Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1910 — Page 2

HATEVER may be thought of the mass of superstition and W“pipe dreams" which have become associated with comets during their thousands of years’ existence, certain it is that comets have, as a cold matter of history, appeared with wonRSJSgj derful brilliancy at periods of the world's career when there were big doings. The three men who rank in the restricted and ultra-exclusive class of world conquerors—Alexander the Great, Julius C«sar and Napoleon the Great —had comets ambling around in the heavens at various Important periods of their careers. Halley’s comet itself—just the same old comet that’s going to drag the earth with its tail —appeared over Europe in 1066, shining brightly for forty days, and it was hailed as a promise of his triumph by William the Conqueror just before the battle of Hastings, while at the same time Harold of England regarded it as an omen of his own overthrow. Comets appeared at crucial times in the lives of many other great men and at crucial periods in the careers of many nations. Comets have appeared before terrible wars, devastating famines, frightful pestilences and brilliant victories, from the days when Abraham was in his teens down the Rooseveltian era. And Halley’s comet, during all these generations, has been hustling around in space at the modest clip of something like 100,000 miles an hour. This comet appears to the view of men once in about every seventy-five years, requiring that length of time to move around its orbit. It was last seen In 1835. The comet is named after the great English astronomer, Edmund Halley, who lived between from 1656 to 1742, because it was he who definitely fixed the orbit of this comet and who accurately predicted its return in the year 1758 after it had appeared In 1682. He died sixteen years before the comet returned, but by his prediction he established a fame which will endure as long as does the comet. He was the first to discover and prove that the comets which come within the range of man’s vision have fixed periods of return. He felt that he would not live to see again the comet now known as Halley’s, but he realized if his prediction was borne out that it would prove to posterity that he had made an amazing discovery. He relied on future

CURLS OR CREST.

Little German Teacher Cared Nothing for Personal Adornment. In the recent admirable biography of Prof. Carla Wenckebach of Welesley, her close friend and successor, Margarethe Muller, has introduced to the general public a figure long honored for scholarship, loved for kindliness and smiled at for quaint and delightful oddities of character and aspect within the bounds of the "College Beautiful." ‘‘Little Bismarck,” the girls sometimes nicknamed the genial but masterful German professor, with her short hair and serviceable clothes of unconsciously mannish effect. Mannish by intention she never was, but she had;' from her tomboy childhood, a curious impatience of friperies and lack of personal vanity. She was a girl of fifteen when she wrote home casually from school: “By the way, I wear my hair short now; got rid of braids, hairpins and appendages'six months <ago; feel very free and light without them. My friends wail about the 'loss of my ‘beautiful thick hair,’ but what is the use of beauty if it causes continual annoyance?” Seme years later, in New York, she received a comically apt reply to this youthfully philosophic query. She had applied to an agent to secure her a position as governess, and was promptly assured that if she wished a recommendation she must wear more stylish clothes and change her way of doing her hair. “ ‘The essential consideration is,’ the agent said, ‘not what's in your head, but what’s on it.’ So I went to a little Parisian, who knew what the matter was even before I explained. ‘lf you don’t want to take the trouble to dress your hair every day,’ she said, “why don’t you wear a false front?’ I was just about to shout, a determined Never! when she dextrously put one of those curly things on my head. And really—the little curls framed my face quite pleasingly, and looked exactly as if they had grown on my own scalp. Now if fortune comes my way, you will know what has attracted the fickle thing.” Quite certainly, after fortune was attracted, the commercially inspired curls disappeared forever. All her girls and her friends remember well what one of them describes as “that wonderful square head of hers, with its crown of- short blonde hair. which bristled up over her fine u row like the crest of an alert bird.” ' For details of costume ,or coiffure •lit never learned to although on

HALLEY'S COMET AND OTHERS

WHY IT IS POSSIBLE THAT EXPLORERS MAY DISCOVER THE BIG NAIL.

