01 Q 



* KNOWL.EDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 23, 1S33. 



(editorial (gosieiip. 



I FIND that some even after careful study find the 

 puzzle aViout American trains between New York and 

 Seui Francisco perplexing. It may be thus dealt with. 

 Suppose the journey to last exactly seven days, and the 

 startings from New York and San Francisco to be simul- 



S.F N.Y. 



A h c d e f (J H 

 taneous. Then if A represents San Francisco and H New 

 York, the distance A H contains seven days' journey, A 6, 

 he, cd, &c. Now when a train is starting from A one is also 

 starting from H for A, another is a day's journey from H 

 at g, another at^l another at *', at d, at c, and at b. These 

 seven trains are of course all passed by the San Francisco 

 train on its way to New York ; but during the seven daj-s 

 (exactly) that this journey lasts, seven more trains start 

 from H, the seventh starting just as the San Francisco 

 train reaches H. This last is not jiassed by the S.F. train, 

 any more than was the train from New York which 

 reached A just as our S.F. train was starting. But the 

 other six must all be passed before the S.F. train reaches 

 New York. Hence the total number passed is 7 + 6 or 13. 

 If the S.F. train starts a few minutes or hours before a 

 train reaches A, then it is easily seen that the total 

 number passed is 14, one being passed at the beginning of 

 the journey and all the first six from New York after the 

 journey began. So also if the S.F. train starts from A a 

 few minutes or hours after a train reaches A, still 1 4 trains 

 are passed, for in this case seven are already on their way 

 from New York, and seven more start before the S.F. 

 train reaches New York. Consequently as the starting of 

 the S.F. and N.Y. trains at the same precise moment is 

 not the probable order of things, we may say that — save 

 for this exceptional case — the right answer is 14. 



CoJiPARiKG the following account of the origin of the 

 word ]\Iasher, by Mr. Howard Paul in Society, in which 

 the true origin of the word is given with my own, it will 

 be seen that my recollection was tolerably correct : — 



The term ''masher" originated in the green-room of the 

 Union Square Theatre in the autumn of 1878. Two comedians 

 attached to this popular establishment were extremely fine-looking 

 men, Mr. M'Kee Rankin and Charles Thorne (both of whom, by the 

 way, have played in London), and were immensely admii-ed by the 

 susceptible maidens of the great Empire City. These two gentle- 

 men were the redoubtable heroes of matinees, and the ladies went 

 80 far in their petits soins as to send them billets doui, button-hole 

 bouquets, and frequent anonymous souvenirs. Naturally there was 

 some rivalry between the two actors, but they remained the closest 

 friends. At a ynatinee Where the audience consisted almost entirely 

 of ladies, Thorn entered the green-room after a strong scene, and 

 said, "Mac, I've done fearful slaughter to-day. Do you hear that 

 applause ? Listen to the gloved darlings." Kankin, who was in a 

 gay mood, and enjoyed the highest animal spirits, replied, " Charley, 

 I'm nowhere in this 'rig' (alluding to his costume), I only touch 

 their hearts, but, by the gods, you mash 'em. " Ha, ha ! " laughed 

 Thorne, " mash is a good word." " Yes, my boy, you are the champion 

 masher ! " returned Ratikin, and the actors in the green-room 

 repeated the word admiringly. At the conclusion of the perform- 

 ance the two Lotharios, as was their wont, called in at the bar-room 

 of the Union-square Hotel for a " tod," to use the local locution, 

 and over their cocktails mentioned the phrase to a knot of jonr- 

 nalists who were refreshing themselves. One of them, Mr. Chandos 

 Fulton, made a note of it, and a week after, in the columns of the 

 well-known theatrical paper, the Si'.nday Mercury, he wrote a 

 sprightly article, " Heart Mashers at Matinees." The term 

 "tickled the town," as Tony Lumpkin would say; the actors, the 

 sporting fraternity, and men about town instantly adopted it. every 

 well-dressed, smart young man was individually called a masher 

 (much as we call well-got-up men here swells), and the phrase was 

 brought to England by the actors who are incessantly crossing 

 between the two countries. 



