125 years ago

march 20, 1885

We own up and apologize like a little man. Having pinned our faith exclusively to the ground hog, we have not consulted an almanac for a long time, and the result was, though we are ashamed to confess it, we didn’t know there was to be an eclipse of the sun last Monday. And hence when the atmosphere assumed a sickly, jaundiced appearance about noon, we wondered what was the matter. But not until it was all over did we know that about two-thirds of Old Sol’s disk had been obscured by the moon, and that many of our neighbors who had read the almanac for the jokes and patent medicine ads, had stumbled on this scientific fact and were out with smoked glass watching the ever interesting phenomenon. The eclipse began at 10:34 a.m. and ended at 1:04 p.m., duration of two and one-half hours, reaching its greatest obscuration at 11:42.

Marion is blessed with more trees, probably, than any town of its size in the State, and yet the RECORD would feel that it had neglected an important duty if it failed at this time of the year to join with its exchanges in the regular spring cry—“plant trees.”

Last Sunday was truly a grand day in Peabody, it being the day appointed for the dedication of the new M.E. church. Rev. B. Kelly, of Wichita, was on hand according to previous arrangement, and delivered a powerful discourse to nearly seven hundred people.

Superintendent Zercher is having put down on both sides of his residence premises, by great odds, the best sidewalk in front of any residence in town. It is being constructed of stone a foot thick, several feet wide, and each stone is four feet long. There is sense and real economy in that kind of sidewalk

We want it understood that the ground hog’s six weeks expired last week, since which time neither his swineship nor the RECORD has been responsible for the weather.