I asked a visiting Astronomy Professor what the idea was. He said, “You
can see if you are right.” I says, “What has that got to do with the
eclipse?” He says, “Why you bet on the passing.” So I bet him I would
pass but I didn’t, so now I want the Scientist to figure out in what
year I am going to pass.
By that time it was 12.50 P. M. so I come out of the Observatory as
that was the time it was supposed to be Total, but there wasn’t a
Soul on the Streets or outside any place. Everybody was on the inside
looking at the Eclipse. It was pretty dark on the Street and a Mexican
who lived in the edge of the Town started milking his Cow, and raising
the mischief with his wife because she didn’t have his supper ready.
One fellow staggered out of an Observatory and I asked him if he
had seen the Eclipse and he said, “Which one?” But it certainly was
a success from a Scientific point of view, for away along in the
evening after it had gotten light, I saw Astronomers piled up in every
Observatory just overcome by what the Scientists call the Corona, or
after effects of an Eclipse.
Oh yes, the Mexicans also put on for the visiting Astrologers a Bull
Fight. It was held at the lower end of the Town. You had to pass every
Observatory in town before you reached the Bull Ring.
Well, I went down and there was lots of Natives but very few Americans.
As I say, it was held at the wrong end of the Town for them to reach
it. I guess it was the only Fight ever held during an Eclipse.
Can you imagine getting in a Pen with a Bull in the dark. I wouldn’t
even get in with one in the light. Well, the Bulls turned out to
be Steers. I guess on account of the Eclipse and the Condition the
Americans would be in, the Mexicans figured they wouldn’t know the
difference. They didn’t kill the Bulls, and the Bulls wasn’t lucky
enough to do any damage themselves. As a strict Humane man I could see
nothing to kick about, only from an audience’s standpoint.
So I left Tia Juana and come back to this side where everybody had
looked at the Eclipse from out of doors, and they all seemed to be
kinder disappointed. It didn’t do anything. You see from the amount of
Press stuff written about it most people kinder thought it would do
some tricks, maybe juggle or shimmy or something like that. It just
passed--that’s all. I, personally, along with all the others couldn’t
see anything so wonderful about it’s doing that. If the two planets
hadn’t passed but had hit, that would have been something to see.
Of course, I will admit in this day of congested Traffic, for any two
given objects to meet and pass without hitting is considered wonderful.
Everybody I talked with seemed to be unanimous that they would rather
have seen the Dempsey and Firpo fight. So I guess that is why they only
have Eclipses every 100 years so they won’t have to draw from the same
crowd twice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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