1896: Saw The Mystic Flying Light – Newspaper

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People Declare They Heard Voices And Saw A Light

From Frank Warren

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.”