That Comet

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 17, 25 April 1907, Page 9

That Comet

Same time ago the .cable agencies, sent to these southern - lands a story that portended a catastrophe to bur planet and led sundry timid people to think that the crack o' doom was near. The story was, briefly, , to this effect : That, according to" the noted. Italian astronomer Matteucci, a planet was soon to strike - our earth at a high velocity and play royal havoc among the persons and things against which it was to impinge. It now turns out that the comet story was, likethe ' loving words ' of Molly Asthore, ' meant tout to •deceive '. Professor Matteucci (so say the papers) made no such statement about that destroying sky-wanderer. The story was a hoax;. But the cable agency does not seem to have thought , itself called upon to remove the slur that it helped to cast upon the Italian professor's reputation as a s dentist, or to apply a soothing balsam to the feelings that its sudden announcement left black and blue with fearsome anticipation. Some people tell truth, as some people joke, wi' deeficulty. And (according to Aristophanes) it's no easy, matter to make a crab walk straight.