The Reporter.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 45, 12 February 1898, Page 5

The Reporter.

AN ALARMING EXPERIENCE. DARKNESS IN DAYTIME. LIKE UNTO AN ECLIPSE. EPISODES OF THE PAST. “ BRING IN THE CANDLES.” “Is it an eclipse ?” was the question that not a few people asked on "Wednesday morning when they noted the unusual appearance of , the sky. Following a strong nor’-westerly breeze, the warmth of which \yus in comforting contrast to the cold winds that have prevailed of late, came a haze that obliterated distant, but usually visible landmarks, and dimmed the glory of the sun itself, and at times caused him to disappear from human ken. At first there was a good deal of wonderment, but presently a theory was started and found general credence. It was to the effect that the haze arose from the bush fires that have wrought so much disaster in Australia during the last few weeks, and some of the oldest inhabitants recalled the fact that there was a similar visitation here 47 years ago, when “ Black Thursday ” ushered in a series of widespread conflagrations, and when men who were wealthy in the morning found themselves penniless at night, robbed by the relentless ' firefiend that devastated Victoria. In the afternoon the fitful obscuration settled down to a denser and continuous gloom, the glass fell, and appearances indicated that we were on the verge of a storm —a cyclone some suggested. By three o’clock the gas had to be lighted in shops and offices, and in the Supreme Court, which was then sitting, and work was suspended in the schools. In one of these the children were greatly alarmed, and two or three of them became ill. The teacher of the school in question says : —“ I thought it time to dismiss, and I did. The youngsters usually play about the grounds for a time on being released, but five minutes after they got out on Wednesday not one was to be seen. They had all made a bee line for home.” The alarm was not confined to Juveniles. Some of the “ grownups ” began to think that the end of all things was at hand, and strongly resented anything in the nature of a jest regarding the odd appearance of things celestial. In view of the feelings excited by by the phenomenon of Wednesday, it is worthy of note that in the year ]666 a belief gained currency in England that the end of the world was at band. During the summer a terrible storpa arose, and an awful darkness overspread the heavens. The assizes were being held in a town on the western circuit, Sir Matthew Hale presiding, and a whisper went round that the dread moment had arrived. Everyone forgot the business in hand ; the counsel rose from their seats, and the people present, i£> a paroxysm of terror, betook themselves to their knees and prayed for mercy. The Judge remained perfectly unmoved and continued to take his notes of the case before the court. The United States furnish a similar example of devotion to duty in the case of Abraham Davenport. The story is told in one of Whittier’s poems, from which we give the following extracts : ’Twas on a May-day of the far old year Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell Over the bloom and tweet life of the Spring, Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, A horror of great darkness, like the night In day of which the Norland sagas tell— The Twilight of the Gods. The low hung sky Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs The crater’s sides from the red hell below. Birds ceased to sing, and all the barn-yard fowls Boosted,; the cattle at the pasture bars Lewed and looked homeward; hats on leathern wings Ilitted abroad ; the sounds of labour died ;

Men prayed and women wept; all ears grew sharp To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter The black sky, that the dreadful face of Christ Might look from the rent clouds, not as he looked A loving guest at Bethany, but stern As Justice and inexorable Law.

Meanwhile in the old State-House, dim as ghosts, Sat the law-givers of Connecticut,

Trembling beneath their legislative robes. “ It is the Lord’s Great Day! Let us adjourn,” Some said; and then, as if with one accord, All eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport. He rose, slow cleaving with his steady voice The intolerable hush. “ This well may be The Day of Judgment which the world awaits; But be it so or not, I only know My present duty and my Lord’s command To occupy till He come. So at the post Where he hath set me in His providence, I choose, for one, to meet him face to face— No faithless servant frightened from my task, But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls ! And therefore, with all reverence, I would say, Let God do His work, we will see to ours.

Bring in the candles.” And they brought them in.

Then the poet tells how Abraham Davenport delivered an address on the question before the House ‘ wisely and well,’ and continues — And there he stands in memory to this day, Erect, self-poised, a rugged face, half-seen Against the background of unnatural dark, A witness to the ages as they pass That simple duty hath no place for fear.

Captain Hutton, of Christchurch, says that instances of the air having been darkened by smoke from fires at a very great distance are not by any means unknown. What is probably the most remarkable case of the kind (dealt with in the foregoing verses) occurred in the Northern States of North America over a century ago—on May 19, 1780 —when a darkness as thick as that of midnight overspread the country in the morning, and continued all day. This was preceded during the two or three days before by curious, dim-coloured vapours, which gave the sun a red appearance. On the ‘ Dark Day ’ itself some rain fell, and brought down particles of black matter, tolerably conclusive evidence that the phenomenon was due, as was suggested by some people, to distant forest fires, but this explanation was too simple to satisfy the major-ity of the people of that day, and many of them remembered it as an inpenetrable mystery.