Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? Matt. xvi, 3.
The State of Europe.
The approaching close of the year finds nearly the whole of Europe apparently at peace, the little island of Candia being at present the only spot where fighting is still going on. Even there the insurrection has been hemmed in on all sides, and unless a general rising in the Christian provinces of Turkey should take place, the last of the Candian patriots will soon have to lay down their arms. But the explosive material in Turkey does not, on that account, become less. The consummation of the independence of Roumania, under the rule of a prince nearly related to most of the European monarchs, does not only signify the loss by Turkey of four millions of people, but of all the many impulses which have of late been given to the aspirations of the Christian provinces, this is the most dangerous, for it practically illustrates the collapse of Turkish power. Servia insists on having the same independence which has been accorded to Roumania, and it will not be long ere the same demands will be made by the other provinces.
The happiest people in Europe at this moment are Italians. The national unity is nearly complete. Venetia has been annexed, and the evacuation of Rome by the French, which was to be completed, according to the Convention, on Monday, removes the last obstacle to the acquisition of the Papal dominions. As the last circular of Ricasoli to the Prefects indicates, the Italian Government will observe the strictest neutrality. Thus the struggle of the Roman people with their Government will show all the more conclusively the irresistible power of the national sentiment. We have no trustworthy information about the intentions of the Pope in case of a successful revolution. The statements of the organs of the Ultramontane party, which ought to be best informed, disagree as widely as the less orthodox papers.
From France we hear but little except comments on foreign questions. French vessels are now plying between the ports of France, Italy and Mexico, to bring back French troops from two expeditions which even the Government does not deny to have been signally disastrous. The Government with iron hand suppresses the free expression of popular sentiment on the suffered disgrace; but it is easy to divine what the secret influence of the failure of the Imperial schemes on the public mind must be. The Emperor's life is drawing to a close, and it appears extremely doubtful whether a government carried on in the name of a child will be able to save the shaken dynasty.
From Spain we are almost daily receiving dispatches about the imminence of a revolution which everybody, including, it seems, even the Queen's mother, and her only sister, the Duchess of Montpensier, look upon as being not only inevitable, but sure to triumph.
Turning from the Latin to the Germanic world, we find Count Bismark, the center of the political movements in the Germanic countries, again at his post in Berlin. The greatest obstacle to the accomplishment of his mission has been removed, and things are going on smoothly. There still are occasional disagreements between the great statesman and the Liberal majority of the Second Chamber, but they are free from animosity, and the leading opponents of the Government in home questions continue to be the most ardent champions of the foreign policy. The North-German Parliament is expected to meet on the 1st of February, and its voice is sure to find a powerful echo wherever the German language is spoken. The two Chambers of Baden, one of three South-German countries which have for the present been excluded from the North-German Confederation, have by an almost unanimous vote resolved to apply for an unconditional admission. All the difficulties with Saxony have been adjusted. In Bavaria and Wurtemberg, the party which favors the re-union with Northern Germany is rapidly growing, and even from Austria we hear of public manifestations, the significance of which cannot be misunderstood.32An address of Austrian students has been published saying that soon German Austria will knock for admission at the door of united Germany, and this address is known to represent the sentiments of the German Universities of Austria. The same views are openly expressed by the leading men in the Diets of the German Provinces which are now in session. Even in Holland the unconstitutional course of the Government is said to have given rise to a party of annexation. Belgium is charged by French papers with Prussian sympathies, undoubtedly an entirely groundless invention, but which again shows that the little kingdom will ere long be crushed to pieces between the two millstones which inclose it. Switzerland fears a similar fate, and the Federal authorities recommend, therefore, an immediate arming. Sweden and Denmark are both courting the favor of Prussia. The whole Germanic race on the Continent is gravitating toward a closer union with Prussia, a tendency which can have no other issue than the final absorption of all the minor and impotent commonwealths by the rising German Empire. Great Britain stands aloof from all European questions. The Reform movement in England and the Fenians in Ireland may well engross the attention of a Government which has lost all claim to influence in Continental affairs.
