Our Dark Day.
Among the remarkable events of 1881 will be chronicled the phenomenal darkness
of last Tuesday. It was a dark day like that experienced in 1780, though perhaps
a little less in degree. A dark, vapory mist, settled down in the valleys, completely
obscuring the sun, while a penetrating dampness pervaded the air indoors as
well as out. The veil which overspread everything was not confined to this locality
but extended in a greater or less degree nearly all over New England and the
Middle States. But those who dwell upon the mountains and high hills were above
the fog and had a bright sun and pleasant skies. The morning was so dark that
many people failed to recognize its coming and kept their beds for an hour or
two under the impression that old Sol hadn't removed his night cap. The superstitious,
as usual, believed that the end of the world had come and went about with sad
hearts and long faces. The school children were dismissed, and business to a
certain extent was suspended. The stores, business offices and dwellings were
lighted. The greatest wonder, however, was the peculiarity in the atmosphere
which gave every object a luminous, greenish tint, more like the effect produced
by the burning of calcium lights than anything else. The grass of the lawns
and the foliage of the trees took on new beauties, while everything discernible
through the gloom underwent a transformation that was marvelous and not easily
explained. The flame of a gas jet was pale as silver and its illumination resembled
that of the electric light. In the afternoon the misty cloud lifted a little,
but it was four o'clock before the sun was fully seen and then it was dull and
brassy as if it had not fully aroused from its day-time nap. That our readers
may compare out dark day with that of a century ago we reprint a few extracts
from a graphic description which we find at hand:
Previous to the 19th of May, 1780, a vapor filled the air for several days.
There was a smell of sulphur. The morning of the 19th was overcast, with some
clouds, and rain fell over the country, with lightning and thunder. Scarcely
any motion was in the air; what wind there was came from the southwest. By nine
o'clock in the forenoon, without previous warning, the darkness stole gradually
on, with a luminous appearance near the horizon, as if the obscuring clouds
had dropped from overhead. There was a yellowness of the atmosphere that made
clear silver assume a grass green hue. Then a dense, undefinable vapor settled
rapidly and without aerial movement over all the land and ocean from Pennsylvania
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the darkness it caused sinking by degrees until
the sunlight was effectually shut out. Ordinary cloud is was not. The rapidity
with which so large an extent of country was enveloped precludes the possibility
of supposing this to have been a natural cloud moving laterally. Besides this
the day was too calm to imagine such a thing. Down came the darkness, thicker
and thicker. By ten o'clock the air was loaded with a thick gloom. The heavens
were tinged with a yellowish or faint red; the lurid look increased. few, if
any, ordinary clouds were visible. The sun in disappearing in took brassy hue.
The lurid, brassy color spread everywhere, above and below. The grass assumed
the color of the sky, and all out of doors wore a sickly, weird and melancholy
aspect- a dusky appearance as if seen through a smoked glass. By eleven o'clock
it was as night itself, and from this time until three in the afternoon the
darkness was extraordinary and frightful. * Just how dark the day was is attested
by indisputable evidence. The hour and minute could not be discovered on the
face of a watch or clock by persons of unimpaired eyesight. Candles became an
absolute necessity both out of doors and in, as it was impossible to transact
ordinary business without them. Fires on the hearthstone shone as brightly as
on a moonless November evening, and all dinner tables were set with lighted
candles upon them as if it were the evening repast. The keenest eyes indoors
could not see to read the common print. So far beyond any ordinary fog was the
effect that stages on the road either put up the nearest hotel during the mid-day
hours or carried candles or lanterns to enable the perplexed driver to see to
well see his way. And the brute and feathered creation seemed puzzled and agitated.
The birds ceased to fly and hid themselves in the branches of the trees. As
the darkness increased they sang their evening songs as they do at twilight,
and then became silent. Pigeons on the wing took to the shelter of the forest
as they do at night. The whippowill, as if it were truly night, cheerfully sang
his song through the gloomy hours. Woodcocks, which are night birds, whistled
as they only do in the night time. Bats came out of their hiding places and
flew about. The fowls marched solemnly to their roosts as they do only at nightfall,
and after cackling for a while over the mystery of so short a day, became still.
Cocks crowed as is their custom at nightly intervals and the early breaking
of the day. Frogs piped their evening concert and dogs whined or howled and
ran away as on the approach of an earthquake. The herds of cattle on the New
England's thousand hills, sought the shelter of the shed or barnyard, lowing
as they came to the gate, and sheep huddled around the circle with their heads
turned inward- the invariable token of apprehended danger. On the human family
the effect was still more curious and terrifying. The mechanic left his tools
in the shop, the farmer his plow in the furrow, and each moved in silent and
marveling mood towards the barn or dwelling. On the home threshold they were
met by pale and anxious women, who tremblingly inquired, "What is coming?"
The alarmed traveler, seeking the sympathy of his fellow-man as one impressed
with a sense of impending peril, put up at the nearest house, and mingled his
anxious questionings and forebodings with those of the family. Strong men met
and spoke with surprise on their countenances, and little children peered timidly
into the deepening gloom and then sought the sheltering parental arms. Schools
broke up in affright, and the wondering pupils scampered homeward with many
expressions of childish fear. The inevitable candle shone out of the windows
of all dwellings- every countenance gathered blackness- all hearts were filled
with fear of an approaching unparalleled storm, or the occurrence of a terrestrial
convulsion; but it was not the blackness of the storm cloud, such as sometimes
with a frightful agitation breaks over a single city; it was the silent spreading
of the pall cloth over the earth by strong invisible hands. |
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