The Daily Neios in a pleasant notice of my lectures 

 dwelt more on the lyings running through them than I 

 think desirable. The following remarks of mine on this 

 point, and on the question whether declamatory arts are 

 desirable in a lecture may be worth reproducing here : — 



Your very kindly notice of my first lecture at Kensington is (in 

 a sense) pervaded by an error which I am anxious to correct. Your 

 reporter most have overlooked certain remarks which I made while 

 the lights were being turned down and the lantern got ready for 

 action. They were to the effect that the theory running through 

 the lecture, the theory that worlds, like plants and like animals, 

 have a life of their own, whose stages have certain characteristics 

 which we may infer by reasoning and test by observation, was not 

 what I wished my audience chiefly to consider; but rather the facts 

 which were presented in association with that theory. " The theory," 

 I said, " is but a thread on which I propose to string the pearls of 

 known facts." Experiencehas shown that to state a series of facts, 

 however interesting in themselves, is not sufficient to interest 

 an audience who are not all experts in the subject — whatever 

 it may be — to which those facts relate. The facts must be 

 associated in some way by which the imagination may be interested 

 and the memory assisted. In like manner, when dealing with the 

 sun, I take a theory as to the origin and nature of sunspots which 

 associates all known facts about them, and also about the colotu-ed 

 flames and the corona ; but I am careful to point out that the value 

 of the facts in no way depends on the strength of the thread of 

 theory on which they are strong. In dealing with the mooni con- 

 ceive a theory of successive stages of her vulcanian history, her 

 existence as a probable abode of life, and her present condition ; but 

 the interest of the facts associated with this theory would remain if 

 the theory should be disproved. I believe all three theories to be 

 in the main correct, simply because they can thus be associated 

 with all the facts at present known ; but I by no means insist on 

 their truth. I may remark here that there is some mistake about 

 my " starting ^rith Mr. Herbert Spencer's assumption that the 

 world and the other planets of the solar system may be compared 

 to ' cooling cinders.' " Last night was the first time that I ever 

 referred, in my lectttre on the " Life of Worlds," to that passing 

 illustration in Mr. Spencer's masterly essay on the Nebular 

 Hypothesis. I used it merely as a convenient illustration of the 

 way in which large bodies retain their heat longer than small ones 

 of the same kind. 



One word more. There is a remark at the close of yonr report 

 suggesting that declamatory arts only were required to make my 

 lecture in a high degree impressive. During the fourteen years 

 that have passed since I gave my first lecture, I have earnestly 

 striven to rid my delivery of every trace of declamation. The 

 great art of scientific lecturing, as compared ^vith oratorical appeal, 

 consists, I am convinced, in keeping the petty personality of the 

 lecturer (necessarily petty in the presence of the great truths he 

 is describing) from being obtruded, as it tends to be, between the 

 audience and the subject of discourse. The arts of declamation all 

 tend to bring the speaker's personality before the audience. And 

 not only must they, in my opinion, be avoided, but, where they 

 have been in any degree acquired, they must be carefully unlearned. 

 If they rendered a lecture more pleasing the case would be dif- 

 ferent ; for though the object of a lecture is to instruct rather than 

 to impress, instruction is all the better for being made attractive. 

 But my experience teaches me that an audience finds declamatory 

 arts in scientific lecturing not pleasing but offensive. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



From Nov. 23 to Dec 1. 

 By F.E.A.S. 



THE sun is getting low down in the sky, but should be examined 

 on every clear day, within an hour or two of noon, for spots 

 and faculse. Maps XI.' and XII. of " The Stars in their Seasons" 

 may be consulted for the aspect of the night sky. Merctuy is 

 invisible, as is, in fact, Venus too ; but Mars is nightly coming into 

 a better position for the observer — in fact, by Dec. 7, he rises about 

 8h. 53m. p.m. He is in the blank part of the sky, west of Leo 

 ("The Stars in their Seasons," Map III.). He still presents a 

 very small disc, but it is large enough for the observer to see that 

 it is " gibbous " — i.e., not round, but like the moon when two or 

 three days from the full. The Polar snow, and indications of dark 

 markings, too, are beginning to be perceptible in a moderate tele- 

 scope. Jupiter rises about 8h. 27m. this evening, and by Dec. 7 