Russia has changed her conduct toward the new Prince of Roumania, whom she has recognized, and now patronizes as a successful representative of the Christian interests in Turkey. In Central Asia, Russian troops have conquered the last fortress of Bokhara, and are making rapid progress in consolidating and civilizing the newly-annexed territory.—N. Y. Tribune.
A Sure Record
A SURE RECORD.—There is no way for men to discern their names written in the Book of Life, but by reading the work of sanctification in their own hearts. I desire no miraculous voice from Heaven, no extraordinary signs or unscriptural notices or information in this matter. Lord, let me but find my heart obeying thy calls, my will obediently submitting to thy commands; sin, my burden, and Christ my desire; I never crave a fairer or surer evidence of thy electing love to my soul.
Lessons for Daily Conduct
“MAKE up your mind to do a thing, and then do it. If a spider breaks his web twenty times, twenty times he will mend it.”
“NEVER smile at, or in any way approve of, any trait in a child which you do not wish to cultivate.”
“KINDNESS to others generally insures kindness in return.”
“A GOOD word is as easily spoken as a bad one.”
“CEASE to do evil, and remember there is a God.”
The more we fear God, the less we shall fear men.
Home News.
Texas. Major-General Sheridan, of the Department of the Gulf, speaks of matters in Texas as anomalous, singular, and unsatisfactory. The Governor wants all the troops moved from the settled portions of the State, asserting that the civil law is all right, and that justice would be done. Two soldiers were shot a few months ago in Benham. They were unarmed and offered no provocation. The grand jury refused to find a bill against their would-be-assassins, but found a bill for burglary against Major Smith who broke into a house in an attempt to arrest the men. The trial of a white man for the murder of a freedman in Texas would be a farce. It is strange that over the killing of a white man by the Indians on the remote frontier the greatest excitement will take place, but over the killing of many freedmen in the settlements, nothing is done.33
Marine Disasters for 1866. The Detroit Tribune of Dec. 19, reports an aggregate of 621 disasters to vessels on the Lakes during the year 1866, being an excess of two hundred over any previous year.
Public Lands. The whole public domain now contains nearly 1,500 millions of acres, of which only about one-third have been surveyed. Upward of four and a half millions have been disposed of in the year, of which only about 388,000 acres were sold, while nearly two millions of acres were taken up by settlers under the homestead act, nearly a million and a quarter of swamp lands were conceded to the States (making over 43 millions in all), and the rest were absorbed by railroads, military warrants, and agricultural colleges. Measures are recommended for promoting the planting and growth of timber on the public domain.
Patents. There were 14,039 applications for patents in 1866; about 3,000 more than in any previous year. Of these, 10,130 were granted, of which 8,716 have been issued.
Consumption of Postage Stamps. Twenty tons, or, by superficial measurement, forty-eight and a half square miles, of postage stamps, have been used during the year: enough to roof a large township, with all its houses, barns, churches, gardens, forests, and farms; or, if you choose to make a ribbon of them, enough to reach nearly from the equator to either pole, or twice the length of the Mississippi river. So that if everybody would be obliging enough to use the government stamp on the envelop itself, the mere omission of these little extra bits of paper would lighten the mail-bags by more than forty thousand pounds, and save in paper fifteen or twenty thousand dollars. The Postmaster General does not impart this information in so many words, but he assures us that nearly 350 millions of stamps have been sold in the year past, besides nearly forty millions of stamped envelopes; and a simple calculation reduces the story to the more tangible form we have given it.
Distribution of the Bible.—In the last half century the British and Foreign Bible Society has appropriated $2,375,000 for circulating the Scriptures among the unevangelized nations, and the American Bible Society has expended for the same object $800,000. The two societies have issued 80,000,000 of the sacred volumes, and 6,000,000 of these have been given outside of Christendom.
