NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 11 July 1910, Page 7

NEWS BY MAIL.

H ALLEY'S COMET. HOW PEOPLE AWAITED ITS COMING ABROAD. END OF EARTH PARTIES. Paris, May IG. The very latest thing in Paris is the "comet party." Parties to view tlie comet in the early I mornings are booking tables at fashionable restaurants, and invitations are being sent out worded like this: "Mme. la Comtesse de X—— requests the pleasure of your company to supper at the Restaurant Z — on the 18th evening of May and the last evening of the world's history." Down in the left-hand corner of the card figures the word "Comet" and in brackets after it, ''lf it does not come we will dance." The Abbe Moreux, director of the observatory at Bourges, estimates that the earth will be three hours and forty-one I minutes in passing the comet's tail, be- j ginning at 1*2.48 to-morrow evening. | Rome. May IG. ] Remarkable phenomena attributed to Bailey's comet have began in Italy. To-nieht the citizens of Rome witnessed a truly superb spectacle, the sky being continually traversed in every direction by brilliant shooting stars. The observatories at Florence, and Catania also report having witnessed showers of shooting stars. Paris, May 18. i Parisians generally are looking forward to the advent of .Hallc.rs comet through J the bottom of champagne glasses. i

French scientists are fairly unanimous in their statement that the probability of anything being seen in the small hours of to-morrow morning is small. All will he at their posts, at the Observatory, 'however, and M. Camille Flammarion will wait for the comet on the top of the Eiffel Tower.

One Paris astronomer, M. de la Baume Pluvinel, will not wait for the comet, but will go up in a balloon from St. Cloud at midnight to meet it. He is taking three boxes of vacuum tubes with him, in which he hopes to bring back air from the neighborhood of the comet's tail for analysis. He will ascend from ten to twelve thousand feet, and hopes to get an excellent view of any phenomena which may occur. Berlin, May 18. Throughout Germany "comet night" will be celebrated by popular festivities. Hundreds of thousands of people have arranged to make merry in the hours of darkness till the earth has passed through the comet's tail, between four and live o'clock in the morning. Countless- night picnics have been organised, some to Kreuzberg Hill, a slight

eminence on the southern outskirts of the city, others to the forest of Grunewald, lying between Berlin and (Potsdam. Many thousands will congregate in the parks. All the open-air restaurants have laid in unusually large stores of provisions, and special steamship excursions on the lakes around Berlin, starting at midnight and lasting till six in the morning, have been organised. Germany, indeed, is transformed into one large camp of pleasure seekers. The comet has had a marked influence on Berlin fashions. Comet hats for women, with mother-of-pearl hatpins shaped like comets, comet walking-sticks, umbrellas, textile goods and brands of spirits are on sale.

Vienna, May 18. Observations made in the Austrian observatories show that the earth undoubtedly passes through the tail of the comet to-morrow morning. The tail no longer appears triangular in outline, but thicker in the middle, which is believed to be due to the effect of the perspective owing to the proximity oif the comet.

Despite the great heat, many people in Vienna intend to sleep with closed windows to-night to keep out possible poisonous gases. Others make fun of the affair, and have arranged "Em! oi the earth" parties for to'uight, while enterprising innkeepers advertise that they are keeping their beer gardens open all night, with military bands, as the best antidote to the comet's tail is drink aiiid music.