Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1917-11-13
The Almanac to the Rescue.

germ Of truth In It. Many things come
to him who patiently waits and watches
for them.
To BE- sure, sometimes they come 10
the patient waiter 90 late that they have
lost their freshness and favor. II you
should feed peaches right from the tree
to an Eskimo who had spent ffty years
Of life In the frozen North, they would
taste to him just about - they do to me
or to you who have spent the same
length Of time In . milder CLINE, and
not ct all Ike the peaches We used 70
get forty years ago. Aud that Eskimo
would 60 to his grave without ever
knowing what real peaches are.
But what has that to do with the
almanacf Well, II you are interested to
know, I will tell you.
Among the fascinating things that I
read In my early years were descriptions
OF total eclipse Of the sun, and they
implanted In me great desire to wit
ness such an event. ! wanted to see
the sun blotted out OF the sky, and the
cows coming up to the bars, and the
hens going to roost, and the nighthawks
booming and calling through the air,
just like twilight Of summer evening
and all this right In the middle Of the
day.
Nor did It occur to me that I wasn't to
have the opportunity In the near future.
l bad read that story OF tho European
explorer who was In the hands OF
savages and condemned to death. and
who saved bis life by knowing the honr
of an eclipse and swing the savages by
making them think that the eclipse was
due to bis appeal to the gods. Perhaps
there Is only one such intance on record,
and l haven't the least recollection who
the explorer was or where 1t happened.
But somehow the story, II there is only
one such, made quite On impression mp.
on me; and without any working knowl-
edge OF astronomy, / gathered the
idea that the sun and moon were roam
ing through the sky 30 nearly In the
Same track that explorers condemned
to death could have an eclipse ready to
their rescue almost any time.
Therefore, the page Of the almanac
which announced the eclipses OF the
year had an interest for me possessed
by no other part of the book. When
the yellow. covered Ayers Almanac for
the next year, which was usually the first
appear, would arrive In the house, ]
would turn to It with eagerness and
scan tho announcements of eclipses.
And there was an annual Disappointment.
Partial or total eclipses Of the moon
were not rare, and after some years /
got so didn't care to sit up till the
small hours to see them. Even partial
eclipse of the sun was occasionally on
the program, but this caused no darken-
ing of the sky or the land, and the
only spectacle It presented. viewed
through smoked glass, was the eight
Of the place where the biscuit cutter
Tapped over and took . chunk out OF
the edge of the suns disk.
Total eclipses of the sun there were
occasionally in the almanac to be sure,
bat they were invariably followed by the
sad phrase, "Invisible In New England.
Visible 40 total eclipse In the Society
Islands, the North Pole and Patagonia"
or words TO some such effect.
So In time came to understand that
the sun and moon swing through space
In such way that only at rare intervals
does the moon succeed 10 dodging
squsrely In between us and the sun.
And when that does happen. the shadow
of the moon covers only part OF the
earth's surface, and the area Of totality
10 black streak on the map which be-
gins In the Indian Ocean or some other
wilderness of waters, and points on into
the northeast or the southwest or at
some other angle which 10 difficult for
% to comprehend, considering that the
moon 10 travelling in . duo easterly
course. Only occasionally does the
streak hit any oivilised portion OF the
map.
Learned also that . total eclipse OF
the sun was % much Of . spectacle that
scientific bodies would send IN expedi.
ton half way around the world to
observe and photograph during the few
brief minutes that the phase OF totality
lasted, and that people who were not at
all interested In Il from scientific stand
point would travel from New York
down into the Sunny South, just to see
what / in my boyish imaginings had
desired to SEQ.
So st last came to realize that there
wss email chance Of one Of those black
streaks on the map ever being thrown
across tho portion Of the esrth's surface
whore I abide, and the dream OF my
youth was likely to be unful6lled.
And now comes the MsiDe Farmers'
Almanac for 1918, and mirdbile dicta-
which means wonderful to relate, or
some such-on the 9th Of Juno there 10
An eclipse Of the sun, which 10 total
along strip extending from tho state OF
Washington across tho country to Flori-
ds. Moreover, tho observatory 1t Den-
YER University lies right In the middle
of the path of totality, the f1rst time that
ono of those black streaks has ever fallen
directly over . big telescope, and the
event 10 anticipated with great Joy BY
astronomers.
However, slasi that black streak 10
only sixty miles wide, and It 10 about
two thousand miles away; and even II ]
could get to Denver, the astronomers
would be too busy during the two min
utes the eclipse lasts to let me have
peek.
But there remains . gleam Of hope.
for at the bottom of the eclipse page In
the almanac 10 an advance announce
ment Of other total eolipses. Three are
mentioned which will by.and-by be visi-
BILE In the United States.
One ON Sept. 10, 1923, will cross south
vestern California and Mexico. That 10
o6ly six years hence, but 1t 10 . thousand
miles farther away even than the one
next June.
On june "a, 1926, another eclipse, and
the path OF totality extends from Duluth
through Now Haven across tho Atlantic.
Duration two minutes. That 10 getting
little nearer homo.
And on Aug. 81, 1882, the third, with
q path OF totality orossipg Hudson Bay,
Qo oebeo and M.insl Duration two min.
utes. After Ill these years!
Only fifteon years 10 wait. But, hor
rible thought Suppose 1t should be
cloudy.
Just think Of waiting fifteen years in
anxious suspense lest, during those
precious two minutes, tho sun should be
ovsrshado dowed BY dark clouds.
And then perhaps the peaches won't
taste the Same that they did forty years
ago.
Alas for the Illusions Of hopei Since
the above was hammered out on the
typewriter, and part OF It Va. In oold
tyne metal, there appears In the news
papers dispatch reoounting the prep
arstions being made to observe next
summer's eclipse, and In the course Of
II this plain statement: "Thsfe will not
Be another total eclipse visible 10 tho