The position of the poles is not constant, and observations have proved that there are a yearly counter-clock elliptical movement of some feet, and a counter-clock circular movement of some feet in diameter in a period of 428 days. The first may be due to seasonal meteorological causes; thp second is far more difficult to explain. In view of these movements it is obviously impossible for any explorer to set up a staff that shall, as it were, lengthen the axis of the world and insure that it will do so for all time. The fact that the axis of the earth shifts from time to time was proved by Eeler years ago, but it was only lately that the displacements were measured with anything like accuracy at a number of stations. —Illustrated London News.

festal occasions she donned, with a childlike taste for mere brightness, an abundance of sparkling ornaments and fabrics of startlingly brilliant hugs. Her interest in her ,wn appearance remained small; but to £pauty in others she was keenly responsive. In her last illness, when a lovely young student friend came to call, she insisted that the girl’s chair be so placed that she, from her bed, could ably see the “pretty pussy” all the time. —Youth's Companion. Bores talk about themselves; gossips talk about others.

NINE NORTH POLES IN NINE YEARS.

generations to give him his due in fame, which they have done. Sixteen years after his death the comet duly returned, as he had foretold, from which time the wandering constellation has been known as Halley's comet. Since then many famous astronomers, including Clairaut, Pontecoulant and Laplace of France, have calculated the dates for the comet’s return. In 1835 the comet appeared within a few days of the prediction, while this time the comet has again kept t® schedule. Halley’s comet isn’t by any means the only comet whose orbit has been determined. The orbits of 100 comets have been accurately calculated and determined. Of these sixteen have known periods of short duration. Enke’s comet has a period of three years and four months, while Peter’s comet has the longest period of the sixteen. It runs to its perihelion at the end of fifteen years and eleven months. None of these nearby comets are visible to the naked eye. The great comets which have been the cause of so much fear and trembling on the part of the ignorant and superstitious are those having long periods of revolution, ranging from Westphal’s, with an orbit requiring sixty-seven years and eight months to traverse, to the great comet of 1864, which is calculated to return after 2,800,000 years. The distinctive feature of the comet is the tail, although there are comets which are seemingly tailless. Pictures of some of the well-known comets show the remarkable variations of the caudal appendages of those heavenly bodies which are neither sun, moon nor stars. The comet of 1861 had seven brilliant tails and several not so bright. The upper one resembled the wing of a flying fish. The Cheseaux comet of 1744 looked like an illuminated porcupine. The broad-tailed visitor of 1811 was notable for the two side stripes inclosing a thin veiling of gas through which many of the more brilliant stars were visible. The most remarkable tail of all known comets was the one sported by Newton’s comet of 1680. It looked like a titanic tapeworm and its length was 120,000,000 miles. Its nearest approach to the sun was 147,000 miles, and it is due to return in the year 2355. This tail, however, was surpassed by the tail of the comet of 1811, which was 132,000,000 miles long. Beside these the tail of Halley’s comet looks like a dot. It has been computed that in all there are probably aboiit 7,000,000 comets dashing around through space. But of all these millions of comets and of all the scores of these millions which are said to have appeared to the eyes of men just before great historic occurrences, that which gets its name Jrom Halley is said to be one whose appearance has been attended with the most baneful results to humanity. Here, of course, we leave science behind and get into the midst of a lot of superstition, more or less distorted history and a vast- realm of the mystical. At that, however, there is no question that Halley’s comet has been seen prior to some events of the utmost significance in the annals of the human race. Among the great events of history which are stated to have been signalized by the appearance of comets were the sacking of Rome by Alaric in 410, the overthrow of Attila in 449, the birth of Mohammed in 570, the death of Charlemagne in 814, the Black Death of 1347, Tamerlane’s invasion of Europe in 1402, massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572, birth of Napoleon in 1769, invasion of Russia by the Grand Army of France under the Emperor in 1812, death of Napoleon at St. Helena in 1821, the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 and the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-5. In addition, many sacred writers have held that the Star of Bethlehem, whose shining trail guided the wise men from the East, was a comet.—Chicago Record-Her-ald.

