{"id":8502,"date":"2024-02-18T16:25:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T21:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/?p=8502"},"modified":"2024-02-18T16:25:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T21:25:55","slug":"findlays-hovering-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/findlays-hovering-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Findlay’s Hovering Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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There were still quite a few citizens of Findlay walking home from work on the evening of May 21, 1888. Nothing, at first, seemed out of the ordinary. Just a few years earlier it resembled a mining-town, with a scattering of derricks, immense oil tanks, and a few rude shanties. It was now the great natural gas town of Northwestern, Ohio, and the adventurers were displaced by civilization. The finely shaded streets were lined with pretty cottages, and the occasional pretentious dwelling, each with a neat private yard and stables.[1]<\/a> Yes, nothing was out of the ordinary, until the early hours of the night. It was then when a strange fitful light began flashing at intervals in the northern skies, which only grew in intensity. This lightening was uncanny. It was uncanny and unnatural in its character.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Main Street Of Findlay.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n
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The lightning continued until 11 p.m., when plumes of light concentrated into a distinct object, fashioned from \u201ca shadowy substance,\u201d and which soon assumed the proportions of a giant hand; well-formed, and as distinct as if painted upon a black canvas. The hand reached from the horizon through which it seemed to be thrust half way up the sky, the wrists and fingers being particularly well-defined; perfect in form and proportion. The index-finger pointed downward toward the city. Within the spectral hand were beams of light, constantly changing from amber, to amethyst-rose. The light throbbed and pounded, as though coursing through arteries, and surged just as regularly as heartbeats in a human chest.<\/p>\n
The meteorological wraith was framed with soft fleecy clouds, and if a monstrous, disembodied, hand was not hovering in the sky, one might have imagined the clouds to be the smoke of incense, arising and drifting, from the very altar of heaven. Suddenly the lights began to fall from the fingertips, in great ruby drops, \u201calmost as large as hot-air balloons,\u201d and swallowed up in the darkness below.<\/p>\n
This impressive, and mysterious, exhibition was visible for over an hour. The hundreds of people who witnessed it were \u201cthrown into torment of anxiety.\u201d Many believed that it was a sign of the end of the world, or at least of the destruction Findlay. But the hand began to slowly fade away, and become a shadow. It was an uneasy slumber for the citizens of Findlay that night.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n
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SOURCES:<\/p>\n
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[1]<\/a> White, Z.L. \u201cNatural Gas In Findlay.\u201d The American Magazine<\/em>. Vol. VII, No. 2 (December 1887): 199-215.<\/p>\n
[2]<\/a> Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n
[3]<\/a> \u201cFindlay\u2019s Fate.\u201d The Springfield News-Sun<\/em>. (Springfield, Ohio) May 23, 1888; \u201cA Giant Hand In The Sky.\u201d The New York Tribune<\/em>. (New York, New York) May 23, 1888; \u201cRemarkable Phenomena.\u201d The Public Ledger<\/em>. (Memphis, Tennessee) May 24, 1888; \u201cAwe-Inspiring Portents Of War Seen In The Skies.\u201d The World<\/em>. (New York, New York) March 13, 1898.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 There were still quite a few citizens of Findlay walking home from work on the evening of May 21, 1888. Nothing, at first, seemed out of the ordinary. Just a few years earlier it resembled a mining-town, with a scattering of derricks, immense oil tanks, and a few rude shanties. It was now the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4831,"featured_media":8505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2379,2072,2370,2376,2373,2367],"class_list":["post-8502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-findlay","tag-ghost","tag-hand-of-god","tag-interdimensional","tag-mysterious","tag-ufo"],"yoast_head":"\nFindlay's Hovering Hand<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" There were still quite a few citizens of Findlay walking home from work on the evening of May 21, 1888. 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