The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-06-10

smoke was the principal ingredient
in the yapor Of the day, the SCOTT
ness of the water, once clear.
and the closeness of the air being
the chief phenomena. A number Of
small birds, such as sparrows and yell
low-birds, were found dead in divers
places; and some flew into the houses,
very probably to avoid the su6ocating
vapor. But, that the smoke was not
all, l have this evidence, viz: that I
observed fog to rise from the top of
q neighboring hill, as in what we call q
seaturn. As to the extent of
this darkness, I have NO information
that can be relied upon. 1t has been
said that there was none of it upon the
upper part of the Connecticut River.
and observed ., light CLEAN in that
way, as also in the northeast.
It is not surprising that the vulgar
should turn it all into prodigy and mir
acle; but what would you think of men
of sense, and of q liberal education, if
I should tell you that heard one of my
very good brethren in this neighb0r-
hoad gravely assert in company (and l
have been told he did the same in his
pulpit) that it was the fulfilling of Joel's
prophecy of pillar of smoker and
that another wondered at me for not
placing this phenomenon in the same
rank with yosephus' signs of the de-
struction OF Jerusalem? In
some places the sun appeared in the
afternoon, but here the whole afternoon
was uniformly dark; and the evening
was as t3tGI darkness as can be conceived,
with q strong smell of smoke, and be-
tween nine and ten it grew lighter, and
afterward continued until the moon ap-
peared through the Clouds"
cit was never darker since the Chill
dren of Israel left the house of bond
age" wrote stranger to the Boston
G1zette, several days after, from the
Town of Ipswich, where, in company
with "several gentlemen of liberal
education" he had observed the phe-
nomenon at the house of the Rev. MIR.
Cutler. "The hemisphere for several
days." he said, chad been greatly OBJ
scured with smoke and vapor, SO that
the sun and moon appeared unusually
red. Friday morning early
the sun appeared red, as it had done
for several days before, the wind about
oOu1uWCSt. AUOut clCV6u
o'clock the darkness was such as to de-
mand eur attention, and put us upon
making observations. At half-past
eleven p" 80 large print could not
be read by persons of good eyes. About
twelve o'clock, the windows being still
open, q candle cast shade so we'll de-
fined on the wall, as that profiles were
taken with as much ease as they could
have been in the night. About one
o'clock CLINT of light, which had con-
tinued till this time in the east, shut in,
and the darkness was greater than it
had been for any time before. Between
one and two o'clock the wind from the
west freshened little and CLINT ap-
peared in that quarter. We dined about
two o'clock, the windows all open, and
two candles burning on the table. In
the time of the greatest darkness some
of the duughilf fowls went to their
roost; cocks crowed in answer to one
another, as they commonly do in the
night; woodcock, which are night birds.
whistled as they do only in the dark;
frogs piped-in short, there was the APP
pearance of midnight at MONDAY"
The newspapers Of that day were not
very enterprising in announcing occur
rences of this kind, but the Boston
Gazette of three days after spoke of it
apologetically as follows:
"The Printers acknowledge their
Incapacity of describing the Phenome-
non which appeared in the Town on
Friday last, and shall, therefore, leave
it to Astronomers, whose more particu-
lar business it is.-They, however,
would inform those who were not in
the Contents of it, that on Friday last,
about Ten O'clock, there came over
this Town dark Cloud, which contin-
ued increasing darker and darker till
near One O'clock, when it became so
dark that the inhabitants were obliged
to quit their Business. The Darkness
continued till near Three O Clock, when
it gradually grew lighter, till the Light
became as usual. The Inhabitants
were obliged to dine by the Light Of
the Candle. At Night it had the same
effect upon the Moon. Such Phenom-
enon was never before seen by the old
est person living" --Boston advertiser.