Abandoning Missionary Stations.—The Presbyter says, “In the last number of the Foreign Missionary we have the astounding intelligence that our missionaries in India are gravely considering the propriety, or rather the necessity, of abandoning some of the stations now occupied, in order to obtain men to re-inforce others where the brethren can no longer sustain their burdens! In the same paper we are told by one of the Secretaries, that the Board, as yet, has been unable to find a single man to send either to India or China this year.”
BREAD, beer and buttermilk (and the same is partially true of butter), directly after being made, make a rapid exchange of carbon for oxygen, with a proportional improvement in wholesomeness. Bread, when thus ripened, is computed to contain twenty per cent. more of nutriment than when hot from the oven. The change in both taste and texture is very marked. It is important to have all these articles ripen in a pure, clear atmosphere, as they absorb very freely the ill savors and unwholesome ingredients of the air around them.
How Things Look in the South.
From an article by Rev. Gilbert Haven in the N. Y. Independent of Dec. 13, 1866, we extract the following paragraphs, which show the feelings which those lately in open rebellion still entertain toward the North, or rather, toward the nation.
At Nashville, tableaux were lately acted for a charitable cause, in which the Confederacy was represented in her weeds, and the rebel symbols were flaunted before a sympathizing audience.
Rebel women of that city yet indulge in that truly Southern lady's custom of expectorating their rattlesnake spittle at, if not into, the faces of the Union ladies who have come thither from the North since they were captured, and who can command a position equal with their own.
Our ladies, when shopping, are insultingly jeered at by those who are waiting upon them, and even told by these lordly mesdames of the yard-stick that they do not wish for Yankee customers. A Northern merchant of that city declared it was hardly possible to get any trade from these people, however liberal were his prices. They loathed the presence of these Yankee intruders, whether as buyers or sellers; and in all possible ways, that stop short of open war, vent their spite against them.
In a word, the freedom with which we can debate and develop the true ideas of democratic and Christian unity in the North is practically impossible in almost all the South. A Kentucky slaveholder, himself quite a gentleman, but exceedingly rebellious in his feelings, told me that one could not talk freely in his neighborhood. His life would be sacrificed.
An illustration of their peaceful condition is seen in an experience reported to me by an officer still in our army. A friend of his, a captain in our army, while traveling lately up the Shenandoah, was approached at a station by a company of men who asked him if he did not shoot a man in that place when our army marched through there. He acknowledged he did; but he said the man, standing between two women, was insulting our flag. He was determined that he should not shelter himself behind his body-guard, and killed him where he stood. These subjugated Virginians told him he must pay the price of that patriotism. He drew his revolver, and declared no less than twelve of them should die first. They shrank back, and he escaped. But what kind of a peace is it when our soldiers are thus compelled to fight their way alone over the country they have once subdued in an army? Other incidents yet more thrilling were related to me by officers detailed to collect our dead and replace them in the national cemeteries. One of these, an army chaplain, said that when they went to Pittsburg Landing, they were met with the hootings of the savages, not Indians, but rebels, that abide there; and they could only pursue their work by threatening them with a cannon, which they pretended they had in their possession.
A major in our service said that he dared not make his tour of inspection in his uniform, but had to hide his official dignities under a citizen's dress; that, even then, he was often in great peril of his life. But lately, visiting Rome, Ga., to see how many of our dead lay there, he was approached by men at the tavern, who asked him his business. He replied that that was his own concern, not theirs. They still pressed him; and, as if suspicious of his errand, asked him if he had come to seek after dead Yanks. He became somewhat alarmed, and said he had come to seek for a friend who had died in the Confederate service. The landlord instantly ordered up a team, without any order from him, and these men drove him to the cemetery, where both the rebels and the Union dead are buried, but in opposite divisions. They asked him the name of his friend. He gave them a fictitious name, and a fictitious statement that he was his step-brother, and his mother had desired to have him found. On arriving at the cemetery, he neglected his “half-brother,” and proceeded to count the rows of Union graves and the number in a row, that he might ascertain how many coffins he would need. His “patrons” noticed his indifference, and asked him why he did not hunt up his brother. He had given them an odd name, as one too common would have excited suspicion; and he had to get out and go up and down path after path, searching among more than a thousand graves for his lost “brother.” While thus engaged, the perspiration rolled from him in drops. If he could not find this name, his life must be instantly sacrificed. At length, the second from the last, appears the welcome word—the long-lost brother is found, and his life is safe.
