Huntsville gazette., 1885-06-27
FAMOUS DARK DAYS.
The End Of the World Supposed to
Be at Hand.
Strange Phenomena-Terror Of Man and
BeAst-The Blood Rains-Red, Blue
and Yellow Snow-The Green
"a Rains, Etc.


II went through curious expert
ence lately" said steamboat man to
the writer. Business took me to a
small town in Louisiana, and remained
there all night, and on turning in at
the small hotel told the porter to call
me at eight sharp, and left the blind
open, so that should be sure and not
oversleep. A few hours, as / thought.
later, l was aroused by some one
pounding on my door, and l soon
recognized the boys voice, saying it
wss time to get up. 1t can't be more
than four l sung out, for it's as dark
as pitch It's eight, all de same
yelled the boy; and l reckon de suns
dun gone out, an de worl's a comm
to an end;' and then." continued the
speaker, II heard yells and groans all
about, and l can tell you wasn't long
in getting into my duds. and when I
got down stairs there was a curious
scene. All the lamps were lighted and
tAe rooms were full of negroes, all
yelling and groaning that the end had
come. The white folks didn't look
much more cheerful, for it did look
kind of queer, as out of doors, where
the sun, by good rights, ought to have
been three hours high, it was as black
as the ace of spades-not an ordinary
night black, but something worse-so
that it seemed like a regular fog, and
people got lost and ran into fences and
the like. Itlastedfor about four hours,
and then, having scared the people half
70 death, it began to let up, and finally
the sun came out. 1t was what they
called dark day, and, although there
were plenty of theories proposed, l
doubt If any exactly hit the mark
FAMOUS DARK DAYS.
The Louisiana dark day is by no
means the first that has visited the
country. In an old journal dated
August 9, 1882, there is note concern
ing dark day in New England: cat
twelve o'clock, when people began to
60 to dinner, it suddenly grew dark.
Chickens went to roost, and few per-
sons returned to their stores, and uni
versal alarm was felt. The gloom
lasted well into the afternoon, clearing
away before sundown, however, as if to
show that that luminary was still in ex-
istence." In very early times dark
days have been recorded, and the one
in England in the year 1873 was justly
famous. In 1907 and 1916 England
had similar visitation. In early days
these occurrences were supposed to
precede disaster of some kind, as war,
plague, or something of that nature.
In October, 1888, the sunlight was shut
off over greater part of Canada so
quickly that the inhabitants in many
towns we're panic-stricken, and num-
Der of persons were injured by losing
their way and falling over cliffs, etc.
In this case the darkness was followed
by hurricane that caused great dam
age throughout the country. During
the war of 1912 remarkable dark day
was experienced in London, and in the
succeeding year the darkness came for
lamps were useful, and business was
almost completely at q stand-stiH
This display was followed by terrible
snow-storm and winter remarkable
FOR its severity. Probably the most re-
markable dark era, especially so for the
wideness of its range, was that which
appeared over New England. Maine
and New Hampshire felt it the most,
but 1t was universal over all the States.
In the Connecticut Legislature one of
the speakers was quoting from the Bible
the line referring to seeing through a
glass darkly," when, like shot, they
were left in darkness, black, ominous
clouds seemingly settling down over
the locality. The speaker. it is said.
pointed to the great window and
remarked: ''It is rarely that we have
an example better than can be found
in the Bible, and l move we adjourn
and 90 out and see it," and, as the
House was in almost total darkness, it
adjourned. Candles were lighted at
this time all over New England, and
the superstitious were positive that the
end had come. A peculiar feature of
these dark spells was that they were
all remarkable for peculiar hue or
tint that pervaded them. Thus the
fog, if it can so be called, that spread
over New England had a remarkably
brassy hue. that gave all objects a
spectral appearance, while some OBJ
servers stated that everything had
yellow tint, and claimed that there
was an odor of sulphur. This same
hue was noticed by the writer some
years since on the Maine coast, and
was supposed to be due to forest fires.
that filed the air with smoke. The
wonderful dark fog that fell like pail