Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-11-15
The DarL DAY.

y
which the traitor Benedict Arnold, attempt
cd to betray his country.
For several days before the nineteenth, the
air was full of vapors, as we often see IL when
fires are raging in the woods near us, and the
sun and moon appeared red, and their usual
clear light did not reach us, especially when
rising and setting. The winds blew chiefly
from the southwest and northeast, and the
weather was cool and clear. The morning of
the nineteenth was cloudy and in many places
slight showers fell, sometimes accompanied
by thunder and lightning but as the sun
arose it did not increase the light, and the
darkness deepened and deepened, until the
children standing before the tall clocks could
not see to tell the time, and older people peer
ing over the almanac were not able TO distin-
guish the letters. The birds sang their eve
ming songs and flew TO their nests in the
woods, the poultry hurried to their roosts,
while the cattle in the fields uttered strange
cries and leaped the stone fences TO gain their
stalls, and the sheep all hudded together
blcating pitcously.
Color, which you know depends upon the
light of the sun, filed many with astonish-
ment by its unusual appearance, for the clouds
were in some places of light red, yellow and
brown the leaves on the trees and the grass
in the meadows were of the deepest green
verging on indigo, the brightest silver seemed
tarnished and everything that is white in the
sunlight bore a deep yellow hue.
The shadows which before noon fall to the
westward and after noon TO the eastward,
were observed during the darkness to fall in
every direction.
Tho rain, also, was unlike any other rain,
and it set all the people to wondering as they
dipped it from tubs and barrels for scum
formed on it resembling burnt leaves emit
tinga sooty smell, and this same substance
was seen on streams and rivers, especially the
Merrimac, where it lay four or five inches
thick, for many miles along its shore.
Another peculiarity was the vapor in many
localities it descended to the earth from high
in the atmosphere but at one point gentle
man saw the yapors, at nine o'clock rising
from the springs and low lands one column
he particularly noticed rapidly ascending far
above the highest hills then it spread into n
large white cloudand sailed off to the west
ward; second cloud formed in the same way
from the same springs, but did not rise as high
as the first, and a third formed fifteen minutes
afterwRrd. At a quarter of ten the upper
most cloud was of reddish hue, the second
was green indigo and blue, and the third was
almost white
So unwholesome was this vapor that small
birds were suiTocated in it, and many of them
were so frightened and stupetied that they
flew into the houses. adding to the fears of ig-
norant people, who considered it n bad sign
for n bird to enter a dwelling.
The commencement of the darkness was be-
tween ten and eleven in the forenoon (when
the men were busy in the fields and offices
and workshops, the women spinning, weav-
ing and preparing dinner, and the children at
school, or helping their fathers and mothers
at home), and il continued until the middle of
the following night but the degree of dark
ness varied in some places the disk of the
sun was seen when the darkness was the most
dense.
Lights were seen burning in all the houses,
and the people passing out-of-doors carried
torches and lanterns, which were curously re-
tlected on the overhanging clouds.
Thousands of people were sure that the end
of the world had come many droppe1 their
work and fell on their knees to pray, others
confessed to their fellows the wrongs they
had done and endeavored to make restitu-
ton.
The meeting houses were crowded, and
neighborhood prayer-meetings were formed,
and the ministers and old church members
prayed long prayers, mentioning the nations
and individuals of Bibles times who had been
destroyed on account of their sins, and beg
gng that as God spared the great city of
Ninevah when it repented, SO he would for
give them, cheer them again by the light of
1t is said that the Connecticut Legislature
being in session, the members became terri
fed when they could not each others
faces and a motion was made to adjourn,
when Mr. Davenport arose and said:
"SIr Speaker, it is either the day of judg-
ment or it is not. If it is not, there is no
need of adjourning. If it is, 1 desire to be
found doing my duty. l move that candles
be brought, and that we proceed to bust
ness"
All the shiyering, frightened people began
now to look forward to evening, hoping that
as the moon rose at nine o'clock, her light
would penetrate the gloom but all the chill
dren who coaxed to sit up and see her grew
very sleepy their strained eyes were not
rewarded by her beautiful beams for at eight
in the evening the darkness was total one
could not distinguish between the earth and
the heavens, and it was impossible to see a
hand before ones face.
Then all the weary children were sent to
bed after the most honest prayers that they
had ever prayed, and the older people sat up
to watch for the light that never before had
appeared so glorious.
And never dawned a fairer morning than
the twentieth of May, for the sun that opened
the flower and mirrored itself in the dew
drops brought the color again to the chill
dren's faces, and filled every heart with conf
dence.
The birds sang joyously, the cattle return
ed to their pastures, the places of business
We're opened, and every one went about his
work more gentle toward man and more CRATE
full toward God.
After the darkness was passed, several per-
sons Travelled about to gather all possible in
formation concerning this memorable day,
and DIR. Tenny wrote an account of what he
learned while ON journey from the east to
Pennsylvania He says the deepest darkness
was in Essex County, Massachusetts, the low
er part of New Hampshire, and the eastern
portion of Maine (where my great grand
mother liyed). In Rhode Island and COnnec-
ticut it was not so great in New Jersey Pc
culiar clouds were observed, but the darkness
was not uncommon, and in the lower parts of
Pennsylvania nothing unusual was observed.
1t extended as far north as the American
settlements and westward to Albany, but its |
exact limits could not be ascertained.
In Boston the darkness continued fourteen |
or fifteen hours, varying in duration at other
places.
As it was impossible to attribute the dark |
ness to an eclipse, the wise people formed |
many theories respecting it; being convinced |
that it was due to immense fires in the woods, |
winds blowing in opposite directions, and to |
the condition of the yapors but Herschel |
says "The dark day in northern America |
was one of those wonderful phenomena of ma
ture which will always be read of with inter |
est, but which philosophy is at loss to eI-
plain. Ella 4. DyiRkioater, in 50. Nicholas
for NOOemJer.
How THEY KEEP PARIS CLEAN. When Full
ton, of the Baltimore American, was in Paris