The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-05-06
The Daily Bulletin.
The Red Sunsets.

The way in which men take the I'M
expected is an excellent gauge of their
state of mind. Sudden changes in the
face of nature bring the man out of
his burrow and exhibit his hidden mo-
tives. Fifty years ago the meteoric
shower of 1888 showed that the less
cultivated class, even in America, still
looked upon the accidents of the skies
as signs of heavenly wrath and por-
tents of coming ills, Now even the
least educated no longer ask, What
does this presagep but What is its
causeP Naturalism has advanced fast
and far in the last century.
The autumn of 1888 will always
have large place in scientific history
on account of the strange aspect of its
heavens, rs well as on account of the
preceding eruptions of volcanoes in
the Straits of Sunda, which in their
grandeur and effects much exceeded
any disturbance recorded in history.
Although the volcanic outburst
changed the geography of large dis
trict, destroyed somewhere near one
hundred thousand lives, and sent the
ocean waves and throbs of the air pro-
duced by the CONFUSION over the whole
circumference of the earth, its nature
was not unusual; it differed from a
thousand similar accidents of this
troubled world only in degree, only
as the discharge of twenty-inch can
non differs from that of small field
piece. But the strange heavens of the
later autumn, the fiery glow of sun
rise and sunset, the brownish haze
that girdles the sun all day, are phen-
omena so out of the range of common
experience that at first all the experts
in meteorology were at sea in their ex-
plantations. At the outset, many of
these students of the atmosphere
turned naturally to the conjecture that
some of the vagrant matter of space,
such as we see in the comets or dust
like meteors, had been drawn down
upon our atmosphere, and so envel-
8 oped the earth with a meteoric mist
Others looked upon these movements
as mere intensiiication of the after
glow, or second sunset, which is not al
unfamiliar phenomenon in all extra
tropical regions at certain seasons 0
the year, particularly in the autumn
and which is probably due to the con
densation of vapor in the upper reg
ions of the atmosphere, Gradually
as the facts have been gathered i
from all parts of the world, the es
plantations have been overthrown, an
the sunsets have been proven to be i
some way connected with the Javanes
CONFUSION. At several points in Er
rope the new-fallen snow contains pal
ticles of volanic dust essentially lik
those that fell upon the decks of ship
near the point of eruption, and whic
presumably are the heavier bits ths
have descended from dust-cloud in til
upper air.
Still further, it has been shown tn,
these curious appearances of the SIX
occurred more quickly in the distri'
near the volcano than in regions r.
mote from it. 1t is not easy to dete
mine the precise time when the suns,
and sunrise became so brilliant for {
first the phenomenon might seem acc
dental in its nature, and so not becom
recorded. Yet it is clear that at Roc
riguez, Mauritius, and Seychelle!
points from three thousand to tire
thousand five hundred miles west {
Krakatoa, the red sunsets were see
on the 28th of August, within thirt.
six hours after the eruption occurred
In Brazil, which is over ten thousan
miles away, they appeared on the 30i
of September. In Florida, thrice
thousand miles distant, on Septemb'
Sth 1t was noticed in England on Il
9Th Of September, but in Sweden n
until the 30th of November; each
these countries being about sevt
thousand five hundred miles from Il
point of eruption, The volcanic mi
spread more rapidly in the tr0pic
belt between the parallels of latitu,
in which Java lies than in the recio]
10 the north and south of this lin
Sweeping swiftly about the enrth
this tropical belt, it seems to have be,
carried thence by some slower motif
to higher attitudes. N S. ShaLer
april Alta tic
Whatever may have been the f