The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-06-23
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
Rains, Etc

'I went through a 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 l 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 / soon
recognized the boys voice. saying il
was time to get up. 1t can't be more
than FOUR sung out, for it's as dark
yelled the boy; and 1 reckon de suns
dun gone out, an de worl's a comm
to an end;' and them" continued the
speaker, II heard yells and groans all
about, and can tell you wasn't long
in getting into nv buds. and when I
got down stairs there was a 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
Is 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. Itlasted 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 bit 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 9. note concern
ing dark day in New England: "At
twelve O'Clock, when people began to
90 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 shutdown. 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, 1883, the sunlight was shut
off over a greater part of Canada so
quickly that the inhabitants in many
towns were panic-stricken, and a num-
Der of persons were injured by losing
their way and falling over cliffs, etc.
In this case the darkness was followed
BY q 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
several days in succession, so that
lamps were useful, and business was
almost completely at a stand-still.
This display was followed by a terrible
snow-storm and a winter remarkable
Tor its severity. Probably the most re-
markable dark era, especially so for the
Wilderness of its range, was that which
appeared over New England. Maine
and New Hampshire felt it the most,
but it was universal over all the States.
I'm the Connecticut Legislature one OF
she speakers was quoting from the Bible
khe line referring to seeing through q
glass darkly," when, like q shot, they
we're left in darkness. black. ominous
clouds seemingly settling down over
ths locality. The speaker, it is said,
poinsrd to the great window and
Femarked: lit is rarely that we have
m example better than can be found
Do the Bible, and move we adjourn
and 60 out and see it." and, as the
House was in almost total darkness, il
adjourned. Candles were lighted al
shis time all over New England, aRd
che superstitious were positive that sAe
end had come. A peculiar feature OF
these dark spells was that they were
al remarkable for peculiar hue OF
lint that pervaded them. Thus the
6aR. If it can so be called, that spread
S4sr New England had remarkably
Arz@y hue, that gave all objects 9
spectral appearance, while some OBJ
servers stated that everything had g
yellow tint, and claimed that there
was IN odor Of sulphur. This same
hue was noticed by the writer some
years since on the Maine coast and
ves supposed 10 be due to forest fires