What It May Come To.

“I’ve just thought of a brand new philanthropy,” said Mr. Dustin Stax. “What is it?” “I’m going to found a home for exbillionaires who impoverished themselves by donations.” Washington Star.

Boisterous Mirth.

“What makes you laugh so loudly whenever Bliggina tells a funny story?” > “In self-defense. I want to make so much noise he can’t tell another.’’Washington Star.

LIQUOR BILL FOR 1909.

Whisky Alone Cost Consumers Three Hundred Million Dollars. During the fiscal year 1909, 116,852,908 gallons of spirits were distilled from grain in, the United States. What the value of this' flood of liquor may have been cannot positively be stated. The output of thp distilled malt and vinous liquors and allied products in the year 1905 was reported by the census bureau to be worth more than $440,000,000. In the year 1909 1,591,738 gallons of brandy, 610,305 gallons of rum, 2,497,070 gallons of gin and 56,183,652 gallons of whisky were placed on the market in the United States. The Total value of all these products at the place of manufacture was probably not less than $135,000,000. But these figures in no way measure the cost of distilled liquor to the consumer, McClure’s says. They do not include the government internal revenue tax or the cost of wholesaling and retailing the “goods.” As sold in the “saloon” at 10 or 15 cents a “drink,” the cost of whisky, or what passes for such among consumers, is not less than $6 a gallon. This would mean that the annual bill of the American public for whisky alone would be much more than $300,000,000. There are many who place it at twice as high a figure because of the excessive adulteration undergone by the liquor for the purpose of increasing its volume.

Some Booming Towns.

If we are to take the growth ol cities and towns in the Dominion ol Canada represented by the provlncet of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchwar there is a wonderful future for som< of them. Winnipeg, the largest city in eight years has increased from 42, 000 to 140,000. Other places for the past eight yean show this expansion: Calgary fron 4,900 to 29,300; Edmonton from 2,60( to 25,000; Regina from 2,200 to 13, 500; Branden from 5,600 to 13,000; Saskatoon from 113 to 12,200; Moos« Jaw from 1,600 to 12,000; Lethbridge from 2,100 to 10,000; Prince Albert from 4,00 to 7,000; Fernie from l,90( to 5,900; Medicine Hat from 1,600 tc 5,000. In these places $47,000,000 has beer invested in new buildings in the last three years, and in five years theii taxable values have been increased from an aggregate of nearly $57,000, 000 to about $220,000,000. A farmer came to town to-day with a lot of errands to perform for his women folks. “I’d rather take a whipPlug,” he said, “than buy for women. 1 *

GETTING RICH IN ONIONS.

Browaaville, Tex., Made Fiaoui by Strong Legvme. v “ It has been several years since Brownsville, TeX„ became famous because part of a negro recipient was accused of shooting up the town, but C. C. Morton, who helps to supply water for the stock and vegetables and sugar cane they raise down there, says that the place has settled down to work and get rich; and they are shipping carloads of onions to New York every day. . * “We irrigate Sown in our part of Texas in a different way from what they do in the west,” said Mr. Morton, according to the New York Sun. “We pump the w r ater out of the river. There are twenty-five plants on the Rio Grande, all put up during the last five years, and we are getting ready to put in a big enterprise that will extend into the third county from z thb coast and will cost $6,000,000 ur $7,000,000. At present about 300,000 acres "are under -Irrigation. The present method is to pump the water up to the top of the river bank and there it flows into canals, some of them as long as eighteen or twenty miles. “The country about Brownsville was absolutely depopulated until about fly,e years ago. Brownsville was 160 miles from a railroad. They are now building a combination railroad and traffic bridge across the Rio Grdnde at that place, and on May 1 it is expected that through trains will be run through from New Orleans to Mexico City. Brownsville ten years ago had a population of about 8,000, of whom 90 or 95 per cent were Mexicans. To-day the population is about 12,000, with fully a fourth of them Americans. The Mexicans ■ furnish good labor at 50 cents a day. “Every two weeks from 12,000 to 15,000 home seekers come into Texas, taking advantage of the cheap tickets offered, and we are getting a good many of them in the country around Brownsville. They plant sugar cane and alfalfa and all the truck crops. One specialty they have gone in for is green onions, which net them from S4OO to S6OO an acre. Last year about 3,000 carloads were raised. Not one onion was shipped from that country five years ago, and to-day the Bermuda onion is being driven out of the market. Bermuda does not ship here 25 per cent of what it did when Texas started in the onion business. They are getting the Texas product in New York now.” Mr. Morton did not bring a sample with him.

