A YEAR OF WONDERS

At the close of the year 1860, there appeared in the Chicago Journal an article giving a summary of mysterious events of the year, in which the writer says: “Regarding the year that has just closed, with an eye to its celestial as well as planetary phenomena, it has been a remarkable one, and might well create in the mind of a Millerite an irrefutable conviction that he had at last the data for a final prophecy. Thunder and lightning storms have been more violent and disastrous than usual. Tornadoes, unprecedented in fury, have ravaged every part of the country. Our western frontier has been parched and blighted by burning simoons. While one section reaped a bountiful harvest, another had its crops cut off by the lack of vivifying showers. Terrible storms and gales have swept our inland waters and seaboard. Freshets and inundations have ravaged the country in different quarters. Meteors of unusual splendor and size have burst in upper air. Comets have brandished their fiery traces. The aurora has flaunted its banners of crimson and pearl in the northern heavens with unusual brilliancy. We have had rain-storms and lightning, hail-storms and gales of wind, sunshine and a variation of twenty degrees by the thermometer in a single day. The predictions of the weather-wise have been falsified, the astronomer confounded, and the almanac man at fault. Is there not here a magnificent field for the man of science who shall explain these things, trace out secret agencies at work, and show the cause of the phenomena of 1860?”LDT 127.1