The morning news., 1892-01-25
SEVERAL DARK DAYS.
Times When People Thought the
World Was Coming to an End.
From the ST. Louis Republic.

Times When People Thought the
World Was Coming to an End.
From the ST. Louis Republic.
The earliest mention of the phenomena
known as the dark days appears to be In the
year Al b. c., about the time of the death
of Julius Cesar, when we read in Plutarch
and Dion Cassius that the sun was paler than
usual for a whole year. The great darkness
which lasted two whole days over all Europe
appears to have preceded the great earth
quake of Njcomedia, which occurred Aug.
%, 35S. Two years later in all the
eastern provinces of the Roman empire there
was dark day" which was 30 dark as to
make stars visible at MONDAY.
From further descriptions one might con-
slider this the result of q total eclipse, but
astronomers say that neither the eclipse of
March 4, 800, nor that of Aug. % of the
same year, was visible in the countries men,
toned. During Alaric's siege of Rome, 400
and 410, there were several days "as
dark as the nights which preceded and fol-
lowed them" III $50, 567 and 626 we find
mention of long periods of diminished sun
light According to Schnurrer "the sun
darkened in an alarming manner on Aug
10, 733, without there being the least possi-
bllity of an eclipse being the cauSe.n
The Portuguese historian report several
months of diminished sunlight in the year
934, which terminated by an apparent OPEN
ing in the sky, from which loud sounds is-
sued, the noise sounding not unlike two
giants quarrelling." In 1901. on Sept. 30
mot 81, as given in some translations of
Humboldt's "Cosmos'D, the sun turned
suddenly black, and remained so three hours
For DAYS after the blackness had disap-
peared the sun gave out peculiar greenish
light, which occasioned great alarm.
SchnurTer next mentioned dark day in
June. 1871, but astronomers attribute it to
the total eclipse which was visible in the
greater part of Europe on June 81 of the
year mentioned. Several dark days are re-
corded as having occurred in February,
HOG, the darkest being the 4th, 9th and
18th. On the 9TH bright star was seen shin
ing "only foot and a half from the black
ened remains of the sum-
ION the last day of February, 1906" saws
Cortevza, Spanish writer. ''tne sun ap-
peared to suddenly 60 out, causing q dark
ness all over this country for about six
hours." The superstitious writer's Of the time
attributed the great darkness of 1241 to
Gods displeasure over the result of the bat
tie of Leignitz, the sun being so obscured as
to make it necessary to keep lamps burning
until after the ninth hour.
Prof Schlaparelli, who has been years
collecting data concerning that uacannY
event, is now inclined to refer the cause to
the total eclipse of Oct. 6. 1241. Kepler tells
US, his authority being Gemma, that there
was sun darkening in l547 which lasted
for three days, April 22-25. which finally
ended by the sun ''appearing to be suffused
with blood to that degree that stars we're
visible at monday"
America has experienced several dark
days during her short historical life, the
most memorable being that of May 10, 1880,
when the darkness was so great that all the
people of New England. with the exception
OF a sturdy few, were terrified almost to
the verge of distraction. If you swear off
to-day don't swear on tomorrow,