An Eclipse Of The Sun

Mrs. Mabel Loomis Todd, writing in The Atlantic of an eclipse seen in Japan, says: 'Must bef ore totality, to occur at 2 minutes after 3 o'clock, I-went over to the little lighthouse, taking up niy appoiuted station on the summit, an ideal vantage gTound for a spectacle beyond auything else I ever witnessed. Grayer aud grayer grew the day, narrower and narrower the crescent of shining sunligbt. The sea faded to leaden nothingness. Armies of crows, which had pretended entire indifference, fighting and flapping as usual on gables and flagpoles with unabated fervor, finally succumbed, and flew off with heavy haste to the pine forest on the mountain side. The French man-of - vrar disappeared in the gloom, the junks blended in colorlessness, but grass and verdure suddenly frnrned strangely, vividly yellow green. "It was a moment of appalling suspense. Something was being waited for. The very air was portentous. The flocks of circling sea gulls disappeared with strange cries. Ono white butterfly fluttered by vaguely. "Theu an instantaneous darkncss leaped upon the world. Unearthly night enveloped all things. With an indescribable outflashing at the same second, the corona burst forth in wonder - ful radiance. But dimly seen thrcragh thinly drifting cloud, it was nevertheless beantiful, a celestial fíame beyond descriptioii. Simultaueously the wholo northwestern sky was instantly flooded with a lurid and startliiigly brilliant oraage, across which floated clouds slightly darker, like flecks of liquid flame, while the west and Southwest gleamed in shining lemon yellow. It was uot like a sunset; it was too somber aud terrible. "