I venture
to say that there is not a man in this crowd who ever knew before
that the inhabitants of Saturn knew anything about chess or cigars."
Once more he wheeled the instrument round. This time it got the range
of the upper storey of a tenement-house on the hill The young man had
scarcely taken a glance through the tube, when he yelled out:--
"Great guns! But what planet is this?"
"You are now looking at Uranus," replied the professor. "Uranus is
97,502,304 miles distant from the earth, and yet I warrant that it
doesn't appear over eighty rods away to you. Will you be kind enough,
my friend, to tell this crowd what you see?"
"Give it to him! That's it! Go it old woman!" shouted the young man,
slapping one leg and then the other.
"Speak up, my friend. What do you see?"
"By jove! she's got him by the hair now! Why, she'll beat him
hollow!"
"Will you be kind enough, my friend, to allay the curiosity of your
friends?"
"Whoop! that's it; now she's got him. Toughest fight I ever saw!"
cried the young man as he moved back and slapped his thigh.
The professor covered up the instrument slowly and carefully, picked
up and unlocked a satchel which had been lying near his feet, and
then softly said:--
"Gentlemen, we will pause here for a moment.
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