The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-06-09

1uuKueuU OF IL Is uOU. IL III Is uOU LuoT6
is no need of adjournment; if it is, de.
sire to be found doing my duty. Let
candles be brought and let business
continue"
But the motion to adjourn was deci-
sively carried, and the lawmakers who
fashioned the laws for the ''men OF
steady habits" went forth from their
chamber to gaze at the weird and SOM
Der sky.
It was Friday and the intensity be-
gan soon after ten o'clock a. m. and
continued till past the middle of the
following night. The wind was from
the southwest, and the darkness seemed
to come with it from that direction. It
soon became too dark to read common
print readily, and candles were lighted
in order to attend to household duties.
After a time the breeze subsidized; a
dead calm followed and added to the
solemnity. The darkness was all over
New England, westward as far as AL
bany, N. Y, southwark along the coast
of Maryland, South Carolina. and
Georgia, and northward as far as any
communication was had with any set
Elements.
Nothing was known beyond these
boundaries, but there is reason to be-
ieve that a much greater area was in
volved.
Prof. Williams, of Harvard college,
was interchangeable in observing, collect
ing and recording reports of the condi-
tions attending this phenomenon, and
to him the credit is due for the data
from which it is possible to deduce the
causes Of this soul-harrowing dark day.
Mr.. Williams professed himself unable
to offer any solution, but this was prob
ably owing to the lack of knowledge
of the physical interior of this great
country and it's sometimes peculiar re-
lationship to current meteorology.
All was black as primeval night
when chaos ruled the world and sun
and stars were as inky spots in the
heavens.
And now we come to the key that
unlocks the mental situation and it be-
comes clear what it was that stood in
the way of an understanding of this
mystery. Innumerable were the gro
tesque and irrational hypothesis that
were advanced from which their advo-
oates endeavored to find the solution of
this extraordinary occurrence.
: An eclipse of the sun was claimed,
but as the moon was near its ''full'' and
probably one hundred and eighty de-
grees out of solar line from the earth,
such a condition was physically impos-
cih1o A fro nc;f ~ Vop,,e ~, COMA of1,or
celestial body across the suns disc had
advocates. Men of grave demeanor
contended that star had caught fire
and started conhagration of the
heavens, or the sun had expired, hence
the residuum of smoke and ashes.
There had been immense land fires,
where there was no one to report, COW /,
ering perhaps many hundreds if not
thousands of square miles, probably !
famed by brisk gales, the vapor and
sooty substances taken up by ascend
ing currents from the heated surface |
and loaded on favoring breezes to be
waited over the land of the pilgrims |
and, as it CHANGED, to be air-dammed |
with the results narrated. This con- |
tinued until the barriergave way, when
the vapor soon dispersed. I
The great middle and western states |
have time and again had this smoki-
ness, which no one now thinks Of re-
garding as supernatural. The only un-
usual feature of this occasion was the
unusual combination of conditions.
This, in brief, is the explanation Of
the wonderful dark day.