firmly established a new theory of cometary phenomena; and had solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy"
 It was an American newspaper, the New York Sun, which made this astounding revelation. The sun had been founded by Benjamin II. Day in 1883 the first of the penny newspapers in the United States
 On August 2l, 1885, the second page of the Sun carried this small news item: "CELESTIAL DISCONERIES-Th Edinburgh Courant says We have just learnt from an eminent publisher In this city that Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope, has made some astronomical dis coyeries of the most wonderful description by means of an immense telescope of an entirely new principle" It was true that Sir John Frederick William Herschel, the greatest astron- omer of his time, had gone to South Africa in January 1884, and established an observatory Cape Town to complete the first telescopic survey ever attempted of the whole surface of the visible heavens. So that much of the story was true
 On August 9 three columns of the first page of the Sun were devoted to an article which ap- peared under 8 modest headline of GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES-Lately Made by Sir John Herschel, LID. FRS. &c-At the Cape of Good Hope" This article was credited to the Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science" It was true that there had once haan Jirhtt rpo1 f Snin hut ,a readers of the Sun did not know that it had suspended publication several years previously.
 This first article was devoted almost entirely to a discussion of the importance of Sir Johns discoveries He had paused several hours be- fore he commenced his observations. that he might prepare his own mind for discoveries which he knew would fill the minds of myriads of his fellow men with astOnshment And well might he pause! From the hour the first human pair opened their eyes to the glories of the blue Armament above them there has been no ac- cession to human knowledge at all comparable in sublime interest to that which he has been the hOnored agent in supplying. Well might he pausel He was about to become the sole de- pository of wondrous secrets which had been hid from the eyes of all men that had lived since the birth of time"
 All of which was an excellent "build-up" to
  was to follow But 1t did not give any definite information about the astronomers discoveries so there was nothing for it's readers to get ex- cited about yet. But on August 26 the Sun print ed four columns of vivid description of what was to be seen on the moon. The astronomers reported
 "In the shade of the woods on the southeast ern side we beheld continuous herds of brown quadrupeds having all the external characteris- tics of the bison, but more diminutive than any species of the bos genus in our natural history. Its tail was like that of our bOs gruniens; but in its semi-clrcular horns the hump on it's shoul- ders, the depth of its dewlap, and the length of its shaggy hair, it closely resembled the species to which we have compared 1t.
 "It had, however one widely distinctive fea. ture, which we afterward found common to nearly every lunar quadruped we have discov- cred; namely, a remarkable fleshy appendage over the eyes, crossing the whole breadth of the forehead and united to the ears. We could most distinctly perceive this hairy veil which was shaped like the upper front outline of the cap known to the ladies as Mary Queen of Scots cap, lifted and lowered by means of the ears. It immediately occurred to the acute mind of Dr. Herschel that this was prOvidential contrlyance to protect the eyes of the animal from the great extremes of light and darkness to which all the inhabitants of our side of the moon are peri odically subjected"
 On that day the moon story in the Sun became the talk of New York But more was to follow for the next days account introduced the Sun s readers to new regions of the moon-the Vaga- bond mountains, the Lake of Death, craters of extinct volcanoes and luxurious forests divided by open plains Fin which waved an ocean of yerdure, and which were probably prairies like those of North America" Of animals there were classified mine species of mamalla and five of