Let the nation look on its officer thus compelled to creep among rebel graves, under the haughty eye of rebel drivers, that he might find a name that shall deceive them and save his life: and that, too, while engaged in the service of the nation, and holding a commission from the President of the United States. Sherman is needed again at Rome, more than in Mexico. Well does Mr. Phillips say that Gen. Grant has but half done his work, and will lose all the fame he has won if he allows such a state of things to exist.
The same officer declared that, while riding through the wild mountain country in this same region, on this same service, he offered a blacksmith five dollars to shoe his horse. The fellow who scented his origin and business, said he “would not put a shoe on a Yankee's horse for fifty dollars;” and immediately mounted his own, to raise the country. The officer started in an opposite direction, bought an old shoe and some nails of a Georgia maiden for two papers of tobacco, put it on himself, and rode forty-five miles that day to get away from these peaceable citizens, to whom Mr. Johnson has given up the state and tries to give up the nation.
Applying to a rebel soldier for information as to where some of our dead lay, the man, who was more friendly than his neighbors (the soldiers are the best behaved of the people), said, if he told, they would certainly kill him.
Such is the actual state of the South in Northern Georgia and Alabama and the western borders of the Carolinas. It is not likely to be any better in other portions.
From Europe.
London, December 16.—Evening. A report is current to-day that Stephens had arrived in England, was traced to Norfolk, and the police had arrested him.
The Message Abroad. LONDON, Dec. 18. The message of the President, which has just been received in full by mail, is the general topic of discussion by the public and press. It is argued that the President rather weakens the strength of the Alabama claims by the manner in which he treats the Fenian question, but that portion of the message which refers to the finances is highly spoken of.
France. The report comes from the continent that the condition of the French fortifications on the frontier of Germany is being looked after, and that their strength is likely to be materially increased.
Austrian Troubles. VIENNA, Dec. 18. It is said that the Austrian government, having failed in their efforts to reconcile the variances between the different races within the Empire, will leave them to effect a solution of the subject for themselves.
Cholera in Turkey. The following letter has been received at the Department of State Legation of the United States of America:
CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 15, 1866.
Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State:
Sir:—I regret to be obliged to announce the re-appearance of cholera at Constantinople. It broke out a few days ago at Artopora, a neighboring village on the Bosphorus, and out of twelve cases in that locality up to this date, eight have terminated fatally. Four cases, and two deaths, have also occurred at the arsenal on the Golden Horn, from whence it extended itself in the summer of 1865, over the whole city. One death of apoplectic or foudroyant cholera is reported from Itchok. The disease at present threatens to take an epidemic form. If it should become epidemical, it must be very fatal, as the winter here is generally of a rude temperature, and much suffering exists in consequence among the population, the great bulk of which live in miserable tenements, and are scantily clad, and illy provided with the necessaries of life. It is to be hoped we are not to witness a repetition of the horrors of 1865, when 5,000 people were swept off in one week by this scourge of humanity.
I am very respectfully your obedient servant,
E. Joy Morris.
Surratt. LA VALLETTA, MALTA, Dec. 18. The United States man-of-war Senator has left here for Alexandria, Egypt, where she will take on board the assassin Surratt, and immediately sail for America.
Florence, December 16. The Italian Parliament has been opened by Victor Emanuel. He delivered a speech in which he congratulated the people of Italy on their delivery from the British yoke, and their union under one government. He says he will respect the Pope’s territory and independence. He expresses a hope that the question between His Holiness and Italy will be settled with satisfaction to all parties.
The King, in his speech, alluded to Napoleon with whom the relations of Italy were excellent. The withdrawal of the French troops from Rome had cemented the alliance, and he hoped that all difficulties in the way of a United Italy would be removed by the moderation of the Italian people and the foresight of the Pope. This done, Italy would become, in fact, a leading nation in Europe. The speech was much applauded.
