The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-20

what my feelings were. But had to get
the horses. 1 went out into the lot 1t
lay between the road and the Delaware
river.
There was plenty Of light, but the
horses were nowhere 70 be seen. l
searched every nook and cosner by the
light OF the falling stars. I had n vague
Idea that the last day had come, and t1at
probably the horses had anticipated IL
and fled to Jersey. But, last day or no
last day, those horses had to be found;
for II It was the last day, by delivering
those horses at the barn my duty would
have been done to the very end OF time;
IL 1t wasn't the last day, that relative Of
Nyce's wife had to be buried, and the
Nyce folks couldn't get to the funeral
without those horses. So / hunted on for
the missing animals. The stars continued
shooting, leaving brilliant trails of fire.
They shot horizontally. oiagonally, perpen-
dicularlarly, and zlg-zag. 1 wondered
why none of them fell into the river or
the field. No sound accompanied the
startling display. In fact, 1t seemed to
deepen the awesome midnight silence. AT
last, down near the river. huddled beneath
an overhanging bank surrounded by thick
trees-the only dark place to be found-I
came upon the horses. Their terror was
pitiful. / soothed them, and by and by
succeeded in getting them to come with
me. But hard time had leading them
across the field and out of it to the barn.
They gradually became used to the un-
wonted disturbance on the way.
81 found the family in a state of trepid-
alton when l went In. No one declared
that he believed the end had come, but
and his wife drove to Shawnee, lighted
all the way by the most startling fiery
phenomenon that ever showed any one
| the way, / guess, since the pillar of fire
warned the children of Israel that they
had better keep in the middle of the road,
for those stars kept on shooting until day.
| light and perhaps longer, being invisible
after dawn. That was the famous and
| historic fight of meteors of November,
1888, that you read about nowadays
George w. Nyco was good man, but
he got II into his head, as did many other
| dwelers In that part of Pike county, that
| the shower of stars meant that he wasn't
quite good enough. lie concluded that the
| best way to show that he understood the
warning was to build a church. So he
went to work. and others Joined In. ana
before the year was gone they had erected
the Dutch Reformed church AT Bush
kill and hired a preacher-good Dominic
Pitts. The church is standing there yet,
a pious creation of the shooting stars
of '33.
"Well, that extraordinary celestial dis
play made an impression on me, too.
don't say that 1t set me to thinking that
| folks In this bailwick needed more light
| but 1t seems to me now that maybe 1t did
| Anyhow, next year I left Farmer Nyce
went to Easton-I was born near Easton-
and became an apprentice in Hetrich's
Whig and Journal office. BY the time 1S4O
| came around l guess l must have thought
] was ready to turn on that light, for
had the nerve to come here and edit the
Jeffersonian, and I've been here ever
| since. l thought the world was coming to
| and end that November night in 1S33 but
| 1t kept right on. When l heard the re-
suit of the election last fall and that a
Republican congressman was elected in
the old Tenth Legion of Democracy, l
guess, maybe, l said:
| " The end of things is come now surev
but it hadn't, and I guess the world
cand stand any kind of shaking up now"