The Portland daily press., 1894-09-03

lieve the Smoke Came From the Great
Western Fires-Peculiar Effect Upon
Il tographers' Plates-"The Yellow
Day" of 1881 and the Ozark Day. of
1880.
Yesterday was queer day. in fact
wierd day. The peculiar gloom that the
people found on awakening, grew gloomier
as the day advanced. On waking and look
ing out of the window. or on going out for
thesfrst time here in the city or in the har-
Dor, one would think that fog was settling
down, but one wouldn't think SO long. Foes
have distorted objects wierdly before now
but fogs ney er distort the heavens as they
were distorted yesterday over the harbor,
and besides fogs are damp and chilly. 1t
wasn't damp and chilly yesterday, even in
the harbor. The gloom was something else,
and along towards noon up in the city it
became SO yellow that it looked as if the
whole Chinese nation must have been Or
dered. not only to remove. but to burn their
yellow jackets. Some one else said that It
was the result of Hon. John W. behring's
recent speech. In fact there were many
solutions given of the problem by those who
hadn't gone out into Deering or up towards
the West End away from the influence of
the salt air.
At Deering, the smell of the smoke was SO
strong as to be oppressive. 1t made the
eyes smart, and was felt by delicate lungs.
1t even made some headaches. In the
middle of the afternoon lights were neces-
sary in the houses and churches. In the
harbor twas SO thick that the islands were
not visible from the city, and vic1 versa.
pr,fxr n H. all -
come from2 1t was supposed that there
must be forest fires near at hand. 1t was
said that there were eighteen miles of forest
fire at Rochester. n. H., and also forest
firessin Rangeley. But there are forest fires
yellow days every year.
In fact, as is well known, such days as
yesterday are very rare. One of the
peculiar effects was felt by the photo
graphers, who happened to do some work
yesterday. While silver prints can ordinarily
be made on cloudy day the peculiar yell
low in the atmosphere yesterday prevented
the light from having any action on the
paper. Several amateurs, who tried it, did
SO without success.
But why was it yellow? OF course there
must have been no clouds above this cloud
of smoke, and the sun shown down into it.
A sunbeam through crack in the barn
looks vellow. heoause of the narticles of
dry dust i'm it's natb The smoke of ves+er-
dav was of conrse made nm Of drv narticles.
The difference in color hatweer smoky
and a foppv dav is dine to the difference. in
their effect unon snnheams of dry nartic1es
and waterv narticlas
But where did the smoke come from9 At
the JJnited States SIGNAL office If was stated
tb,t renorts of the mast fexv davs iored
vast masses of smoke moving along tho
Great Lakes eastward The renorts came
from Detroit and other near noints of
course this smoke came from the huge forest
fires in Minnesota and wisconsin and at tbe
SIGNAL office tbev felt inclined IN ba1ieva
that the smoke of Yesterday had come from
that far distant noint. Another thing that
points forcibly to that conclusion.is the state
ment of a Portland man who was in New
York city all last week. He said that last
Wednesday the smoke arrived there. 1t con-.
tinued throughout the week and became
thicker than here-so thick that the gentle
man says he could not see across the Hud-
son river. He came home Saturday land
rode through this smoke all the way. That
statement certainly indicates that this
smoke is from no local Maine or New Hamp-