The Great Star Shower in Europe.
By William B. Herron
[The following article, the advance proof sheet of which was sent us by W. B. Herron, Editor of Young Pilgrim, Boston Mass., would have appeared in our last issue, but for want of room.—Ed.]
The foreign mails received on the 27th ultimo, by the Steamer Scotia, brought full accounts of the great star shower observed in Europe on the night and morning of the 13th and 14th of Nov. last. This display was seen in all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in France and Spain, and perhaps all over the continent; and though not so grand in Great Britain as those of 1779 and 1833 in America, it was yet very magnificent, and never to be forgotten by those who were so fortunate as to witness it.
The extracts which we condense below, from the extended accounts in the foreign journals, confirm the previously published predictions on this subject, so far as Europe is concerned, and establish beyond a doubt the periodicity of the November star showers; and they add another convincing evidence to the already numerous signs of the approaching end.
THE STAR SHOWER IN ENGLAND.
The following account of this grand meteoric display as seen in London, is from the London Times of Nov. 15th:—
“The fiery-shower, foretold by the science of America and Europe, for the night of the 13th–14th of November in this year, was seen in full splendor yesterday morning between the hours of 12 and 2. From about 11 o’clock occasional meteors might be seen gliding along the sky from east to west, but these were only the avant couriers of the great legion that followed at a later hour. The numbers increased after twelve o’clock with great rapidity.
“As the constellation Leo rose over the houses north of Paddington Green, and moved some points to the south, first one meteor than another shot across the sky in various regions and with various directions, but plainly from the one quarter. The spectator had soon counted half-a-dozen; then he felt sure he had seen thirty; then six or seven in a minute; then there came two or three together; then not less than a dozen of all kinds. Then they appeared faster than he could count them. Some shot across the heavens, leaving long, bright, and lingering trains, the star itself seeming to explode and instantly disappear. Some darted as quickly and as bright, but without trains. Some struck the sight, like sparks from a forge, everywhere at once. Some seemed to fall over trees or houses, bright to the last, but with the ruddy hues of a lower atmosphere.
“Look where we would, it was the same; in the far west, and throughout the entire north, there was either the bright glancing speck of light, or the long train, or what seemed an actual ball of light, that illuminated the country, and was slow to die away. As the night advanced, these meteors chased one another across the sky, following in one another’s track, or running side by side. The heavens seemed alive with this unwonted host. There were times when it seemed as if a mighty wind had caught the old stars, loosed them from their holdings, and swept them across the firmament. . . . It was a spectacle which cannot be imagined or forgotten. Few who saw it had ever seen the like, and few could expect ever to see it again.”
The London Morning Post of the same date says:
“Half London was awake till a late hour on Tuesday night for the purpose of viewing the shower of stars or meteors which the astronomers had predicted, and those who had sacrificed a few hours of sleep were amply repaid, for the atmosphere was unusually clear, and thus the grand phenomenon was seen under the most favorable circumstances. The wondrous sight began soon after midnight, and from that period until after five o’clock, it was witnessed with but few intervals of time. . . . So near did some of the meteors appear, that their resemblance to rockets occurred to every one, and we almost seemed to listen for the rush through the air. During the transit of the meteors, the light of the other stars was scarcely to be noticed. The effect produced during the simultaneous passage of meteors in the various parts of the heavens was inexpressibly impressive. The noiseless course gave a thrill that no artificial splendors could ever produce.”
In Liverpool the showers were frequent, and on a scale of much magnificence. Says the Liverpool correspondent of the London News:
“Some of the meteors illuminated the whole sky with a glare like that of the aurora borealis in its grandest phases. Some were like balls of light. Others expanded from a small nucleus to a large volume of light, which darted across the heavens with the speed of thought, and were then lost in the obscurity of the west. Some of the meteors had all the appearance of sky rockets, shedding as they pursued their course, trails of fire.”
