The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-05-25
DARKNESS IN THE DAY.

On the 2Sth of this month the moon
out every ray Of light from half million
of people in our country. The sun is
enormously larger than the moon, for
the latter is servant of the earth, to
carry a candle On certain nights. 1t
was once a part of the earth, but IKE
a prodigal, it left home, or rather, like
a bad boy, ECU off without a shilling
and kept at arms length. The motion
of the moon is an attempt to come
back to the earth, fall on us, but our
planet is flying so fast that the effort
to drop down on New York or into the
Pacific results in the moon revolving
around our globe, which, running from
under Luna before it lights"
Small as the moon is, it hides the
huge and distant sun when 1t comes be-
tween thai vast torch and the earth.
The speed of the moon across the face
of the sun makes this eclipse of short
duration. The moon is running at the
rate of two thousand miles a minute
The total eclipse varies from one min
ute and twelve seconds at New Orleans
and one minute n forty-four seconds
at Norfolk.
The sooty shadow enters our CONT
nent on the Pacific at sunrise, strides
with a sable sandal. fifty miles wide,
across Louisiana. Alabama, Georgia
the Carolinas, Virginia and leaves its
parting foot print on the sea shore in
Princess Anne county. The dark cone
draws it's black band from Virginia
across the sea to Portugal, tracing the
route of steamers to the Mediterranean.
The track Of the eclipse enters Africa
at Tripoli, goes through the desert and
vanishes at the Red sea.
In the middle of the a of this
r. ~ I'LL 10 -~n6 n
thousand scientific observers. Norfolk
and New Orleans offer the great chance
of fog, so the astronomers have chosen
Georgia, South and North Carolina, for
should a cloud intervene there will be
Tabor lost" If the day is clear Prsn-
cess Anne courthouse will be a choice
place for observation. Rocky Mount,
HEREFORD, Wadesboro and Sanford are
right under the deepest shadow. Nor
folk, Suffolk, Weldon, Raleigh, Wilson,
Fayetteville, Goldsboro are within the
fifty-mile rack. The railways have
exclusion tickets to the various cities
and towns in the path of totality. In
Richmond and in Virginia the sun will
to all purposes be obscured. Even as
far as New England, Ohio, and the
Rocky Mountains (southern districts)
the sun will be n~ine-tenths hidden. As
the places of visibility of the complete
hiding of the jocund face Of Sol are
easily reached there will be a large
number gathered. A thousand scien-
tific men are already on the ground,
chiefly in Georgia and the Carolinas.
One party Of government observers
have gon to Tripoli in Africa. Such
displays are rare events in the south
ern states. Usually the Investigations
go 70 the coast of Africa or other dis
tant and diagreeable ATTITUDES. One
~expendition consumed nine months.
sEhav went in a nQfinnQ1 TacGal No
other eclipse track will occur in this
country till 1918, which passes from
Oregon to Florida. In 1925, another will
be visible in England. Fifty-five
years from this date one will occur in
Africa, the longest-seven minutes-in
a thousand years. The astronomers of
u government and Of our colleges
will omit nothing in their efforts to
gain all possible scientific information.
They have transported many costly in
struments to their chosen localities
telescopes. spectroscopes, palariscopes,
Photographic cameras. They have been
set up and the assistants are drilling
daily. The time of less than two
mute Of the total eclipse demands
rapid manipulation.
The object of investigation is the
sun. The school-boy now thai IL a
telescope was pointed at this huge orb
OF light and furious furnace, the con-
centrated rays would scorch to a Gin
der the ball in the socket as quickly as
If a red hot rod of iron was jabbed into
the eye The sun cannot be examined
into by a ems. If We look at II. We
must protect our eyes by colored or
smoked glass. The fierce glare is a
cloak he spreads around him to hide
his secrets. An eclipse gives chance to
peep beneath his dazzling. dangerous
and ~forbidding garb. AS the moon
covers the sun and shuts out the dart
ing rays, there is a rim of light over
tapping the moons circumference.
This Is called the corona. The scien-