The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-06-05
SOME FAMOUS DARK DAYS.
SUPPOSED TO USHER IN TIE END
OF H WORLD.
Lamps lighted i'm Midday-Strangc
Phen0mcna-NcGY and ola Exhibi-
tions-COlOrCd Rain and snow.

W ~ hiNA hpb ONCl0lCNIs
A few hours, as | thought, later, [ was
aroused by some one pounding on my
door, and soon recognized the boys
voice, saying it was time to get up. 1t
can't be more than four | sung out,
for it's as dark as pitch It's eight,
all de same, yelled the boy; an de
worls a comAg to an end >
and then" continued the speaker,
81 heard yclls and groans all about,
and can tell you / wasn't long in get
ting into my buds, and when | got down
stairs there was a curious scene. All
the lamps were lighted, and the rooms
were full of negroes, all a yelling and
grooming 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, bv good
rights, ought to have been three hours
high, it was as black as the ace of spades
not an ordinary night black, but some
thing worse-so that it seemed like a
regular fog, and people got lost and ran
into fences and the like. 1t lasted for
about four hours, and then, having
scared the people half to death, it began
to let up, and finally the sun came out.
1t was what they called a dark day, and,
although there were plenty of theories
proposed. | doubt if any exactly hit the
mark"
The Louisiana dark day is by no
means the first that has visited the
country. In an old journal dated Aug
ust 8, 1882, there is a note concerning a
dark day in New England: cat twelve
o'clock, when people began to go to
dinner, it suddenly grew dark. Chickens
went to roost, and few persons returned
to their stores, and universal alarm was
felt. The gloom lasted well into the
afternoon, clearing away before sun
down, however, as If to show that that
luminary was still in existence" 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 Il similar visitation. In
early days these occurrences were sup.
posed to precedc disaster of some kind,
as war, plague. or something OF that
nature. In October, 1888, the sunlight
was shut Off over a greater part Of
Canada so quickly that the inhabitants
in many towns were panic. stricken, ana
n number of persons were injured by
losing their way and falling over cliffs,
etc. In this case the darkness was fol-
lowed by a hurricane that caused great
damage throughout the country. During
the war of 1912 a remarkable dark dav
was experienced in London, and in the
succeeding year the darkness came for
several days in succession, so that lamps
were useless, and business was almost
completely at a stand- still. The display
was followed by a terrible snow
storm and a winter remarkable for
its severity. Probably the most remarka.
BILE dark era, especially 80 for the wide
ness of its range, was hat which ap-
peared over New England. Maine and
New Hampshire felt it the most, but it
was universal all over the States. In the
Connecticut legislature one of the speak
ers was quoting from the Bible the line
referring to seeing Through a glass
darkly, when, like a shot, they were
left in darkness, black, ominous clouds
seemingly settling down over the locali-
ty. The speaker, it is said, pointed to
the great window and remarked: 1T is
rarely that we have an example better
mar can be found in the Bible, and l
hiONC We dNlJOulh nv ~ ~ anu SCC IL,
and, as the house was in almost total
darkness, it az adjourned. Candles were
lighted at this time all over New Eng
land, and the superstitious were positive
that the end had come. \ peculiar fea-
ture of these dark spells was that they
were all remarkable for a 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 spec,
trail appearance, while some OBJ
servers stated that every
thing had n 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 wonder
full dark fog that fell like a pail over
England and other parts of Europe in
17S3 is described as having a decided
blue tint. On other occasions the tint
has been red, gray or purple. One of
the most remarkable ''blue days" on
record was noticed a few years ago in
South America, and in some towns,
where the houses were pure white, they
gave an extremely rich blue reflection of
many different shades. The great ex-
tent of these periods of darkness is diff
cult to explain.
1t has been found that vast amounts
of organic and inorganic matter are al
ways floating about in space, and it has
been assumed that at times great bodies
of dust are swept into the air-quite
enough, in fact, to occasion a series of
dark days under the locality where the
dust was held suspended in the air.
What are known as cred snow"
'blood rains and ether phenomena in
Europe are merely the result of the pre-
cipitation of this matter to the ground.
They were even more dreaded in early
times than the dark days, and the people
of the time fully believed that blood
had fallen from the sky. A bio cd rain
according to Pliny, fell in CONSTANT
nople in the year $50. AT Brixan there
was a similar fall in $50; at Bagdad in
920; at Viterbo in 1919; in Bohemia in
1910; in Westphalia in 1913; at Emden
in 1866 at Strasburg in 1923; Brussels,
tpAn orl - Aan;o, -, trOE Oh. T.