A correspondent of the London Times gives the following description of their appearance in Dover:
“About ten o’clock, many single aerolites were seen darting from the horizon to the eastward, then continued, without much variation as far as regards number, until a little after midnight, when they increased in size, brilliancy, and velocity, until the maximum was reached about one o’clock. The sight then was exceedingly startling; hundreds of blazing meteors darting at the same moment from a point in the heavens in the constellation Leo, which was the great center whence they started in all directions.”
The meteors, it will be seen, proceeded, in this star shower, from the same point in the heavens as in that of 1833,—the constellation Leo, near the star gamma Leonis. From this point, at times, they shot up into the sky as from a fountain of never failing stars, dropping to the north and to the south, or exploding like rockets or like sparks of molten iron under the blows of a blacksmith’s hammer, and flying across the firmament in all directions. Such was their appearance in Leicester, and in other places.
IN SCOTLAND.
The Edinburgh Scotsman of November 15th says:
“Standing on Carlton Hill, and looking westward, with the observatory shutting out the lights of Princes street, it was easy for the eye to delude the imagination into fancying some distant enemy bombarding Edinburgh Castle from long range; and the occasional cessation of the shower for a few seconds, only to break out again with more numerous and more brilliant drops of fire, served to countenance this fancy.”
From the statement of Professor Grant, of the Glasgow Observatory, as published in the Glasgow Herald, we take the following:
“Shortly after one o’clock we had the good fortune to obtain a magnificent and uninterrupted view of the phenomenon. At 1h. 15m. the heavens had assumed an extremely imposing aspect. Multitudes of beautiful meteors were now everywhere visible, but especially in the eastern regions of the heavens, where the constellation Leo was to be seen as he gradually ascended in his course toward the meridian. Hundreds of the meteors far surpassed in brilliancy the stars of the first magnitude. In multitudes of instances they were brighter than Jupiter, and some of them even equalled Venus when she is at her greatest brilliancy. Their prevailing color was white, but some had a yellowish tinge of light, while others had a bluish tinge. In every instance they were accompanied by a straight, narrow train of well-defined light of a beautiful emerald green color.
“At 1h. 18m. a whole group of brilliant meteors were seen to burst out and diverge like a fan from the radiant point in Leo. At 1h. 20m. I counted the number of meteors visible in one minute, and I found them to amount to fifty-seven; but this in all probability did not exceed one-third of the number really visible in every part of the heavens.
“At 1h. 42m. the most remarkable meteoric phenomenon presented itself to us in the constellation Ursa Major, but unfortunately none of us caught the commencement of it. The blaze of light which this meteor emitted at the time of vanishing, was extraordinary. It left behind it a curved residue of faint light, having the form of a horseshoe. As it gradually grew fainter, it expanded its dimensions, until it vanished. This singular phenomenon continued visible in the heavens for twenty minutes after it first attracted our attention.”
IN IRELAND.
A Dublin correspondent of the London Morning Post writes, (Nov. 14:)
“The showers of meteors or shooting stars made their appearance at a little before twelve, midnight, and from that hour until about quarter after one A. M. the dark sky was illuminated by countless numbers of those luminous bodies, darting almost unintermittingly from east to west. Some of them were of most dazzling brilliancy, and left behind them a long trail of light, which was visible for some minutes after the head or nucleus had vanished. Many of them were seen to explode in the air, and some persons assert that on these occasions a faint sulphurous odor was perceptible.”
IN SPAIN.
An observer at Saragossa, in a letter to the London Times, says:
“My attention was first directed to the falling stars at about twelve o’clock at night, by observing groups of people in the narrow streets of Saragossa, conversing together with a certain degree of excitement, Mira Usted es como si fue en el tiempo del sitio. (Look, it is just as if it were in the time of the siege,) was the reply to my question as to what was the matter, and on looking up, the appearance certainly was as if the city was being shelled. Showers of meteors seemed to be pouring into the place, a score or more at a time, exploding with a brilliant flame at different points, and leaving long luminous trains behind them, some of which lasted as streaks in the sky several instants after the explosion of the meteors.
