The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-08-12

1t was our fortune to witness the
| phenomenon from the roof of the fe-
male college, or as it is now known,
st. Agnes Hall. There telescope
had been mounted under the direction
of Prof. j. NJ. Moore, of Earlham Col
lege, Prof. Bosworth, formerly from
Terre Haute, and j, NJ. Olcott, of
Terre Haute; and there a number of
persons had assembled, among whom
were our worthy friend, Superintend-
ant b. c. Hobbs. and any quantity Of
the small boys always uppermost. At a
quarter past four o'clock the sun, half
way down the western horizon, was
perfectly clear, the air was balmy, but
the breeze began+to blow quite strong
ly from the northeast. At sixteen and
quarter minutes past four o'clock the
first contact occurred. and the Their
mometer pla ced in the shade marked
IS dogs. Gradually the moon advanc-
ed, gradually the shadow drew across
the sun, until at 80 minutes past four,
it covered about seven digits. The
breeze was stronger, and We began to
look about for the CONFUSION of ma
ture, the affrighted animals, the fold
ing up of leaves and flowers, and all
the other things promised by astrono-
mers, to come with the blackness of
darkness. We looked in vain. The
cows and horses in the neighboriug
lot acted no differently than usual; the
chickens gulped down their evening
feed with accustomed: greediness; no
dog howled; no owl screeched, no op-
pressive silence fell upon the ear, and
nature didn't 'convulse' to any alarm
ing extent. At FIVE o'clock appearan
ces were changing; that band of light
on the suns surface was growing small.
er, the shadows were falling like on
summer evening, and the hills and
mead ows away to the north aud north
west looked darker, b,uer than before
but to the south it was still bright and
green. The shadows heightened. i'm
mense numbers of swallows, seeing
night approaching, wanted to go to bed
in the chimneys, but the unaccuston,-
ed crowd pre- venting, they circled Wild
iy about in the air over our heads, ey-
Identity angry. Along the road, to the
the east, drove of city cows, mind
Jul of milking time was fastening
home, aud the superintendent, or some
one else appositely quoted
THE lowing herd winds slowly DER the lea"
The minutes were long. AT FIVE
minutes past FIVE the thermometer had
dropped another degree, and now was
noticeable the 'tombre hue said to be
observed during all eclipses, a dark
shadow over all the earth, like that
seen during the coming up of heavy
thunder and wind storms, but
still very different from that. 1t was
strange, indefnable mingling of light
and shadow. The shadow crett slow.
y on, the darkness increased; one rro-
fessor grasped the telescope, another
watch, and the third note book; one
reporter polished his glass, and anoth.
er shsrpened his pencil, while the third
looked around for stars. There may
have been silence in nature, but a. the
particular place in which we happened
to be the people made a great deal of
noise, but they oil auxiously looked
foe the coming totalIty. At about FIVE
ten sharp eyed old gentleman sang
out, why there's Venusv and sure
enough, about twenty degrees south
west of the sun was the morning or
evening star, whichever it may hap.
pen to be now. For a few minutes ey.
cry body was looking for, or at that,
and none but the most scientific KEEP,
their eyes upon the principal figure of
the occasion. The little bit of the
sun which could be seen was redder