Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-05-03
THE POETRY OF THE SEARCH
LIGHT.
r,.rn,rrn ny FRED 4. JANE

ILLUSTRATED BY FRED T. JANE
wbon the "bIoodIess warfare" OF the
naval manpvres is IN prog oost of
the havoc wrought by the eie ieuaIv
search light. Romantic Walks on - arog,
cliff paths are disturbed by a hasu onJ
the deep. Night is turned in.o 9" - o.
nr,sa his neiphbors of the fact. Inc
PaS burning on parades and sea.waiis
1aIes its Intellectual glare, ana Tue
strange lights from the sea are unfeign-
edlv thankful when the beams are
tnr1ed in some other direction. DO
far thew have experienced its prose,
81 What NAV we'll be called its poetry.
inc effects. whose infinite variety is
constantly presenting familiar op]ects
m a new ASPECT, the strong hight ana
shade of its pictures, and the rapldlty
with which they succeed one another'
combine TO produce on their observer
an impression as lasting as 1t is lmpos-
! sible of exact repetition.
Whatever effect is produced by the
LIGHT on observers on the shore is GER
tainlv not lessened when the search
Iipbt is brought to bear upon obserV-
| ars at sea. From how near or lar none
! of ms on the ship can do more than
| gness. a beam of light shootsl miner
! and thitber over the dark surface OF the
ocean. Suddenly the beam is lost, ana
IN place of it we see bright and Dlaz.
/ inc star. And then all the air Is hlied
| with a binding light, apparently cir-
| cling round and round, and forming
| patbwsy direct 10 the star from whlcn
! II comes. 1t is only for moment.
As suddenly as 1t comes upon us II mas
| oone- and we feel that even at sea,
where night can be dark, We have
never known before what darkness
meant.
] Probably our ship is one OF squad.
ron. and is fitted, like her consorts and
the vessel whose light has broken SO
mysteriously upon our darkness, Win
a search-light of her own. This Will
be quickly brought into play, and ltf
beams in their turn will dart hither
and tbither across the dark waters IN
search of the ship from which the
strange light flashed. In this progress
the beams will cross and recross the
lights of other ships, and will show O,
one minute dazzlingly opaque, anc
the next as transparent hlm
Every eve is turned to the quarter
whence the first light flashed upon MS
If the light come from torpedo boa
and fortune favor MS We shall sight the
boat in few minutes, but 1t may D'
an hour or even more before we dt
go. for her commander, if he wished tc
escape detection, would naturally
avoid the direct path of the light from
his ship. But, sooner or later, telling
blue-biack against the light beyond
her, we catch sight OF th'
low-lying boat, which is pass
ing through a beam and is speeding
toward us. She is travelling fast, ant
we have to shift the light rapidly. Onc'
again the beam falls upon the water
but 1t catches only the stern OF TIT
stranger, making 1t tell as light gre.
against dark. Nearer and nearer
hastens the boat, dsrting this way an(
that in vain endeavor to elude the
binding ray OF ghostly light which fol
lows her relentlessly. The weird mys
tery deepens as the space between III
grows less, and distance, form, ant
color are distorted and lost. As offer
as not we see from behind the light the
boat which it is covering, as though i
were travelling in the air or upon the
bulwarks of our own ship.
Weird and startling as is this effect, i
is far surpassed by that which is giver
by the search-light when it throws, Al
it often does, huge shadows on the sky
Not every state of the atmosphere il
favorable to this phenomenon. Fog ol
smoke must be present in the air
which will then, being made Opaque
or semi-opadue, take the imprint OF
shadow almost as surely as blank wal
on shore. Just in the same way on,
| often sees on the water, when the SUI
is shining, the sharp shadow of ship
formed where there is foam, though a
a rule the water, being as Transparent
as the air, will not take shadow. tn,
same thing takes place with the search
light, only the light being SO mucl
nearer to the object than are the cloud
upon which the shadow is thrown, tn,
shadow often appears many times large
than the original, and tiny boat viii
give a shadow moving along the clouds
like a gigantic ghost ship.
Another curious trick of shallow il
played by the search light when tn
shadow is thrown upon cliff or upol
another ship. In that case, owing t
the concentration of light, the shadoN