“The meteors seemed to be most abundant toward the north and northwest, and I noticed a particular stream of them not far from the constellation of the Great Bear. Some idea may be formed of their number and brilliancy, from the fact that when I went to bed, though the field of sky visible through my window as I lay, was very small, it was being continually crossed by the meteors, and a looking-glass which hung on the wall was every moment brilliantly lit up with the reflection of the explosions which occurred. During the short time I observed them, many hundreds of meteors fell, and, as there was no perceptible diminution in their number, I have no doubt during the night their number must have been tens of thousands.”34
IN FRANCE
The Independence Belge, of Nov. 16th, gives the following description of the meteoric shower as it appeared in France:
“At first, but a few stars were noticeable, darting off with great rapidity through space. Then they shot off in pairs, then in groups, flying in all directions; until, at length, it became impossible to count them. The majority of them left behind them a luminous trail, and exploded immediately before disappearing. In their rapid courses through the heavens, they appeared to chase one another. The whole firmament was nothing but a brilliant race course. This remarkable sight lasted from two to three hours, during which time one might have counted several millions of these celestial visitors.”
NUMBER, SIZE, AND COLOR OF THE METEORS.
Great numbers of these meteors are described as larger in apparent size and more brilliant in splendor, than stars of the first magnitude. One very splendid one, of a bright purple color, was seen over Cardiff, whose apparent size was three times that of Jupiter; its train, which was at first straight, took the form of a serpent, then of an egg, and was visible twelve minutes. The very brilliant one, in the shape of a horseshoe, which was visible twenty minutes, has been already described. Some were as large as a cricket ball, and “some could only be compared to the moon for magnitude.” One of immense dimensions, which flashed across the sky from east to west, was colored red, blue, green, orange, and amber. Herschel, the astronomer, describes one seen by himself in Glasgow, whose trail assumed the form of “an imposing ring of flame, three or four degrees in width; it remained visible for fourteen minutes, gradually expanding itself into a heart-shaped loop, until it enclosed the chief stars of Ursa Major in a wide fantastic wreath, before it disappeared.” “One or two,” says the Liverpool Journal, “were so magnificent as to illumine the whole heavens, and could only be compared, in brilliancy and splendor, to the most gorgeous of the Northern Light phenomena witnessed in this latitude.”
The general color of the meteors was a vivid pale blue, varying in some cases to purple. Some shone with a yellowish light, others with a deep red. Some were of an orange hue, and others seemed to be balls of copper-colored fire. The trains were of a brilliant emerald or pea-green color. To see the dark heavens flashing, blazing and exploding with fire-balls, and stars of various colors and sizes, and in countless numbers, must have been indeed a grand and beautiful sight.
According to observations made at Greenwich Observatory, near London, as given in the London Herald, the period of greatest splendor was between one and two o’clock; and in that one hour five thousand meteors were counted. The shower had reached its maximum at 1:20; at which time the stars were darting forth from the constellation Leo like an incessant shower of rockets, at the rate of one hundred and twenty-three a minute. The whole number counted at Greenwich, with the naked eye, according to the Herald, was 8,485. Other statements say as many as 12,000. A scientific observer, Mr. T. W. Weare, who witnessed the display on the seacoast, at Weston-super-Mare, where the maximum was not reached till about 2 o’clock, asserts that from 1:15 to 2:30, the meteoric discharges, as seen from that place, were “not less than three in every second of time, making 13,500 in one hour and a quarter.”
But so rapid was the discharge of meteors during the period of greatest frequency, that no eye could observe them all, and the actual number visible is admitted to have been much larger than the number counted.
