New-York tribune., 1900-05-29
after totality was over. There was no dark band
around the moons limb during the partial phase
and no detail on the moon during totality.
ECLIP,SED BY THE CLOUDS.
ONLY OCCASIONAL GLIMPSES OF THE
PHENOMENON SEEN BY NEW
WORKERS.

So many thousand New Workers stared curl
ously at the sun yesterday morning that
host of soft hearted clouds pushed between,
apparently in endeavor to hide him from
mems view while undergoing the humiiiating
experience of eclipse of his magnifcence by
that comparatively Insignificant satellite, the
moon Their success was only too great. So
thoroughly did they obscure the phenomenon
that nothing but occasional gmpses could be
caught of il through little riffs In the flying
vapor blankets, and at the most interesting
point that of the maximum of observation for
this locality. few observers saw 1t at all Such
photographs as made of the eclipse by
the few skilled astronomers who had not gone
South into the ''totality" belt said to he
of scientific value No keen disappointment
could be reasonably felt over that fact, however,
because there never at any time we'll
based expectstio that the eclipse seen in this
region would furnish the world with any new
astronomical facts but 1T the vast army
of smoked glass star gazers" who felt that
they had been cheated.
BY thousands and tens of thousands New
Workers had prepared themselves to attend
free show, which they had been told would not
be on exhibition again until 1918. Especially
had the school children been keyed up for the
occasion. Most of them not born when the
last eclipse of such proportions occurred, and
their teachers had impaired to them a far
clearer idea of what was about to happen to
the sun than was possessed by many of their
elders. These little men and women early
in the streets and the housetops watching
with every exhibition of mpatience for the
curtain to rise Ten minutes to eight o'clock
was the hour set for the performance to begin,
and it announced to last until 1896 At
O'Clock the sun shining brilliantly and
hopes were high for clear day.
But soon great gray mounds of cloud that
were piled up in the northeast began to send out
their lines of skirmishers. These scudded across
the face of the sun. but at first did not conceal
him. In fact. they only veiled his brliance so
that he could be gazed on without pain by the
naked eye the first shadow of the moon ap-
peared upon his disk. By o'clock the sun
looked as if the Man in the Moon, taking it Cor
pie, had bitten large semieircular mouthfu
out of the upper righthand part of the rim. AS
the moments sped by the moon encroached
further and further upon the sun, till only
glowing crescent of the orb of day could be
seen The round, black bulgng shadow of the
moon seemed like the shutter of some vast
searchlight, which needed only push
from mighty hand - cut off altogether the
light from this little world. The temperature
fell several degrees and weird gray twilight
oyerspread the city
Meanwhile the cloud masses had been piling
up thicker and thicker and the observers of the
rare phenomenon up to this point had been
treated only to brier glimpses of it. so far apart
that distinct change of the moons position
could be noted every time the sight re-
Vealed. And as that most interesting phase ap-
proached, when the highest degree of obscura-
ton was reached and the shadow of the moon
began to recede from the face of the sun the
clouds blotted out the view altogether. And
great was the disappointment Perhaps some
few persons In favorable spots the outskirts
or the CITY, in Westchester County. in New-Jer-
sey, or Long Island may have seen for a
moment this critical stage of the eclipse. but
by the vast majority 1t went on unseen. About
l0:2o o'clock the clouds became less thick or
O ~ tha oI,1o
TO penetrate them better, and the moon in the
last stages of her exit again occasionally
visible. Long after it all over many per-
sons were seen with their heads tilted back
ward their mouths open and their eyes
Ing over the smoky heavens looking for the
sun While the eclipse was on the wild animals
In Central Park were notcea bly, uneasy.