- The Evening Bee - Sacramento November 18th,1896
-
- Last evening between the hours of 6 and 7 o'clock, in
the year of our lord eighteen hundred and ninety six, a most startling
exhibition was seen in the sky in this city of Sacramento. People standing
on the sidewalks at certain points in the city between the hours stated,
saw coming through the sky, over the housetops, what appeared to them to
be merely an electric arc lamp propelled by some mysterious force. It came
out of the East and sailed unevenly towards the southwest, dropping now
nearer to the earth, and now suddenly rising again as if the force that
was whirling it through space was sensible of the dangers of collision
with objects upon the earth.
-
- That much hundreds of people saw. That much caused consternation
in this city last night among groups who gathered to hear the tale. What
follows some of the witnesses to the strange spectacle assert to be as
true as the circumstance related.
-
-
- VOICES IN THE SKY
-
- Startled citizens last night living at points of the
city along a rough diagonal line, yet far distance from each other, declare
they not only saw the phenomenon, but they also heard voices issuing from
it in mid air-not the whispering of angels, not the sepulchral mutterings
of evil spirits, but the intelligible words and the merry laughter of humans.
-
- At those intervals where the glittering object, as if
careless of it's obligation to maintain a straightforward course, descended
dangerously near the housetops, voices were heard in the sky saying:
-
- "Lift her up quick! You are making directly for
that steeple!"
-
- Then the light in the sky would be seen obeying some
mystic touch and ascending to a considerable hight, from where it would
take up again its southwesterly course.
-
- The light sailed along the line of K Street, so it appeared
from those in the eastern part of the city, although it appears that after
it had passed Fourteenth Street it was wafted far south of K.
-
- Laughter and words sounding strange in the distance,
though fairly intelligible, fell upon the ears of pedestrians along the
course of the light who had paused to look up at the novelty.
-
-
- COMING TO CALIFORNIA
-
- Last night's Bee contained a telegram from New York announcing
that a man had perfected an air ship and would on Friday of this week,
accompanied by one or two friends, ascend from a vacant lot in the metropolis
and go directly to California, which he promised to reach in two days.
The description furnished in the telegram included an apparatus which was
electrical to supply light and power for the astonishing contrivance. It
is not regarded as likely, in view of the announcement contained in the
dispatch, that last night Sacramento was over swept by the aerial ship.
But here is the incident-here is the chronicle of the words heard, of a
strange spectacled witnessed. Whence the light, which was not a meteor,
all agree, came whither it went, where it is now-these things is not within
the capacity of the article to deal with.
-
-
- MR. LUSK'S STORY
-
- Charles Lusk, Cashier of the Central Electrical Street
Railway Company, was at his home at Twenty-fourth and Q Streets last evening
when, having stepped outside, he saw the remarkable appearance in the sky.
He went into the house, and told the inmates of what he had seen.
-
- This morning Mr. Lusk mentioned the incident to some
of the carmen, and was amazed to learn from them that they had seen such
a light as he described while they were in the neighborhood of East Park.
More than that, they heard music and voices. One voice distinctly said:
-
- "Well we ought to get to San Francisco by tomorrow
noon."
-
- The carmen said they caught some faint idea of the shape
of the object that was floating in the air. It was of balloon shape, and
they concluded that it was a balloon.
-
- THEY SAW IT
-
- Foreman Snyder, of the Car Barn, Says It Was Not a Meteor
-
-
- This afternoon G.C. Snyder, foreman of the car house
of the Electric Car Company, gave the following to The Bee:
-
- "I assure you there is no joke about this matter,
so far as I am concerned. Last evening about ten minutes before 7 o'clock,
I saw a light, which was then above approximately, Twenty-seventh and P
Steets, sailing in a southwesterly direction. It rose and fell and swayed
from right to left as if it were being propelled by some motor power.It
was a white light, and not a star or a meteor, I am certain of that."
-
- "Mr. Lowry, who used to be connected with the car
company, told me he saw the thing when it was directly overhead and that
it had a wheel, which was going around."
-
- "I don't think it was a balloon, for it was going
in the southwest and a heavy wind was blowing from that direction. David
Curl, a horse- trainer at the race track, told me he heard voices in the
balloon, or what ever it was."
-
- "I learn that Michael Shelly , a carmen on car 103
on the J street line distinguished the shape of the affair."
|