FARMING INSITE CITY LIMITS.

Tiny 'Plots in New York Are Rented Ont to Truck Farinera. To say that farming within the boundaries of the city of New York is a profitable occupation and that it is carried on professionally with a large degree of success might seem to some an extravagant assertion. Yet John R. Bowie of the soil division of the federal department of agriculture, a New York letter to the Christian Science Monitor says, has just issued a report on the farming possibilities of this city, showing comprehensively that the best agriculture in the country is not only possible here, but carried on to a remarkable degree. Within the city boundaries unoccupied lots and unsubdivided tracts are rented out in small plots for market gardening and trucking purposes. The majority of the farms are of miniature size, some one-half or one-quarter of an acre or even only the size of a city lot. Under such cramped conditions it is necessary to do some crop moving and marketing during every month of the year. Eyen the midwinter season the farmer uses to market his root crops which have been stored waiting higher prices and the fruit picked during the autumn. With the dawn of spring the spinach and rhubarb start the crop and having been disifosed of at the city market other crops follow in a steady stream. The chief point in this intensive farming is to utilize every foot of ground to its best advantage. The onion and radish are good examples of how this is accomplished. As soon as the onion develops the slightest suspicion of a bulb it is pulled and bunched and those next it in size are given a better opportunity for growth and development. In this way not a single crop, but a continuous supply of onions and radishes is produced.

Baseball and Grandma.

I remember being on a Chicago street car, says Ellis Parker Butler, in Success Magazine, sitting beside a nice old lady in mourning, a year or so ago. She was nervijas and kept glancing at me, and then glancing away again. It made me uncomfortable. I thought she took me for a pickpocket or some other bad man. .Finally she could contain herself no longer. She leaned over. “Excuse me,” she said, “but have you heard yet how the Cubs’ game came out?” I hadn’t, and her face fell, but in a moment she saw a possible opportunity for consolation. “Well,” she asked, ‘can you tell me who they are put:ing in the box to-day?” How was that for a gray-haired grandma? In Chicago (hey all talk baseball, from the cradle to the grave. Up to three o’clock in the afternoon no one talks about anything but the game of the day before. From three o’clock on the only subject is the game that is being played. The school child who can not add two apples plus three apples and make it five apples with any certainty of correctness can figure out the standing of the Chicago nines with one hand and a pencil that will make a mark only when it is held straight up and down. When a man prolongs his handshakes with a modest girt it ta apt to make her blush.

