Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1899 — THE “RAIN OF FIRE." [ARTICLE]

THE “RAIN OF FIRE."

Leonida and Meteors Observed at Only a Few Places. Reports from various cities show that the expected “rain of fire” was witnessed only at three places Tuesday night. The cloudy weather was general. Prof. Keeler of Lick observatory, California, says he observed about ten leonids an hour, and one or two fine meteors were seen. In all 147 meteors were seen at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Of these fifty-eight were leonids. At one time they fell at the rate of one per minute. About twenty-five small meteors were observed at the naval observatory, Washington. They appeared between midnight and daybreak. The watchers at Yale College, who had been up for three nights, were disappointed, as were thousands in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati and other cities. Prof. Young of Princeton College says a snowstorm obscured the sky there. In nearly every town little parties which seemed enveloped in an apparent air of astronomical knowledge were arranged to watch Leo kick over the potful of. small stars and celestial sky rockets that have been accumulating for the past thirty-three years. Most of these yawning star gazers kept their vigil in vain, for few saw either Leo or any of Leo’s children.