Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1885 — “Sunset Cox.” [ARTICLE]

“Sunset Cox.”

The Hon. S. S. Cox, in 1853, was editor of the Ohio Statesman, printed at Columbus, Ohio. The sobriquet of “Sunset” was bestowed upon him after he had written and published the following description of a sunset, which appeared in the Statesman of May 16, ■ 1853. “What a stormful sunset was that of last night! How glorious the storm and how, glorious the setting sun! We do not remember ever to have seen the like on our round globe. The scene opened in the West with the whole horizon full of golden interpenetrating lustre, which colored the foliage and brighted every object in its own rich < dress. The color grew deeper and richer, until the golden color was transferred into a storm cloud full of finest lightning, which leaped into dazzling zigzags all around and over the city. The world rose with fury, the slender shrubs and giant trees made obeisance to His majesty. The strawberry beds and grass plot turned up their whites to see Zephyrus march by. As the rain came and the pools formed and the gutters hurried away, thunder roared grandly, and the fire bell caught the excitement and rang with hearty chorus. The South and East received the copious showers, and the West all at once brighted up in a long polished belt of azure worthy of a Sicilian sky. Presently a cloud appeared in the azure belt in the form of a castellated city. It becomes more vivid, revealing strange forms of peerless sanes and alabaster temples, and glories rare and grand ip the mundane sphere. It reminds us of Wordsworth’s splendid verse in his ‘Excursion.’ The appearance instantaneously discovered Was of a mighty city, bo.dly sa< A wildnerness of Buildings, sinking- her And s ls-withdrawn into a wondrous depth. Far sinking into a splendor without end. But the city vanished only to give place to another isle, where the most beautiful forms of foliage appeared imagining a paradise in the distant and purified air. The sun, wearied of the elemental commotion, sank beneath the green plains of the west. The great eye of the heavens went down without a dark brow hanging over its departing night. The rich flush of the unearthly light had passed and the rain had ceased, and the solemn church bells, the laughter of the children, out and joyous after the storm, is heard, with the carols of birds, while the forked and purple weapon of the skies still darted illuminations around Starling College trying to rival its angels and leap into the dark windows. Candles are lighted. The piano strikes up. We feel that it is good to have a home —good to be on earth when such revelations of beauty and power may be made. And as we can not refrain from reminding our readers of everything wonderful in our city, we have begun and ended our feeble etching of a sunset which comes so rarely that its* glory should be committed to immortal types-” - - -