Show ASTRONOMICAL A Girl Who the Distance Between Stars Itan With WitA an Umbrella Some little while hack back the pages of at Punch were W enlivened by bJ an astronomical ical teal joke Jok says MY the Baltimore Record A Arl girl rl is I asked if It she ebe can identify the planet Jupiter in the evening sky J She answers she abe can for it Is exactly two yards ant and a half halt to the right of ot the tbt Great G t Bear and she further explains explaiN that she Ibe has hu measured It U carefully with her ber umbrella At the time when all England Eland was waa waiting with deepest in interest terest lerest the great shower of meteors foretold for the middle of ot November two years yeara ago ado a lady ladS went into lato a small grocers gr fors shop near Dublin and while I v ailing fo foe 0 her ber parcel to be made up remarked she ahe hoped the night would prove fine enough enouch to enjoy enJo the expected display Its my m belief maam masin the public will NUl willbe willbe be very hard to please in the Ute matter of these shooting stars remarked the grocer you see Bee the fireworks now nowadays nowa nowadays a are so 80 grand crand Of O jokes connected with observatories ties ries public and private there are no I end though many ef of these t are necessarily necessarily sarti of a personal or highly technical nature and would therefore scarcely I bear repetition i lOne One can an sympathize sympathise with the th astron astronomer OlDer omer at one of o the great t American ob observatories who was reported on one occasion though usually of t a placid and uncomplaining nature to have given given lv en way to unmitigated bad language For the special observations he was wu making it was necessary for tor him to te count with extreme care the seconds heat I out U t by the e t astronomical clock While thus thul engaged d with every very nerve on the strain a bird es established established itself on a tree outside and commenced uttering its shrill and re remarkable remarkable remarkable cries rie with the monotonous iteration for which It is Ia framed These calls it repeated with wilh extreme regular u it iLl at t intervals of ot exactly II of a second cond and soon lOOn the maddened astronomer found himself lf Irresistibly counting bird calls Instead of seconds I Ito to the wreck of ot his hi observations o tIns and I with the lamentable result already mn t At Al l observatory England I there Is a story related of ot two Scotch I men In standing one day before the great creat I t bui lark ck face outside the building is always such an ob oh jet of eager attention almost one night might say of ot awed reverence through the th park Jock one of ot them was heard to re to remark remark mark to the other o r dye ken ye are Jock his lm Ignorance Why mon moo replied plied rf the other with due solemnity ye yc y are at the vera cen ceo center center ter of the airth I |