The Saint Paul globe., 1904-08-07


frightened. East of the Mississippi the
explosions were heard everywhere
within sixty miles of the meteor's path.
and in Bloomington, Ind, sounds were
heard, supposedly from the meteor,
even at distance of $50 miles.
Broke Into Fragments
Over Central Illinois it was seen to
break into fragments like rocket, and
over Indiana and Ohio it formed a
flock or cluster of meteors computed
to be forty miles long and five miles
broad. AS it happened, the sky above
New York was clouded that night. But
persons In Ohio and Pennsylvania saw
the meteor passing eastward over New
York From many places in that state
came accounts of the rafting of
houses, of laundering noises and other
Ike phenomena, which, at the time, the
comet being invisible, were attributed
to an earthquake.
At one place in Northern Indiana a
farmer heard a heavy thud, as of an
object striking the ground near his
house. The next morning he found on
the snoSy a stone of very peculiar ap-
pearanee weighing three quarters of u
pound, a hich dropped, without doubt,
from the meteor.
By putting together the various ac-
counts of observers the meteor is
shown to have become first visible
when it was near the northwest cor
ner of Indian territory, at an elevation
between sixty and a hundred miles
above the earth. From here it moved
nearly parallel to the earth's surface
and nearly in straight line to point
over Central New York. During the
latter part Of its course it's height was
thirty or forty miles. 1t thus traversed
the upper regions of the air through
25 degrees of longitude and degrees
of latitude in a period of time not
easily determined, but probably about
two minutes. A part Of this astonish-
ing body may have passed on out of
the earth's atmosphere, but probably
the remnants came somewhere to the
ground in New York state or farther
east.
Celestial Procession of Meteors
Yet. impressive as are the large Sill
gle meteors, they cannot awaken the
awe inspired by the celestial process
sion through which the earth bursts
whenever it encounters stream or
meteors like the famous Leonids.
1t was on the night of Nov. 1S, 1888,
that was seen the most marvellous dis
play of LeOnidS in modern times, per-
haps the most sublime on record. In
the Southern states the colored people
were so terrified that old negroes, for
many years afterwards, used to esti-
mate their own ages and their chill
dren's from the time "de stahs done
fell"
That November night the falling
stars were seen all over the United
States and over a part of Mexico and
the West Indies. The smaller stars
fell like snow flakes and the larger
ones came down like great balls of fire.
These left behind long, luminous trains
that remained in view several minutes,
and sometimes half an hour. one OIL
them seen in North Carolina appeared
large and more brilliant than the full
moon. Some of these luminous bodles
remained stationary for a considerable
time and emitted streams of light.
At Niagara the exhibition was spe-
cially wonderful.
"No spectacle SO terribly grand and
sublime" it has been said, was ever
before beheld by man as that of the
armament descending in fiery torrents
over the dark and roaring cataract.