Halley’s Comet in 1910 Poses Challenge for 1985

I’ll never forget that spring morning in 1910, when the disturbing news reached our home in the Ozarks--that Halley’s comet was speeding toward the Earth. And some self-appointed prophet had forecast it might strike the Earth, causing the End of the World.

For centuries our superstitious ancestors had regarded comets as harbingers of disaster, and Halley’s comet had been blamed for many. So this doomsday prediction scared thousands. One neighbor boy, I recall, refused to eat for a week. Even if the comet did not hit the Earth, its fiery tail, the scaremongers said, might poison or incinerate us with a meteor shower.

My mother had calmed us, in her usual quiet way, reminding us that predictions of the World’s End had always proved false.

But recalling those scary days in 1910, something like that period in July, 1979, when Skylab was falling, I’ve marveled about the obvious lack of public excitement today as Halley’s comet is now returning after nearly 76 years. Of course, it will be several million miles farther away from the Earth when it makes its closest approach--39 million miles on April 11, 1986. So it will not be as bright and awe-inspiring as in 1910.

Yet the main reason Halley’s Comet will not excite us in 1986 as it did in 1910 is not in the comet, but in ourselves and our changed world. Never in 76 years have so many important discoveries or inventions been made.

Instead of bringing the End of the World, the comet had only marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new age of electricity, telephones, automobiles, phonographs, motion pictures, flying machines and the atomic bomb. We had moved quickly away from our horse-and-buggy days to modern electronic times.

We had gone through two World Wars, I and II, and the undeclared Korean and Vietnamese wars--experiences that taught lessons and left scars. And in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and another on Nagasaki three days later, we had unleashed a new terror in our world. The threat continues to hang over us today like the legendary Sword of Damocles.

No one can measure the impact of all these things on the mind of Americans today. But we, too, with our mighty influx of new citizens have changed. We’ve lost much of our superstitious fear of comets.

The faith my mother displayed that day in 1910, when Halley’s comet was speeding toward the Earth reassures me now. It gives me hope that the good common sense of Americans can be trusted to make wise decisions if given the facts.

That morning in 1910 when the knock sounded at the door, I was home with a cold. I rushed to answer the knock. It was the Raleigh Medicine Man. He called every spring with his horse-drawn van. He asked to see my mother. I called her and paused to listen, as he always brought news of the outside world.

“Mrs. Roper,” he began, “have you heard the big news? Halley’s comet is headed toward the Earth, and may slam into it.”

“No,” she replied calmly, “I hadn’t heard about it.”

The Medicine Man frowned, apparently annoyed by her calmness. “Well, Mrs. Roper,” his tone became sharper, “most of the folks I called on this morning were scared. A fortune-teller has predicted it may mean the End of the World!”

Mom shrugged. “Reckon there’s not much we can do about it.”

She bought two bottles of flavoring extract, two bottles of liniment and one bottle of pain relief. “Might come in handy, from what you say,” she said with a smile.

After the man left, I asked her if she thought the comet could cause the End of the World.

“Guess we’ll have to wait and see if it’s the Lord’s will,” she said. “But I wouldn’t worry. A lot of bad things fortune-tellers predict never happen, and forecasts about the world’s end have always proved false.”

So now, at 88 as I look back to all we’ve been through and all we’ve learned since 1910, I, too, am confident of our future. Now we no longer feel menaced by Halley’s comet. We are all under the shadow of the atomic bomb. We are facing a time of decision.

Shall we meet the nuclear challenge with carefully considered diplomacy and willingness to ease tensions--or with outbursts of recrimination, angry words of suspicion and self-righteous rhetoric?

How we proceed in the coming months may decide whether we go into another spiral of excessive spending to promote a nebulous “Star Wars” dream defense with a holocaust postponed or make a serious effort to achieve a rational agreement, easing danger tensions on both sides. The menace of nuclear war will end when world leaders mature enough to realize that no one can win one.

WILLIAM L. ROPER

Chino