known -- or a "strange cloud" appeared, upon the 8th of September, off the coast of South Carolina. The cloud hung, heavy, in the sky, and was thought to be from burning grass on one of the islands. Charleston News and Courier, Sept. 10 -- that such was the explanation, but that no grass was known to be burning.(27)
If a procession starts at Washington Square, New York City, and, if soldiers arrive in Harlem, and then [344/345] keep on arriving in Harlem, I explain that, in spite of all the eccentricities of Harlem, Harlem is neither flying away from the procession, nor turning on 125th Street, for an axis. Meteors kept on coming to Charleston. They kept on arriving at this quaking part of this earth's surface, as if at a point on a stationary body. The most extraordinary display was upon the night of Oct. 22nd. There was a severe quake, at Charleston, while these meteors were falling. About fifty appeared (New York Sun, Nov. 1). About midnight, Oct. 23-24, a meteor exploded over Atlanta, Georgia, casting a light so intense that small objects on the ground were visible (New York Herald, Oct. 25).(28) A large meteor, at Charleston, night of Oct. 24th (Monthly Weather Review, 1886-296).(29) An extraordinary meteor, at Charleston, night of the 28th, is described, in the News and Courier, of the 29th, as "a strange, celestial visitor."(30)
"It was only coincidence."
There is no conventional seismologist, and there is no orthodox astronomer, who says otherwise.
In the Friend of India, June 22, 1897, is another record of some of the meteors that were seen in Charleston: that, at the time of the great quake, Prof. Oswald saw meteor after meteor shoot from an apparent radiant near Leo.(31) Carl McKinley, in his Descriptive Narrative of the Earthquake of August 31, 1886, records a report from Cape Romain Light Station, upon "an unusual fall of meteors during the night."(32)
Again a volcanic discharge came to this point -- or a fall of ashes was reported. In the News and Courier, Nov. 20, it is said that, about ten days before, ashes had fallen from the sky, at Summerville, S.C.(33) It is said that the material was undoubtedly ashes. Then it was said that it had been discovered that, upon the day of [345/346] this occurrence, there has been "an extensive forest fire near Summerville."
Monthly Weather Review, October and November, 1886 -- under "Forest and Prairie Fires," there is no mention of a forest fire, either small or extensive, in either North or South Carolina.(34)
Summerville, and not Charleston, was the center of the disturbances. Ashes came from somewhere exactly to this central point.
In A Study of Recent Earthquakes, Dr. Charles Davison gives 36 pages to an account of phenomena at Charleston.(35) He studies neither meteors nor anything else that was seen in the sky. He studiously avoids all other occurrences upon this earth, at this time. Refine such a study to a finality of omissions, and the vacancy of the imbecile is the ideal of the student. I approve this, as harmless.
The other occurrences were enormous. Destruction in South Carolina was small compared with a catastrophe in Greece. Upon the day of the first slight shock, at Charleston (Aug. 27th) there was a violent quake in Greece, and at the same time, torrents poured from the sky, in Turkey, carrying away houses and cattle and bridges (Levant Herald, Sept. 2).(36) Thousands of homes collapsed, and hundreds of persons perished. This day, there was a shock, at Srinagar, Kashmir: shocks in Italy and Malta; and increased activity of Vesuvius. Just such an inky cloud as was seen at Charleston, was seen in the eastern Mediterranean, at the time of the catastrophe in Greece -- reported by the captain of the steamship La Valette -- see Malta Standard, Sept. 2 -- "a mass of thick, black smoke, changing into a reddish colour."(37) "The sea was perfectly calm, at the time." In the sky of Greece, there was a glare, like the light of a volcanic eruption (Comptes Rendus, 103-565).(38) [346/347]
I confess to childish liking for making little designs, or arrangements of data