The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-21
CELESTIAL VISITOR
is WIDELY NOTICED
Meteorite Causes Minneapolis
to See Things and Police.
man to Sldestep

/ whatever you please to call it-fell
near the Twin Cities and Saltwater
1 early yesterday morning. Shortly be-
| fore 1 o'clock at st. Paul this fragment
from another world suddenly illumi-
1 mated earth and sky with a dazzling
greenish glare. So swiftly fell the
rocket from space that the few local
| observers saw nothing but blazing
| greenness. Of a sudden the sky was
all aflame. A second later the blue
black heavens were serene and the
| modest stars were twinkling.
| Il suppose it will be like that when
the earth comes to an end" remarked
| a pessimistic luncher at the window
| of Robert street cafe. But he'd been
eating toasted cheese.
Though not many residents could
say yesterday morning that they were
lucky enough to be watching the
northern skies when the '.heaven
stone" came down, considerable
number of people did see the meteor
| indirectly. That is. they were. startled
| by the abrupt flashing of silvery
green light across the floor or ceiling.
| Such observers, of course, were not
/ half blinded by the direct glare. They
/ were able to estimate better the size
/ of the burning ball Several of them
| thought it glowed in outline as if it
were an irregular mass about two feet
| in diameter
Some persons, including Severinus
| Corrigan, the local astronomer, heard
a well defined sound of rumbling, a
thunder-like echo at least one minute
after the blaze had passed.
Minneapolis Sees Things
Minneapolis saw as much as ST.
Paul, and more. Indeed, if published
| rn1 nI,fc t1,11c, o1ie
acquires a preternatural vision after
| midnight-sees strange things and is
| oppressed with strange desires. Thus
| a group of Minneapolitans standing
! near Third avenue south and Seventh
/ street not only heard "a harsh Kissing
sound as the aerolite descended but
! took the pains to observe that "al the
| light and noise" came from a fiery
! sphere about as big as a football
| Not content with reducing to it's true
compass this celestial football, big
enough to startle all the country for
/ fifteen miles round about, the well
poised, temperate South siders saw
| ''the ball descend through the branches
| of a tree" a few rods distant.
! 1.-THE ball separated on striking the
/ earth, and all that could be seen was a
| shower of sparks" There was also "a
| faint explosion.
But Minneapolis was not satisfied.
| Having seen something it made grab
/ for it. ''Those standing near the cor
ner quickly recovered from their sur
| prise, and made a scramble to secure
! pieces of the terrestrial (celestiaD WISH
| tor Naturally enough, they were
| unsuccessful
ST. Paul did not take the aerolite
| into it's midst This city did not ap-
| about in adjacent grass for souvenirs
| of heavenly jetsam that had lighted up
| three counties.
| Policeman Sidesteps
At saltwater the meteor was seen
by more than one who CHANGED to walk
| the night. Capt. Roland F. Barnes, of
| the Saltwater police, said that the
! town became suddenly "as bright as
| midday .'The shooting-star, or what
| ever it was he added, dropped ap-
| parently from the center of the heav-
ems. / found myself side-stepping,' I
was SO startled. But it never touched
| me. I couldn't say how big it was. 1t
| looked as big as the sky"
Among the best informed of the local
observers is Mr.. Corrigan. He was
asleep when the meteorite fell, but with
fine astronomical instinct he aWoke
! while the glare was still filing his bed
| room window.
THE light had a greenish hue, said
| MI. Corrigan last night, and was very
bright First 1 thought it was light
ming, but the peculiar color and the ex-
I pansive glow convinced me 1T was
something else, even before 1 had time
to look out at the clear sky. About a
minute after the light faded 1 heard a
hollow roar in the distance like the
noise of All explosion. I'm inclined to
think that the aerolite exploded.
mot having seen the body fall, and
having no definite knowledge, so far, of
oin ifn T-ioNr
point, am not able to conjecture much
as to its nature, size or distance.
Green Glow Shows Iron
But these bodies consist either OF
stone or metal. They often include
iron and nickel. From the greenish
glow should suspect that this one was
composed of meteoric iron, though
can't speak with chemists knowledge
| of the case.
"The small meteors are extremely
numerous. Set on fire by the friction
| caused by passing through our atmos-
phere, they burn up long before they
! strike the earth. In a single average
| night dark but clear, it has been cal
culated as many as 100000 of these
little stones may be seen by an observer
| with an active neck.
'"The larger ones, those a part OF
| which, in each case, reach the earth
/ are called meteorites. Less than soc
have been recorded since the earliest
times and only $50 in the United
States. A good part of these large ones
is always burned away. Sometimes
| the meteorite explodes and breaks into
big or little fragments.
They Sometimes Explode
Sometimes one explodes and is scat
| tered in dust. Only occasionally does
| a big fragment or nucleus bury itself in
the earth, though some have beer
found that weigh hundreds of pounds
IF the body that fell g1ast night was
/ | far distant, it must fave been very
| large. If it was close to the city, il
, | may have been small enough to have
, been entirely burned before touching
the earth. But as it was apparently
as bright in Saltwater as it was in
Minneapolis, thirty miles away,
| should imagine that it was a meteor OF
remarkable size. We may hope that q
part of it will be discovered.
when / opened my eyes was not
1 of course, sufficiently wide awake to
make reliable guess of time. But
so far as can recall at least one min
U ute elapsed after the light vanished