Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-11-04

lShadOW disappeared In the southeast,
the left shoulder of the suns disc
reappeared as thin curved thread of
light, and made one wonder to notice
how small portion of the solar disc
could give so much light as shone
around us. The returning light
seemed especially cheerful, and soon
the clouds seemed to thin and rise,
and the blue sky shOne through while
the lunar disc gradually disappeared
from the suns lower limb. We had
a few natives with us, including a
Lkgayat Brahmin. They amused
us greatly by their exclamations and
talk the sun, they said, had got into
debt, and was being arrested. On
being shown through the telescope,
one old gray beard exclaimed: "You
bring the sun halfway to US" and,
al am old and my beard white. but
so strange a thing as this have never
seem" and after having got the true
theory of the eclipse explained in the
simplest way, when the totality ended,
he remarked very naively, "You
sahib log have told us the true cause
of this, the Brahmins in the village
say differently, but" with a sly
reference to the once present) "the
Brahmins are a set of liars" / re-
marked very specially how perfectly
calm and self-pOssessed these poor
men remained, and could not help
feeling that the composure of those
among them had something to do
with it. In the villages all was
different; alarm and dismay was the
prevalent feeling; the women pulled
off
on the floors, crying out in terror,
that the end of all things had come.
Another correspondent of the same
journal writing from SholapOre, says:
The 18th dawned with cloudy sky
and every appearance of rain, but as
we iOurneyed toward the Seena, and
as the sun rose above the horizon, the
clouds partially cleared away, and it
was only observed at intervals by
light, drifting clouds from the west
Things continued in the same state
until $50 A. NJ, when the clouds
cleared away, and five minutes the
sun shOne forth most brilliantly.
Every one was on the tiptoe of expec-
tatiOn, and staring through bits of
stained glass and whatever else suita-
BILE they could lay their hands on,
Watching for the ''first contact" Butt
again dark clouds came floating along,
and the sun once more hid his face.
Cloud succeeded cloud for some 10
minutes more, and when they next
cleared of, every one saw plainly that
contact had taken place. This was
at 7:45 A. NJ. During the further
progress of the eclipse up to the time
Of tOtality at S:55 a. NJ, the sun was
never totally Obscured. When the
eclipse was almost total, and only the
last remnant of the suns face re-
manned, a slight break in the clouds
allowed it to burst forth, and then it
just looked like a blazing seimetar
quivering in some unseen hand. But
it was only for moment, and as it
quivered, it disappeared behind the
mighty shadow. 1t was not for some
considerable time after contact took
place that any observable difference
was noticed in the light of the morn
ing, indeed not until the sun was half
Obscured, was the darkness felt
advancing from the West. A large
mass of watery-lOOking clouds had
lain all the morning low down in the
Western horizon, and as the eclipse
they gradually assumed a
darker hue, until the shadow was well
over the sun, when they become as
black as ink, and seemed to emit the
gloom that came creeping over the
land. The progress OF the darkness
was extremely slOw-at least so ii
seemed to us who were watching-and
it was only when the eclipse was al |
most total that anything approaching
twilight beamed. 1t remained, |
however, for the moment of total !
to show forth the grand
est and most solemn phenomena. |
Then we had darkness which no
pen shall ever fully describe. 1t lasted |
only for one minute, but it was such a |
darkness that no one who felt it will |
ever forget. 1t was neither the dark |
ness of moonlight nor of starlight. |
1t was an overwhelming gloom which |
pressed not only heavily on the eyes,
but also on the mind, and amid which |
the heart almost stood still-such a |
gloom as that, as a priest upon the |
spot was understood to declare, which |
shall overtake this wicked world |
when the last trumpet shall sound |
and the dead be summoned from their |
graves. 1t was a crisis which all
creation felt. On every side around |
US, excepting a small space in the
north, the heavens were as black as |
and seemed as if they were |
to fall and crush us. The wind |
which had been blowing with some
force, fell TO a whisper, and came cold |
and clammy across the plain. The
birds took shelter in the trees and sat
l,n hnl
fields came rushing into the village |
as if to escape from the darkness.
Human forms few yards off looked
like moving specters clad in a gray, |
mist, and so obscure were |
they, that six yards off the sex could |
not be determined. No stars were |
seen, but this was owing TO the cloud
ed state of the sky, many of them
must have been visible. TOtality |
lasted only about minute, but owing |
to the clouds, nothing was seen of
the corona. For the same reason, it |
was impossible to say exactly how
long tOtality lasted, but it soon told
its own tale, for as darkness came
from the west, so did the light, and
after the shadow had |
moved only little over the sun, the
clouds in the west frightened up, and
resembling the dawning
of day came tripping over the fields.
1t was Immediately followed by more
light, and in few minutes the gloom |
was entirely dispelled, and all was
very soon again beautiful and gay"
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