The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-04-21
UNHoRsED BY A METEOR.
Midnight Adventure in Kentucky
With a Bedeviled Fire Ball.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
A huge meteor passed over the west
ern portion of Garrard county about L.
o'clock Wednesday night, alarming
nearly every one who saw it, 1t came
out of the southern heavens, rushing
northward at high speed, and exploded
among the cliffs of the Kentucky river
with a noise like the discharge of
cannon. 1t was apparently about the
size of the full moon. Its path was
wild and erratic and unusually close to
the earth 1t seemed literally to bore
It's way through the air. moving in
spiral, twisting fashion, alternately
dipping toward the earth and rising
from it, and all the while emitting
sparks and sinister Kissing sounds as
1t sped furiously onward. For a min
ute all that region was brilliantly illu-
minated.
Several persons in Bryantsville, see
| ing "a sudden bright glare in their
! rooms, ran out to ascertain the cause
of it. but were puzzled still further at
| finding no explanation, as the light
| had quickly disappeared. Henry Bur-
| dett of that village, who was fox hunt
| ing in "Polly's Bend" and who saw
| the meteor coming toward him. lashed
| his horse into a gallop to get out of its
way. But he unfortunately headed in
the wrong direction. A moment had
| scarcely elapsed before it passed with
| swish and a roar, a short distance
above his head, causing his horse to
| plunge so violently that he was thrown
! headlong from the saddle. He escaped
serious injury by falling into a thick
patch of broomsedge. Before he had
| regained his feet and while still tenn
| porarily blind from the intense light,
an explosion reverberated like thunder
among the neighboring cliffs.
| Burdett says he distinctly felt the
| heat of the fire ball as it passed over
his head. He also heard it sizzle. He
didn't recover his horse until some
time next day. Only an instant be-
fore Burdett's mishap, but at a point
some six miles further south sparks
from the ball ignitcd a huge straw
rick on the crest Of Hackley's Hill, and
it was quickly reduced to ashes.
Milard Rout and Dick Moore, resi-
! dents of harrisburg, who were on their
| way home from a 'pOssum hunt, saw
the phenomenon and were consider
ably frightened by it. They describe
it as sort of gyratng, globular mis-
sile of intense brilliancy, which rushed
| uncertainty across the country in a
| northerly direction, leaving the COun-
| try in a sinuous train. They heard a
| distant detOnatiOn. Among others in
| that vicinity who saw it was an Oh
colored man, who galloped exCitedlv
down the Lexington pike on a mule,
| shouting at the top of his voice that
the judgment day had come. These
cries aroused Pat O'Connor from deep
sleep, causing him hurriedly to thrust
his head out of window and scan
earth and sky for some moments with
apprehensive looks. Seeing nothing,
he concluded that the negro was either
drunk or demented "The howlin' black
ape" he exclaimed, pulling down the
window and again retiring, "who Ives
heard of judgment day coming in the
| middle of the night"
Reports indicate that the meteor first
became visible somewhere near the
Tennessee line, as it was seen by per-
sons as far south as Jellico and Cor
bin, near which place it passed at n
much higher altitude than was after-
ward shown at any point in its erratic
course. The path of such a phenomen-
on is rarely so near to the surface Of
the earth as this one seems to have
been, nor is it often so erratic. 1t is
probable that one or more meteoric
rocks were liberated a the time of the
explosion, but none has yet been found,
although several parties have been
searching for them in a certain local
ity near the river on the northern
border of the county.