The Country to the south of us we have lately recognized. (The receipt
for any other Nation that wants us to recognize them, is to strike Oil,
or some other commodity that our Capitalists want.) But this editorial
is not on our Foreign Relations. That I will take up in due time as
we have some Foreign Relations. This is to be on the Planets, their
various Routes, mode and speed of travel.
A great many Scientists, I had read in the papers, were bringing
Cameras to Photograph this remarkable phenomenon. But most of the
Scientists that I saw had Jugs and Flasks. Well, not being up on
Science, I didn’t know what to bring. You know these Scientists are
such a queer lot I wouldn’t be surprised at anything they do.
Well, I asked the Custom Inspector where the Observatory was. He said,
“Which one?” I said, “Lick.” (That was the only one I had ever heard
of.) He said, “Right over there is one, if it ain’t all Licked up.”
You never saw such an accommodating Country in the World. Just think
the preparations they had gone through for the visiting Scientists’
Pleasure. They had built these Observatories all over the place right
up to the line where you would lose no time. You could start observing
the minute you got into the Country.
Now, there is apt to be among my readers some who are as ignorant as
I was about the inside of an Observatory, so for their benefit I will
explain just what it is like. On the left, as you enter, is a long
Table affair, that runs the length of the room. It’s really higher than
a Table, and back of it is a long Mirror where you get the reflections
of any local Eclipses that might happen. Then on the bottom, outside
this high counter, is a little low railing that Singers’ Midgets could
look over if they wanted to see an Eclipse.
Now, up here in Los Angeles, they talked about smoked Glasses, but
down there they just filled them and looked through them, and the more
Glasses you used, and the more different kinds of glasses, why, the
more Eclipse you could see. Some men would have to get the man to let
them try a dozen different Glasses before they could get the right
Focus.
Then, on the other side of the room, if you didn’t want to look
through glasses upside down, why they had various other instruments of
knowledge. One was a Table with little Cubes cut square (or apparently
square) with Dots on them and the Scientist would shake them in his
hand and lay down some Money, and then let them empty out his hand.
Then another Scientist, even more of a Scientist, would pick up the
money in one hand and the little squares in the other and hand the
squares to another Scientist and put the money in his Pocket. Then the
same operation would be gone through, till each Scientist, except the
good one, would be Gone Through.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account