Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-06-05
SOME FAMOUS DARK DAYS.
SUPPOSED TO USHER IN THE END
OF TIE WORLD.
Lamps Lighted in NIIdday-Strange
PhenOmcna-New and old ExhIbi-
tiOnS-COiOred Rain and snow.

PhenOmcna-New and old ExhI6i-
tiOns-COiOred Rain and snow.
81 went through curious experience
lately" said steamboat man to the
writer. Business took me to a small
town in Louisiana, and l 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 l 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 l sung out,
for it's as dark as pitch It's eight,
all de same, yelled the boy; an de
worl's coming to an end;'
and then," continued the speaker,
81 heard yells and groans all about,
and can tell you wasn't long in get
ting into my duds, and when | got down
stairs there was q curious scene. All
the lamps were lighted and the 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 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 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 las 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 we'll 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 che in England in the year 1878
was justly famous. In 1907, and 1916
England had a 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 greater part of
Canada so quickly that the inhabitants
in many towns were panic stricken, and
q number of persons were injured by
losing their way and falling over cliffs,
etc. In this case the darkness was fol-
lowed by hurricane that caused great
damage through out tho country. During
the war of 1912 remarkable dark day
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 stand still. The display
was followed by terrible snow
storm and winter remarkable for
its severity. Probably the most remarka
BILE dark era, especially so for the wide
ness of its range, was that which ap
peared over New England. Maine and
New Hampshire felt it the most, but il
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 glass
darkly," when, like q shot, they were
left in darkness, black, ominous clouds
seemingly settling down over the locali
ty. The speaker, it is said, pointed tC
the great window and remarked: 1T il
rarely that we have an example better
than can be found in the Bible, and
move we ad journ and go out and see it, ,
and, as the house was in almost tota
darkness, it adjourned. Candles were
lighted at this time all over New Eng
land, and the superstitious were positive
that the end had come. A peculiar fea-
ture of these dark spells was that they
were all remarkable for peculiar hue Of
! tint that pervaded them. Thus the fog
if it can so be called, that spread owe
New England had a remarkably brassl
hue, that gave all objects spec
tral appearance, while some OBJ
( servers stated that ever,
thing had yellow tint, and claimed
that there was an odor of sulphur. Thi
same hue was noticed by the writer some
years since on the Maine coast, and wal
supposed to be due to forest fires. tina
filled the air with smoke. The wonder
full dark fog that fell like a pail owe
England and other parts of Europe il
! 1888 is described as having a decided
blue tint. On other occasions the tin
has been red, gray or purple. One o
the most remarkable "blue days" OF
record was noticed few years ago il
South America, and in some towns
where the houses were pure white, the
gave an extremely rich blue reflection o
many different shades The great ex
tent of these periods of darkness is diff
cult to explain.
1t has been found that vast amount
of organic and inorganic matter are al
ways floating about in space, and it ha
been assumed that at times great bodie
of dust are swept into the air-ouit
enough, in fact, TO occasion a series o
dark days under the locality where th
dust was held suspended in the all
What are known as "red snow,
"blood rains and ether phenomena i
Europe are merely the result of the pre-
cipitation Of this matter to the ground
They were even more dreaded in earl
times than the dark days and the peopl
of the time fully believed that bloc
had fallen from the sky. A. bio cd raj
according to Pliny, fell in Constant
nople in the year $50. At Brixan ther
was a similar fall in 500; at Bagdad j
800; at Viterbo in 1919; in Bohemia i
1919; in Westphalia in l543; at Emde
in 1866; at Strasburg in 1923; Brussels
1910, and at Venice in 1857. Other fa
nous blood rains occurred at Genoa j