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A CELESTIAL PHENOMENON

Is It an Airship or Only Acute Indigestion?

Los Angeles Wants a Share of the Wonder—Many Think They Saw It Last Night.

That apparition overhead May be an airship, but we doubt it. How can we know until we've read The Sunday sermons preached about it? —News Letter.

Sober-minded citizens do not, as a rule, indulge in star-gazing to any great extent, and consequently, the wonders of the heavens are to many of them a sealed book. But the airship contagion has struck the town, and there are many who will not rest comfortably until they are satisfied that they have had a glimpse of the latest sensation. Accordingly, even in Los Angeles, there is danger of the "airship neck" being contracted.

Fuel was added to the fire of expectancy on Friday night by a well-known newspaper man, who, in the intervals of endeavoring to prick holes in Snyder's spelling, sprung upon an innocent representative of the Associated Press a thrilling story of the airship having been sighted that evening in the neighborhood of Westlake park; its peculiar construction was described with vivid details, and the newspaper man proceeded to draw on his imagination and the credulity of his colleague by recounting how the airship had come to grief on a neighboring hill, but that its owner had got off with only a sprained ankle. The aforesaid scribe may have had a touch of Scotch second sight or something stronger, and after all may have been only foretelling the collision on the Pasadena electric road yesterday afternoon.

Nevertheless, the fable took flight, and sensational expectancy has lent strength to its wings.

Last night rumors of an airship filled the air—to the sober-minded observers with more effect than did the airship.

A telephone message was received at the California club yesterday afternoon stating that the airship had been seen floating over Baldwin's ranch. E. J. Baldwin returned to San Francisco from a three months' eastern trip on Saturday, and the Misses Ashley are living in the neighborhood of Pasadena.

A crowd of about a hundred men, women, and children gathered at the corner of Spring and Temple streets last night, and some of them declared that they had seen the airship.

The excitement increased until an astronomical-looking individual chanced by and was overheard to remark:

"It is amusing to see these groups of people gazing at the planet Venus and thinking from its great size and brilliancy it must be an airship or some other human production."

By the aid of a very powerful telescope, one citizen declared that he saw Julius H. Martin, the Republican candidate for mayor, attached to the tail of the airship, anxious to escape from terra firma, which was growing all too hot for him with the Parkhurst push on one side and the saloon men on the other, making life a burden to him.

But perhaps all this excitement and imagination may be due to too lavish indulgence in turkey last Thursday.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT

Edward L. Hutchison contributes the following observations on the phenomenon:

One of the queerest and plainest of commentaries on the need of "popular science" ever seen in this city was the general interest in the "airship" manifested by the public last night. Most of the people on the streets in the early evening had heard rumors concerning a flying ship supposed to be sailing around in this section. Someone who had not before noticed that the planet Venus was at its brightest stage started the report that that planet was the flying ship in rapid motion toward the city. Then the crowd watched Venus and was certain that the motion thereof could be seen with the naked eye, flying rapidly out of the west.

An hour later, most of the crowd had been at supper and had reappeared on the street. Venus had disappeared in the west, and the "red planet," Mars, had appeared high in the eastern sky. Some observant genius reported that the "airship" had passed over the city and was rapidly receding into the lofty eastern sky.

And there hung the "red planet," Mars, midway between Capella and the glories of Orion, a little north of Aldebaran, and far below the "sweet influence of the Pleiades," which moved the heart of Job so many long ages ago. A little knowledge of astronomy would be infinitely pleasing to everybody; would be very easily acquired, with the help of someone who knows anything thereof, and would prevent any such wild rumors as the wild notion that Mars is a "flying ship," or that Venus is an airy cruiser in the atmosphere of this world.

If the sky should be clear tonight, the glorious stars may be seen as I have indicated; and, at about 9 p.m., the observer who will look below Orion or Job's coffin will see Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, burning like a magnificent celestial electric light. Seven or eight degrees north of Sirius is Procyon, and as much farther in the same direction are Gemini or The Twins; and the only one of these that was not there a million years ago, and which will not be there a million years from now is Mars, the red warrior planet, which revolves around the sun about once every two years.