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Show Autumn Offers Many Joys For the Faithful Beholder By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON, D. C You are reading these lines, I trust, not too long after the autumnal equinox, which I hope you celebrated with the proper ceremonies. The word equinox is Latin for "equal night which implies equal day. All over the earth there is that kind of equality at this time. Thus the Creator established ' equality of such nice perfection that neither the strongest telescope nor the most accurate micrometer can question it Equality was some- P ST?1 it : thing that had no measure of weight until the philosophers philoso-phers proclaimed it and until it was preached to the western world by a lowly carpenter's son of Nazareth. We worked nearly near-ly 2,000 years before be-fore a political goal embodying this philosophy was written into the Constitution of a nation the United States. It Baukhage The skies are painted with un- number'd sparks, They are all fire and every one doth shine, But there's but one in all doth bold his place . . ." Perhaps Shakespeare had never read Hipparchus. (Some say he couldn't read but if so, where did he get his plots?) Anyhow, Hipparchus Hippar-chus said, (and nobody has disproved dis-proved his theory) that the position of the Pole star does change (from our viewpoint). One authority explains ex-plains it this way: "The pole of the earth is swinging swing-ing slowly as if it were the axis of a top, or as if the earth, rotating, were a kind of gyroscope." The study of what is called the "precession "pre-cession of the equinoxes" (their moving backward in relation to the constellations) is fascinating. But I have no intention of reading a lecture lec-ture on astronomy here for several sev-eral reasons, including the one mentioned before. But I do want to mention some things which George Stimson (with whom I have just been talking) brought up. You remember George? He comes from Anamosa, Iowa, where he has just been spending spend-ing a wonderful vacation with his mother who, at 77, does her own cooking because she likes it better bet-ter (and, according to George, for good reasons) than anyone's else. George, to whom most Wash-ingtonians Wash-ingtonians turn when they want the right answer, says that records rec-ords for a period of 50 years show that there were actually fewer storms during the period between September 20 and 25 (which overlaps the equinox) than there were immediately preceding September 25. The same, he says, is true of the vernal equinox. "The notion about equinoxial storms in one form or another," says George, "dates back to at least 1748 and probably originated among seafaring people." All this information is in his "Book About a Thousand Things" and if I had thought to look it up first I wouldn't have interrupted him in his work on his book about a thousand (or more) things regarding regard-ing American history which will be his next opus and which I'm willing is an unachieved goal but one more nearly reached here than anywhere else in the world fellow travelers to the contrary, notwithstanding. Strangely enough, the one idea chiefly associated with equality of day and night the equinox has been proved utterly unfounded. For a long time it was generally accepted ac-cepted (and is still believed by many) that violent storms which were given the name, "equinoxial gales" are prevalent at this season. Suppose you were to approach the 10 men or twenty or thirty who have spent the most time studying this particular subject, gathering all the facts, checking check-ing all the records available, as long as authentic records have existed. If you asked them if it is true that there are especially bad storms at this time of year, ihey would answer (in carefully worded and virtually understandable under-standable sentences) "That is the bunk!" At the equinox the sun is in the process of crossing the celestial equator. That is the circle parallel to our equator which, if expanded would touch the sun. The sun does this in the spring (vernal equinox) and in the fall (autumnal equinox). At this season, if you live in my neighborhood (or within several hundred miles thereof) you will heed this piece of advice in the Hagerstown (Md.) Almanack which lays: to say in advance of publication is going to be good. So much for the equinoxes, with whom, since we meet them twice a year, we ought to get better acquainted. ac-quainted. Blackjack Pershing' Life and Times Speaking of books, Col. Frederick Palmer sent me his latest book entitled en-titled "General John J. Pershing." It was written some time ago, recently re-cently brought up to date after Palmer's Pal-mer's last interview with Pershing, but in accordance with the author's stipulation, was not published until after Pershing's death. "It was not to be submitted to him or to appear in the light of an official biography or one authorized by his heirs." This is stated in the foreword and Palmer elaborated on his attitude to me during a luncheon shortly I before the book appeared. Colonel Palmer is the elder statesman of the war correspondents. correspond-ents. But years are of small account ac-count to him. He is pert, active and his memory is phenomenal. I knew of him in connection with the Russo-Japanese Russo-Japanese war although at the time of that conflict my military experience experi-ence was limited to playing with a painted fleof warships. The warships were a Christmas Christ-mas present received while I was still building with blocks and shooting Indians with bows made of umbrella ribs and drilling drill-ing in an infant cadet corps. Later I came to know a colleague of Palmer's in that war which gave Japan the toe-hold in the Far East tv- . ) u.. U - "The ravages of the tent caterpillars cat-erpillars go unnoticed by many persons until the leaves are eaten from a tree. Naturally it makes extra work for the tree to produce another set of new leaves, which weakens the tree, Mid after a lew years of this extra work, the tree is in danger dan-ger of dying. "The greatest natural enemy of the tent caterpillar is the common house wren. These are valuable birds to have in your gardens during the growing season." sea-son." And now after that piece of advice, ad-vice, which is not seasonal for my friends "down under" where the autumnal equinox heralds the coming com-ing of summer and Bot fall and winter, win-ter, let us return to our meteorological meteoro-logical mutton. I will not become technical but I think it is just as well to get better acquainted with the phenomena, natural and otherwise, which surround sur-round us. There is no reason why, if one rises late in the night to let the cat in (or out) he need crack a . shin on a ehair, once he understands i why and in what position his wife i has moved it since he last noticed its location and the stars are just celestial furniture. What Is This Thing ,'Retrograde Motion'? There is a certain "retrograde motion" from east to west of the equinoxial points, which I won't go into in detail for several reasons, one being that I haven't the slightest slight-est idea what the phrase means. . Nevertheless, I will mention that retrograde motion was discovered wmi "louc uci wic uwki awe was Ul World War II. His colleague was Photographer Jimmy Hare, the dean of his clan for many decides. The Pershing book I have not read at this writing but as soon as I do I'll tell you about it, What a wonderful three - point landing, said the little kangaroo to its mother. Although the special session of congress was mad at the President for calling them back, they gave the reading of his proclamation: assembling them a tribute rare in history. They stood up while it was read. They got up because they thought the invocation was! about to be made and they didn't like to sit down and reveal their error. There may be a new King of Spain. Nice work if you can get away with it. by a gentleman by the name of Hipparchus in the year (about) 120 before Christ. Experts say this motion mo-tion accounts for the changes in the position of the Pole star, the North Star as it is usually called. Some people think the Pole star doesn't change. A number of important im-portant people since Hipparchus have thought so. Take one, William Shakespeare. Remember in Act in of Julius Caeser when" a petition for repeal of the disenfranchisement of Publius Cimber is presented? Cassius drops to his knees to beg for the repeal but Caeser says: "I could be well moved, if I were as you; If I could pray to move, prayers pray-ers would move me: I But I am constant as the northern north-ern star, Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament, firma-ment, W : hi- |