An observer in the Isle of Wight, after counting fifteen hundred, says, in the Times, that at 1:13 “the falls became so incessant that it was impossible to count numbers fast enough.” Prof. Hind, the celebrated astronomer, states that after counting, from Bishop’s Observatory, Twickenham, 1,120 fallings, in the hour from midnight to one o’clock, and 500 in the next seven minutes, there was then a great and sudden increase, to an extent “which rendered it impossible to count the number. At this time the appearance of the whole heavens was very beautiful, not to say magnificent.” Prof. Talmage, of Barclay’s Observatory, describes the sight as one “never to be forgotten, and greatly resembling that shower which was observed in North America, on the 12th and 13th of November, 1833;” and a member of the Liverpool Historic Society, who states that the period of greatest display over that place, was at three o’clock in the morning, thinks “it must have been quite as numerous there at that hour, as it was in Boston in 1833.”
The showers which passed over France and Spain, seem to have been more numerous than those observed in Great Britain. The observer in Saragossa estimating them by tens of thousands, and the Independence Belge by millions. Further accounts from Southern and Eastern Europe may yet tell us of other displays of celestial fireworks on a grander scale than those seen at the north. In the meantime, let us all lift up our heads and rejoice, for the signs of our dear Lord’s return are multiplying, and the day of our redemption is drawing nigh. God speed the day.
WILLIAM B. HERRON.
E. M. CRANDALL
By E. M. CRANDALL
From Bro. Crandall.
BRO. SMITH: I have met with the brethren and sisters at Oakland, Wis., and spoke to them with some freedom two or three times, of late, and the Lord has been with us to strengthen and encourage. Many testimonies were borne with feeling and effect. The church is awake to the solemn and important times in which we live. The members seem to be alive to the importance of taking a higher stand in the cause of present truth, and of letting their light so shine that others may be led to embrace the last message of mercy to fallen man. Two have expressed a desire to forsake their wanderings and go with the people of God to Mt. Zion.
E. M. CRANDALL
Marriages.
COVEY—CASEY. July 5, 1866, in Albany, Wis., by Rev. W. Ward Smith, Mr. Eleazer J. Covey, of Leonidas, Mich., and Miss Aurelia Casey, of Albany, Wis.
CASEY—COLLINS. Oct. 14, 1866, in Albany, Wis., by the same, Mr. Chester W. Casey of Battle Creek, Mich., and Miss Sarah A. Collins, of Exeter, Wis.
CRONN—CASEY. Same time and place, by the same, Mr. Solomon S. Cronn, of Primrose, Wis., and Miss Kate C. Casey, of Exeter, Wis.
Obituary Notices.
By J. H. Waggoner; Wm. S. Higley; P. C. Rodman
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.
Rev. xiv, 13.
DIED, in Ithaca, Gratiot Co., Mich., Oct. 15, Lewis Ellsworth, aged 4 years and 1 month; also, Nov. 25, Daniel Martin, aged 10 years and 20 days; children of Bro. and Sr. Wm. S. and Esther M. Hall.
J. H. WAGGONER.
DIED, Dec. 2, 1866, Bro. John Mills of Hadley, aged 75 years, after having tried to live a Christian according to the best light he had, for more than forty years. When he heard the claims of the third angel's message, he heartily obeyed the call; and for the past three years he has rejoiced in the clear light of present truth, expecting to live and see his Saviour come; but in the triumph of living faith, without a murmur, he acquiesced in God's overruling providence, to “rest from his labors,” Rev. xiv, 13, “until Michael shall stand up for the children of God's people,” Dan. xii, 1, 2.
WM. S. HIGLEY.
Lapeer, Mich.
DIED in Ashaway, R. I., Oct. 11, 1866, Joseph M. T. Prange, son of Wm. and Dorcas Prange, after suffering six or eight weeks, aged 8 months and one day.
He giveth his beloved sleep
To wait the trumpet's awful voice,
Then will they rise their Lord to meet,
And share forever wisdom's choice.
May all this dear family meet then this innocent sleeper, and be forever with the Lord.
P. C. RODMAN.
Conference Department.
Exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.Heb. x, 25.
This Department is designed to fill the same place in the paper that the conference or social meeting does in the worship of God. Speak often one to another to comfort, edify and aid each other in the way of holiness and true Christian experience.