|AN exchange remarks: "The present comet in the eastern sky, which can
be distinctly seen by everyone at early morning, is certainly the most
remarkable one of the modern comets. Professor Lewis Swift, director
of the Warner observatory, Rochester, New York, states that the comet
grazed the sun so closely as to cause great disturbance, so much so,
that it has divided into no less than eight separate parts, all of which
can be distinctly seen by a good telescope. There is only one other
instance on record, where a comet has divided, that one being Biella's
comet of 1846, which separated into two parts. Applications have been
made to Mr. H. H. Warner, by parties who have noticed these cometary
offshoots, claiming the $200 prize for each one of them. Whether the
great comet will continue to produce a brood of smaller comets remains
to be seen."
It is certainly to be hoped that it will not. If the comet is going
to multiply and replenish the earth, the average inhabitant had better
proceed in the direction of the tall timber.
It excites and rattles us a good deal now to look out for what comets we
have on hand; but that is mild, compared with what we will experience
if the heavens are to be filled every spring with new laid comets, and
comets that haven't got their eyes open yet. Our astronomers are able
to figure on the old parent comets, and they know when to look for them,
too; but if twins are to burst upon our vision occasionally, and little
bob-tail orphan comets are to float around through space, we will have
to kind of get up and seek out another solar system, where we will be
safe from this comet foundling asylum.
Instead of the calm sky of night, flooded with the glorious effulgence
of the silvery moon, surrounded by the twinkling stars, the coming sky
will be one grand Fourth of July exhibit of fireworks, with a thousand
little disobedient comets coming from the four corners of heaven in
search of the milky way.
Possibly science may be wrong. We have known science to make bad little
breaks of that kind, and when it advertised a particular show to come
off, it was delayed by a wreck on the main track, or something of that
kind, so that people were disappointed. Let us hope that this is the
case now, and that the comets now loafing around through space
with their coat tails on fire will not become parents. It would be
scandalous.