JOLLY JOKER

Mrs. Tellit—Yes, she Is a decided blonde. Mrs. Knockit— Indeed! When did she decide? —Milwaukee News. “Little boy, haven’t I seen you in my Bible class?” “Not unless I walks in me sleep, lady.”-»New Orleans Picayune. Ella —Bella married an octogenarian. Stella—l don’t think that a girl ought to change her religion for a man.— Chicago Daily News. “What selection is that the orchestra has just finished?” “I don’t know. Sounded to me like neuralgia expressed in music.” —Tit-Bits. Daughter—Did you have to fish much, mamma, before you caught papa? Mother —Fish, my dear, fish! I was bear hunting.—M. A. P. “How much does it cost to get married?” asked the eager youth. “That depends entirely on how long you live,” replied the sad-loooking man. “How is the water in the bath, Lisette?” “Cold, my lady. It turned baby fairly blue.” “Then don’t put Fido in for an hour or so.” —Pittsburg Post. He—Why. are you so sad, darllng?4 She —I was just thinking, dearest,'that this is the last evening we can be together till to-morrow. —Chicago Daily News. Professor (examining medical student) —If you were called out to a patient what is trt first question you would ask? Medical Student—Where he lives. “Splendid color, isn’t it?” asked the fishmonger, cutting open a salmon. “Yes,” replied the purchaser, "looks as if it were blushing at the price you ask for it.” Wiggs—How do you know he’s a foreigner? He has no accent? Waggs— No, but he knows so man, ways in which this country could be improved. —Philadelphia Record. “What did the poet mean when he called his country ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’?” “He was probably referring to bachelors and married men,” said old Mr. Smithers, sadly.

“What do you suppose, Algernon," the young thing asked, “is the reason the ocean is salty?” “I am stfre I don’t know,” drawled Algy, “unless it is because there are so many codfish in it." —Success Magazine. The Manager—l’ve got a new idea for a melodrama that ought to make a hit. The Writer—What is it? The Manager—The idea is to introduce a cyclone into the first act that will kill all the actors. —Tit-Bits. “I’ve got to go to Philadelphia,” said the hurried traveler, who was fumbling for his pocketbook. “Well,” answered the New York ticket-seller, “are you buying transportation or telling your troubles?” —'Washington Star. Bowers —I understand that the doctors have just had a consultation on Murphy. What conclusion did they come to? Powers —They decided that the patient was not wealthy enough to stand an operation. —Spokane Review. Ebeneezer —Them skeeters makes me think of them city visitors we had the week before last. His Wise —How’s that, Eb? Ebeneezer —They come pretty near bein’ the worst singers and the biggest eaters I ever see.—lllustrated Bits. Gladys—Oh, mamma? Here’s a note from that long-haired pianist. He says it will be impossible for him to play at our reception to-night. Mamma— What’s the trouble? Gladys—Some one stole his wig— Chicago Dall/ News. The Kind Lady—You clear off or I’ll set the dog at you. The Tramp—Ah, ’ow deceptive is ’.uman gatur’. Fer two nights I’ve slept in yer barn, eaten of yer poultry an’ drunk of yer cider, and now yer treats me as an utter stranger.—The Sketch. “They tell me,” said the innocent maid, “that your marriage was the result of love at first sight. Is it true?” “It is,” answered the round-shouldered man, sadly. “Had I been gifted with second sight I’d still be in the bachelor class!”—Chicago. Record-Herald. “I hope you will be interested in yonder gentleman,” said the hostess. “I have assigned him to take you out to dinner.” "I shall be,” responded the lady addressed. “That gentleman was formerly my husband, and he’s behind with his alimony.”—Louisville Cour-ier-Journal. Magistrate—Officer, what is this man charged with Constable —He’s a camera fiend of the worst kind, yer worship. Magistrate —But this man shouldn’t have been arrested simply be>cause he has a mania for taking pic* tures. Constable —It isn’t that, yer worship; he takes the cameras.—Boston Globe. “That is a fat, prosperous-looking envelope. Does our salesman send in a big bunch of orders?" “Not exactly. That envelope contains a receipt ror his last check, his expense account for this week, a request for a salary raise, and a requisition for some more expense account blanks.” —Louisville Courier-Journal.

Reverse Things.

Wife—The landlord was here to-day and Ugave him the rent and showed him the baby. Hubby—Next time he comes around suppose you show him the rent and. live him the baby.