Show WIGGINS FAILURE WIGGINS of canada comes to grief over the failure of his bis predictions relative to the great earthquakes which were to have devastated a largo large portion of the united states and a small part of amsico yesterday lie he is ia being and I 1 for or a few days past has been unmercifully handled bandied by a big proportion of the press those who formerly scouted his pretensions joining with those who are now ridiculing him hiba in making the man as uncomfortable as possible there is little if anything savoring of the spirit of charity or consideration in in auy any of ahse lions and iu in their text and conclusions they bear the apparently ineffaceable imprint of the scoffer not that wiggins deserves a doense dr feuse but that they are too hasty in fortifying their own opposition to the idea ot of anything taking place which they are flable to 10 explain Wiggin an industrious and earnest worker laoue in one ot of the british job b apt serva tories iff canada he is in dot a great man aid we very aneli question it if lie he has the elements of greatness vitan him but he is id entitled to 10 some repe if ct aud and his opinions should receive decent consideration because of 01 the fact that he has studied them out in accor accordance dadee with his training in education and the rules governing tic research in this he has ex commendable industry and a desire to advance to a front positron aifong abou amou tile the scientists of the age so that when he falls short ot of what is s aimed at way should we empty tu alie vials of our wrath upon the man him sell seji overlooking the system upon which alone doubtless lie he based his conclusions supposing for example h he 1 td iid been an employ a surveyors oft c r and having mastered by rule and experience the intricate sciences ot of had followed those rules iu in the couie computation of a chele orthe are arc of a circle at a distance and had fallen short a fraction of an inch would it be just to blame tie him in if his hia equations were correct and the rules ruled strictly followed hardly yet we conceive wiggins present predicament di vo to similar to that success juc cess makes villainy a virtue while failure makes honesty a crime had the struggling gling scientist who is now impaled upon the lance of arhe ae press and public opinion happened to 10 hit it yes berday the wor world I 1 d have been at kis his teet feet today to day dily As it is there are none so poor as to do him reverence he was foolish for startling the ignorant by announcing as a certainty what was at best but a hypothetical conclusion and incurring the ridicule of the cultivated by making himself their victim in the event of failure astronomers tron omers are the only purely scientific men whose predictions seldom tall lail but wiggins Wi sins ly is evidently not an astronomer |