News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-12-13
4 Starry Night in California.

The following impressive description |
of starry night occurs in the December |
Century, i'll the concluding chapter of |
extracts from Robert Louis StevensOn's |
new book yet unpubIisheD, The Sill |
vcrado SqUatters'
Il have never seen such n night 1t |
seemed to throw caIumny in the teeth |
OF all the painters that ever dabbled in
starlight. The sky itself was Of a ruddy, |
powerful, nameless, changing color, |
dark and glossy like a serpent's back. |
The stars, by innumerable millions, |
stuck boldly forth like lamps The
milky way was bright, like a moonlit |
cloud; half heaven seemed milky way.
The greater luminaries shOue each more
clearly than winters moon; there light
was dyed IN every sort of color, red like
fire, blue like steel, green like the tracks
of sunset; and so sharply did each stand
forth in its own luster, that there was
no appearance Of that flat, star-spangled
arch we know SO well IN pictures, but
all the bottom Of heaven was one chaos
of contesting luminaries-a hurry bUrly
Of stars. Against this, the hills and
rugged tree-tops stood Outredly dark.
"As we continued to advance, the
lesser lights and milky ways first grew
pale and then vanished; the countless
hosts of heaven dwindled in number by
successive millions; those that still shOne
had tempered their exceeding brightness
and fallen back into their customary
wistful distance: and the sky declined
from its first bewildering splcndOr into
the appearance of Il common night.
Slowly this change proceeded, and still
there was no sign of any cause. Then a
whiteness like mist was thrown over the
spurs of the mountain. Yet awhile and,
as we turned a corner, a great leap of
silver light and net of forest shadows
fell across the road and upon our wander
ing wagonful; and swimming low among
| the trees, We behcld a strange, mis-
shapen, waning moon half tilted on her
back.
" where are We when the moon APP
! pears 2 as the old poet sang, half taunt-
| ing, to the stars, bent upon Il courtly
| purpose.
LAS the sunlight round the dim earth's mid
night tower of shadow pours,
Streaming past the dina, wide portals,
NIewlCs- to the ewes Of mOrtals
Till it floods the moons pale islct on the morn
ing golden shores
! $50 sings Mr Trowbridgc. with n
DOi)jt lis [AlItl SO ltt(i lllt sun
/ light flooded that pale islet of the moon;
and her lit face put out, one after an
other, that galaxy Of stars. The wonder
of the drive was over; but by some nice
! conjunction of clearness in the air and
fit shadow in the valley where we
| travelled, We had seen for little while
that brave display of the midnight
heavens. 1t was gone, but it had been;
nor shall | ever again behold the stars
with the same mind. He who has seen
| the sea commoved with gaeat hurricane
| thinks of it very differently from him
who has seen it only in Il calm. The
! difference between a calm and hurri-
cane is not greatly more striking than
! that between the ordinary face Of night
and the spIendor that shone upon us il
that drive. Two III our wagon had often
seen night in the tropics; but even that
bears lao comparison, - the nameless
color Of the sky, the hues of the star
fire, ard the Incredible projection of the
stars themselves, starting from their
orbits, so that the eve seemed to dis
tinguish then positions III the hollow of
space, th,se were things that we had
never seen before and shall never see
again.