Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-05-05
THE FINAL CHILL.
TIE DARK SPOTS ON THE SUN AND
WHAT THEY MEANT,
An Account of What Was written Some
Centuries to Come OF the
Events of 1882
rciDcinnati Semi Weekly Gazette. !

Cincinnati Semi Weekly Gazstte.l
At length in the year 1882 the fual chill
set in. There had been premonitions years
before in dark spots on the sun, showing
that it was burning out (; but its revolution
turned these away, and ftfully it seemed
to burn with its old energy. and the scien-
tifc persons prognosticated nothing from
these most significant signs. But in the
spring of 1882 the appearance of several
groups of spots, which astronomers said
were from so, 900 to 100, 600 miles across,
and rapid succession of storms on the
ocean, and of earthquakes, whirlwinds.
cyclones and foods on land, together with
comets with very long tails, the aurora bo.
realis spreading over the whole armament,
Mother Shipton, Professor Vennor, and
many other things, told of mighty dis.
turbance IN natures order.
THE sun
Had always given evidence that its heat
and light giving power was made by COM
bustion, and that, too, the combustion of
it's own matter. Science could have fore.
told that it would burn out in time. But
science seem to tel only of the past. The
face and bowels of the earth, from the
equator to the poles, proved that extreme
changes of climate had taken place In past
ages, but science prognosticsted from these
nothing as to the future. And ii it had,
no good would have come Of it. Although
we may have gone through life without
seeing any purpose in our creation, yet 1t
is not pleasant to contemplate the final
freezing or burning of posterity.
TO HUMAN EXPERIENCE
The processes OF nature were so slow that
the present order appeared to be fixed ever
lastingly. Even when great gaps opened
in the face of the sun, showing that 1t was
consuming its substance, we assumed that
it must be a process of millions of years,
and, therefore, of no concern to us where
as reason should have told that when COM
bustion had gone so far as to exhaust the
fuel in part the end of all the fuel was
near. All do know how quickly the
remnant of coal in the bin disappears when
the floor shows in spots. 1t is well that
inevitable calamities are not revealed to us
until they come, for if they were the ex-
popular belief that @
THE END OF OUR EARTH
Would come by fire helped to make man
kind careless Of the suns consumption OF
fuel and unmindful of the obvious fact that
all the heat which it gave to earth was at
the cost Of it's own body. The spring of
1882 failed to bring the usual awakening Of
nature from the sleep of winter. 1t was 3
season Of storms, floods, tornadoes and of
cold, with but titful CLEANS of the sun, and
these revealing an alarming increase OF the
dsrkened spots. The season of planting
passed by. and such planting as was forced
in spite Of the cold came to naught. The
fruit blossoms, which had been seduced out
by fitful week of heat, were cut off. and
winter seemed to have set in again. Cloth.
ing men found their great stocks for sum-
mer wear as dead az nature.
THE CEREALS AND FRUITS
OF the temperate zone disappeared, and
only the grasses and vegetables of the Arc
tic circle remained for time. Gradually
the animals OF the temperate zone ceased to
exist. Indeed there was neither food nor
use for the beasts of burden, and the for
mer food animals could no longer find sus-
tenanoe. The sun appeared still to rise
and set as before; but 1t had lost the
power to dispel the clouds, and when its
notified face did appear, it gave only a pale
twilight. At the first period there was
greatly increased consumption of fuel, and
the cost of this rose enormously go that the
rich could only afford it; but this could not
last The earth's store of coal conld not
stand the demands Of universal polar
climate, and with the coming of the polar
cold the industries OF the temperate climate
died out, and the poverty and primitive
condition of the inhabitants of the frozen
zone supervened. ~
THE INHABITANTS
Sought in underground habitations and in
ice caverns shelter from the chill which
they had not fuel to combat. The whole
of life became struggle for life against the
cold. In the twilight days they hunted tor
the animal food which had become their
sole sustenance, and escaped as quickly as
they could to their huts, where their con-
dition was scarcely more social and intel
lectual than the hy bernatiug animals. The
elegances and sociabiiities of life disap-
peared. Literature, and even the written
paternal feeling became as low as among
the beasts. In the dull struggle of ex-
istence, gross, beastly selfshness became
supreme. With the cessation of general
intercourse nationality ceased and political
relations expired, and
EACH LITTLE COMMUNITY
Was isolated in its own village Of huts, and
had no law. The practice of self-govern-
ment was carried to the perfection of the
democratic ideal. The last President was
elected in 1880. Much reckoning on the
next as a political renaissance came to
naught by the chill The coming dissolu-
ton of nature iad reduced the food pro.
ducts more than half in the season of 1881 |;
in 1852 this production ceased entirely.
While this Was uncertain, there was much
speculation In the cereals aud otaer fo0a
articles in the great marts OF produce, and
the nominal sales footed up enough to carry
the world through Joseph's Egyptian
famine. Great fortunes ee ned TO be made
by the "longs ;" but nothing can be got
from dead cat but her skin, and not even
this could be realized from the "shorts.
They were rrined, but the longs" were
not made rich, and soon there was no pre-
text OF base for these phantom opera.
tions. Money ceased to have any purchas-
ing power, and all were sunk into the
general struggle for food enough to hold life
together against the rigors Of the Arctic
cold. Yet the likening of this to
THE ARCTIC CLINE
Is not accurate, for in that cline the sun
shines with great power during brief
summer, and then disappear for long win
ter. The sun was dying to all climes, alike
at the equator and the poles. The summer
day was only ghostly twilight. with but