Evening star., 1897-07-29
THE SUMS ECLIPSE
All Washington Squinted at It
Through Smoked Glass.
DESCRIPTION OF fHE EVENT
The Clouds lnterfered With aCom-
pIete Observation.
ENTS OF THE DAY

Everybody who knew about it took
squint at the eclipse of the sun today, and
window glass was in such demand that
many panes were surreptitiously smashed
by covetcus small boys, in order to secure
piece to smoke and through which to
view the sight. Department clerks and
store employees, men Of affairs and men of
leisure, society women and seamstresses,
the big and the little, the proud and the
humble, ST. James and St. Giles, the old,
young and the middle-aged, all looked up
at some time between and IL 80 o'clock,
ard by the simple means Of smoked glass
watched with mingled and diversified
thought the slow passage Of the moon
across the disk Of the sun.
1t was singularly beautiful sight, too.
When, at $50, the eclipse began, a thin,
black thread was seen clinging to the
southern edge Of the sun. Through the
smoked glass the glare of the great celes-
tial god was softened to a ruddy glow, and
slowly but surely the thread drew across
1t until 1t assumed the shape of a crescent.
1t was the same shape at $50 o'clock am.
that the moon assumes in the early even
ing In its first quarter when it follows the
sun to bed in the west and invites the
superstitious to look over their right
shoulders and make a wish as they 1t.
when nearly half of the suns brilliancy
was darkened, but at that time the white
ieecy clouds we're sweeping across the
heavens and but few persons saw the full
eclipse.
AT the naval observatory many observers
took turns at the telescope, and the first
contact was successfully studied, but the
other periods were observed under difficult
ties, as the clouds interfered. Nothing of
astronomical Importance was expected
from the eclipse however. and ronse-
quently the astronomers did not feel bad
about the presence of the scouts of Jupiter
Pluvius. Many interesting incidents oc-
Cured among the groups that gathered to
look through smoked glass at the celestial
exhibition.
A Doubling Thomas.
A disciple Of Rev. Sun-do-move Jasper
expatated to a crowd of dusky listeners
down near the market.
Don't none er you alls bleeb dat de
mune is er crostin' de sum- he said, SOL
emnly, he took down the piece of
smoked glass through which he had been
squirting.
Nobody amt never no mune eZ
brack ez dat ar ting is. De rale munes
yaller, dats whut hit is, yaller laik COLE,
an desc yere fellers whut dey calls f1os-
fers is dess tryin ter fool de commun
foxes. l kin tell you alls whut dat is. De
ole sun is done move behint wunner dem
bunt-out worls whut l dun heer de wife
foxes tawk bout. Amt no doubt bout
dat, an eff ole Misser Jasper wuz roun
dess laik l done spiain hit. He know, an
l know, dat de Bible amt never wrong
no time. an wen de good book say dat de
Iawd say dat Joshwy c'mand de sun toe
stan still, wy dat prove dat de sun, hit
movin' all de time. kase. how kin er ting
whut ain movin stan still less'n hits 60
in long? De suns done git behnt wun-
ner dem ole dsumpopylatid worls dat S
whut hits done, an wunner desc days hit ii
git behint wunner m an won't come out
no mo-. Den deyll be high ole times,
kin tell YER
The lecturer moved off to help load
wagon with watermelons, and a sawed-ofT,
sauatty auditor remarked, earnestly:
'.Pity dat man amt er pTeechin' up dar
in Beffel Church stidder stevedorin' down
hyar wild desc c'nisshun men, and the
Others gave an echo of assent to this opin-
ion.
Effect on Bicycles.
A bicycle rider came rapidly down 18th
street, along about noon today, when sud-
denly the tire of his front wheel spread out
like a buckwheat cake. The rider dis
mounted and carefully investigated mat
whole story. Looking back a few feet he
1t small piece of window glass, and
one side of it was smoked.
"Durn an eclipse of anything but the
moon!" calculated the cyclist, savagely,
when he perceived the fragment.
He was not the only wheelman who suf-
fered on account of today's phenomena.
Along every street there was broken glass
who had thrown their simple instruments
away after viewing the embrace of the orbs
of day and night, and many tire was
punctured in consequence.