WILLIAN HERSCHEL AND SISTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1929, Page 9 (Supplement)

WILLIAN HERSCHEL AND SISTER.

In the year 1738, a boy named William Herschel was born in Hanover. When he was still quite young, he ffe- 9 came a soldier in the Hanoverian army. But eoldiering did not interest William and, ae he could not get out of tho army, he ran away to England and settled in Bath, where he studied music and became an organist, Then he gave music lessons, studied / mathematics at odd moments,,and became tremendously interested in the . science of figures. At last he began to look at the etare and to wonder whether ; ? he could measure the great distance . which separated them from the earth. He spoke to his sister Caroline about this, and the two started to make .<• telescopes through which to observe . the stars. So enthusiastic did William ■< and Caroline become that their house gradually turned into a workshop, and there were pieces of telescope every-, where. . . When Williaifi was giving a concert Caroline would watch the sky; and when he was gazing through a certain huge telescope he had made, she would sit beside him all through the night and write down his observations. Then on March 13, 1781, William made a wonderful discovery. He found the seventh great planet in the solar system, Uranus! A little later, the king made him Royal Astronomer, and afterwards knighted him. But whenever the name of the great, astronomer, Sir William Herschel is q mentioned, we think also of . his sister Caroline, who was an equally great astronomer. Without her help,, he might have been a poor teacher of music all -.,j his life. - .--qqcf THE PRINCE AT A COTTAGE./ The courtesy of the poor is a beautiful thing. No duchess ever had a truer notion of being a good hostess than a certain poor woman whose cot- •.< tage the • Prince of Wales visited the Y other day. She lives in a district where there has been no work for nearly two years, where people live in hovels, go without. food sometimes for days at a time, .-G and have only fragments of boots to < keep out the icy mud. To make things worse, there has been much illness in the family. But when one of her sons started to -.Ji speak of these things almost as soon as the Prince entered, she said: “You don’t want to say anything about that.” Then, turning to her guest with a cheerful smile, she said: “We are very glad to see you, Prince.” The courage and graciousness of that , q! woman must have touched him more than any amount of grumbling. He got a very rude welcome at another house- from a crossbred terrier called Shot. Shot’s owner apologised, and added that Shot was under sentence because there was no money for his ' < license. But the Prince bore no he spoke to one of his companions, the license was paid. The Prince’s tour of the distressed q areas is over, and we know it has him to the heart. No one can look on ■...s< misery without being moved, and i*q all the rich people in England were see what the Prince has seen there would bo no more money spent on urics for a long time, no more nf stags or otters, and a river of gold '' would pour into the relief fund. But it . is impossible for the rich to imagine <■ poverty they have never seen, as it / 8 : .q ; impossible for non-combatants to pic- ;'"‘L ture the truth of war. - ' •