Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1891 — THE CHAMPION METEOR STORY. [ARTICLE]

THE CHAMPION METEOR STORY.

Big Bock Spilt into a Thoasand Pieces By a Falling Aerolite. Wednesday morning the people of Mirabile, Mo., werg terribly frightened by a noise resembling the continued roll of artillery, followed by a horrible, grinding crass, whie seemed to tear the very earth asunder. There was a; very slight shock, as of an earthquake, but otherwise nothing resulted from it. The noise was heard for miles in every direction but it was not untiLa few days afterwards that the mystery was explained. On the same morning a metoric body was seen by people living in western Missouri and eastern Kansas, which traveled in a northeasterly direction,being first observed as far south as Lawrence, Kan., which* is nearly two hundred miles from the scene of the explosion. This meteor was very large and looked like a huge balLof fire, which emitted a train of sparks as it traveled through the air. William Apperson,living seven miles north of Mirabile, was awakened by the shock, and the concussion was so great that it stopped his clock and broke several panes of window-glass. Just north of his house formerly stood a huge mass of rock which took up a good part of his farm. When he went out to learn the cause of the noise he was surprised to find that, his big rock had dissapeared from its place and was crushed into small bits, which were scattered over his farm for acres around. There were tons upon tons of small stones which had been ground out of the once mighty bowlder by some wonderful force. In the spot where the body of stonahad once been there now lay what appeared to be a mass of iron ore about six feet in diam e ter. The body was oblong in shape and had evidently struck the mass of 1 ock brosdside on, for it was divided evenly into two pieces. Mr. Apperson brought some pieces of the celestial body to town with him and they are now on exhibition at a drug store here. They are undoubtedly of meteoric origin and have magnetic qualities.