The Vineyard, an important part of the Earth which was scheduled to plunge through the tail of Halley’s comet last night beginning at 10.55, may well be congratulated upon its successful emergence from the passage. The early night was damp and foggy, and nothing startling locally occurred until just before midnight, the Earth then having penetrated possibly two or three hundred thousand miles into the tail, when peals of thunder and vivid lightning accompanied by a smart downfall of hailstones, convinced many that our good old Earth was stirring up the comet’s tail somewhat.
Echoes from the earthquake which rippled along the mainland coast from Hyannis to New Bedford on Sunday evening, were heard on the Vinevard in the vicinity of Menemsha Creek, and it is possible that other demonstrations were noted but not associated with the quake itself.
The family of Donald Poole reported a rumble, resembling the labored exhaust of a heavy car and continuing for about fifteen seconds. Cap’n and Mrs. Everett Poole also heard the same sound, though it appeared deeper. All who heard it said that it appeared to come from a northerly direction.
A slight shock of an earthquake was experienced in this town on Sunday morning last, at about a quarter to ten o’clock. We did not notice any unusual trembling of the earth or rumbling sound, but some of our readers did, and one gentleman, we understand was thrown out of his chair! It is also said that a lady discovered considerable commotion in her milk pans, and a saucer floating on the milk was tossed to and fro.
We hear that the shock was quite severe in Chilmark, and that some six rods of stone wall was thrown entirely down.
On Wednesday, Aug. 21, patients, nurses and domestic staff moved into the new Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, and that institution, or rather the brand new edition of that institution, began to function as its founders have long dreamed it might. For months carpenters, masons, plumbers and painters have been employed on the building which occupies a prominent site beside the road leading from Oak Bluffs to Vineyard Haven, and it is fairly safe to say that never a week has passed, scarcely a day, nut that some stranger, riding along the road, has inquired just where the new hospital might be.
The series of endeavors on the part of the town of Cottage City to rid itself of the now notorious Rocker family culminated last Friday in a performance, the true story of which reads more like the report of a riot in a Louisiana parish, or like a leaf from some yellow-colored “Life on the Border,” or like a chapter from Reade or Dickens on the administration of the charity laws in the old country, than like the simple account of the removal of the local authorities of a poor family, located in a New England town, to the paternal care of the government of the State of Massachusetts.
Our rural village of West Tisbury has added another improvement and pleasing feature to its attractions in the fixture of a handsome clock in the steeple of the Congregational church. The four dials of the clock face nearly to the cardinal points of the compass and give a happy architectural effect to the little spire. A new bell has also been a part of the improvement in place of the former smaller one, procured nearly thirty years ago, which had not sufficient strength to correspond with the machinery of the clock in striking the hours.
Vineyard Haven, Dec. 15. - Today has been a red letter day in the history of Vineyard Haven. The water works, the progress of which has awakened so much interest throughout the island, has been formally opened and the consummation of the enterprise celebrated in a manner commensurate with its importance. Vineyard Haven has a right to be proud, not only of its water system, but of the brilliant demonstration which signalized its completion, and of the creditable manner in which her citizens arose to a proper recognition of the occasion.
When was the first bath tub brought to Martha’s Vineyard? Nantucket had a bath tub, weighing more than 800 pounds, in 1881. A Nantucketer reports having seen another as early as 1861 on that island. Commenting editorially on the question of bath tub priority, the Boston Herald on Wednesday morning challenged Vineyarders to adduce proof of the earlier existence on this Island of a receptacle designed solely for bathing the human form.
On Monday, the fifth of July, two men, (Indians) natives of Gay Head, named Amos Jeffers, Jr., and Jeremiah Weeks, proceeded in a Vineyard sailboat on a swordfishing expedition off Noman’s Land. - Nothing has since been heard of them, and as the boat’s mainsail was picked up on Tuesday, the 6th, on Gay Head, the supposition is, the boat was stoven by the sword of a fish, and sank from under them. It is barely possible they were picked up by some vessel; but the impression is general that they have found a watery grave. They were both men of uncommon promise. Mr.
