Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1894-07-12
The Famous Dark Day of 1871.

Most singularly miscOncelveda and al
most universally misunderstood was
the character Of that remarkable dark
dav over New England, May l9, l7Sl.
More has been said and written about
that phenomenon than about all the
comets, auroras and meJeoric showers
that have presented themselves IN FIVE
centuries The hearts of stout men
have quailed; the faces OF women have
blauched childhood has shrunk IN
terror. as the ~Nlilleritc Scare pre-
dicted thereon swept the country with
one of those peculiar mental epidemle~
in the early 4Os. There had been a
few DAYS of unprecedented AIR, when
the sun and moon had reddish cop
perry light. and could not be seen when
near the horizon. 1t was Friday, AT
10 o'clock a m, that most noucea-
ble dimruutiou of light began, and IN
an hour the gloom was as intense as the
dusk that just precedes the night
Fowls went to their roosts, domestic
animals showed uueasiness, dogs
whined. and candles We're lighted TO
household duties \ nearly full moon
arose at 9 o'clock, but the blackucss
was so intense that not "a particle Of
shading could be distinguished between
earth and sky. \ little past midday
the darkness commenced to dispcrse
the reddish disk of the moon could be
located. and when Saturday evening
came the sun set with his usual lustrr
and the stars twinklcdas with unwou-
ted brightness. 1t seems incredible,
as one scans the data gathered by Pro-
fess5r Williams, of Harvard College.
that the true and simple causes that
uuderlay that darkness We're not de-
duced thereirom, but even the eminent
astronomer Herschell consigned it TO
the domain of the uueNplamabIc.
Clearly. undoubtedly, and demon
strably as the simplest thing IN COM
mon arithmetic, this notable darkness
was due to smoke-ladcu air currents
that temporarily stopped, by reason of
a not uncommon condition in meteor
ologv. that might be termrdou atmos-
pheric dam. The character Of th"
darkness, the precpitatons that ac-
companied it, the somewhat pungcut
odor, the discoloratlon OF the sky on
days preceding, the aspect of the sun
and moon. the scum on the rivers, the
dead calm Of the afternoon and the
forepart Of the night, the indications
of the barometer, the similar occurren-
ce- ON smaller scales since-all these
things attest unmistakably that this
phenomenal darkness was owing only
to rather unusual combination Of
natural conditions.
True, the forests and paIre-ilrcs
were not in the immediate vicinity OF
this large dark district, and but for
inopportune becalming of the air when
thus loaded with yapor, allowing 1t TO
gorge, dam up, spread out and thicken
until the sustaining strata were close
to the earth, no particular attention
would have been given TO a perfectly
natural occurrence that tens OF thou
sands Of people thought was the dawn Of
doom, as prefgured IN the APocalyPtic
vision. There has not been an end-of-
the-world scare within the last centu-
ry that has not used this wild-hre
smoke as basis from which to excite
iIl-equipped minds into an unseemIy
exhibition Of slayish and demoralizlng
fear. That the eminent Herschell re-
garded it as be did is readily explained
on the hypothesis that he dwelt where
there were no factors to produce such
an occurrence, and be was probably
unacquaiuted with the physical inter-
ior of this great country. The reports
that reached him were undoubtedly
gravely distorted from being filtered
through the then prevailing peculiar
general mental conditions, which seem
to have been wholly inadequate to rise
to the higher grasp aud conceptions Of
nature-PiHsJurg D'sPatch