The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-25

about 1859, Greenwich time, OF his success
| in observing the eclipse. thus beating the
rushing moon by mans swifter messen-
ger. We received the news in twenty nine
minutes from the time the observations
were made and two hours and twenty min
utes before total totally began here. The
Georgia message was telegraphed TO Wash
ington. by the Western Union from Wash
| ington to New York. from there to Pen
Zance, and thence to Gibraltar
! On Prof. Toid's application and by the
! courtesy CT Dennison Pen6er. esq. general
manager Of the Eastern Telegraph Conpa
ry and son of the late Sir John Pelder. the
use of the new cables from Gibraltar to
Malta and Malta to Tripol was given.
which enabled this very rapid commune
cation and the worsting of the moon in its
race with electricity.
Gradually the roois about the consulate
| filled with a-curious throng as the after
noon began. Arabs folded in white barra-
cans silhouetted against the sky, Turkish
soldiers On the raurarts. the Franciscan
monks in brown hooded robes on their
church roofs, Jewg and Maltese. all crowd
ed skyward as the day advanced. The
partial eclipse began and still the people
like the Anus Of Northern Yezo, looked
steadily az US and not at the sun.
The alteration of Basl. once the old
Worship on these sites, had, indeed, given
way 10 scientific soiar devotion Of very
different character. The nlinarets were
filed with gazers. and. as the eclipse
went or, the strange Cregorian chant of
the call to prayer came through the still.
clear air with an almost weird cadence in
the peculiarly penetrating voices Of the
muezzins The sky vas so clear. the sun
shine go dazzling. that the glare of the
white roof was almos. binding, and the
FIRST change il the light which became
perceptible was the increasing comfort in
opening ones eyes upon the landscape.
Many amateur observers had been drilled
for drawing the corona, observing the
sbadow-bands, Baley's beads, and other
points of interest, and at a signal all
went to their appointed places as totality
approached. When the sun was some
what more than half hidden, the light
became wan and cold. the colors of every
thing subdued, sad. The blue Mediter-
ranean turned slate-color. the Sky like
steel. The streets and roofs, though
crowded with humanity. grew singulariy
silent, with row and then a sound of /
alarm from seme distant point. One man |
only seemed entirely oblivious to the J
changing light, and be. wrapped in cas- !
ISABELLA in shaded courtyard far below, |
was stupidity shaking barley in a sieve.
What the Corona Looked Like.
The air grew suddenly cold and slightly |
damp. and the swallows came cut in !
masses. flying about excitedly, in a man
rer quite differently from their nightly |
sunset parade. AS the black moon crept |
nearer and nearer to the narrowing edge OF /
the crescent sun, strange shadow-bands
began to fly across the landscape at
rapid rate. and then the crescent disinter-
grated into drops of brilliance. Not with !
jerks, as in 1857, or with a grand leap. as
in 1896, the darkness came but with a
strange softness-and there hung the
moons black ball in an absolutely
clear sky, while about 1t the corona grew
into life like the blossoming of some beau
tiful flower of celestial light.
And what an exquisite corona it was
with long. delicately pointed equatorial
streamers above and below, their edges
luminous with white fire. their extensions
lost only because the eye could not follow
them to the end, the polar rays inconspic-
uous and the whole with a definite struct-
ure of interviewer filaments almost an ex-
act reproduction of the New Years Day
corona of 1883. Mercury and Venus shone
brilliantly. and the sky above the desert
glowed warmly yellow. But there was
none of that majesty of calor. that IN
earthly effect Of a new creation, which
made the Esashi eclipse OF 1896 so superbly
breathless.
For tifty-one seconds this heavenly flower
hung In the sky. and then a bit of true.
dazzling sunlight returned, and totality |
was over. By shielding the eyes from the
increasing brightness the observers fol-
lowed the corona distinctly for over a min
ute after totality. until it faded away with
the growing light. And gravity had done
its work-endiess chains of plates had
passed before the lenses pulieys had kept
their place. records were made and ex-
cept for releasing the pin at the beginning,
as Mrs. Jago did. to put the mechanism liz
motion. no hand had helped to take the
hundred ard fifty photographs which that
ffty-one seconds had brought out