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Show The Wonders of Science It is curious [unreadable] some men are, and how little they care about subjects ??? to broaden and benefit their mental faculties, such a man was half asleep on a bench at the Union Depot yesterday, when a very tall stranger with a very short linen daster (duster?) sat down beside him and said: "Have you calculated the pressure per square inch which you exert on this bench?" The sleepy man scowled as he looked up, and then turned away as though he didn't want to hear any more. "Do you know," continued linen daster (duster?), "whether it is dead weight or forces of gravitation which permits you to rest on this bench?" "No sir," was the emphatic answer. "What is the attractive power of earth? What force is exerted by the law of gravitation on feet the size of yours? Let us figure a moment." "I don't want to hear you talk!" Snapped the other, as he sat up. "I am waiting for a train!" "So'm I," said linen daster (duster?), "and that opens a subject for a new thought. Do you know the weight of air displaced by a train moving at the rate of thirty miles an hour?" "No, sir, nor I don't care I'm in no mood for talking!" "Suppose," remarked linen daster (duster?), as he squinted his left eye at the ??? "that you are walking at the rate of six miles an hour, do you wish to know what pressure the air exerts upon your forward movement? Lend me your pencil and I will figure." "I wont do it; and I tell you again I don't want to be talked to!" was the fierce reply. "Do you know how long it would take a locomotive to reach the moon, rushing? at the rate of a mile a minute?" softly asked the linen duster. "See here! I'll knock your head off if you don't go away from me." "You, sir, weigh about one hundred and sixty pounds, and have well developed muscle; but do you know how much force is exerted in knocking down a human being, and the force of atmospheric pressure to be overcome before your fist reaches his face?" "I've stood your sass just long enough, and now you leave or I'll mop the ground with you!" Shouted the narrow-minded man, as he jumped up and spat on his hands. "Are not the wonders of science interesting to you?" "No, sir!" "And don't you care to know that the heat of the sun is two hundred and fifty-six thousand times--?" "No sir! No, sir!" "Or that the moon exercises an influence?" "No, sir go off I don't care go away you're a liar and a fraud!" The man with the linen duster withdrew a few feet to lean against the wall, and the other went back to his narrow-minded and selfish interests. While the latter dozed and thought of nothing higher than ham and eggs, the former [line unreadable] out the distance traveled by a father's arm in giving his son an old fashioned whaling. |