The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-07-01
Hiding the Theryn Om eter.

From tn N. Y. Post, June 17th.
Not long after the invention of measuring
the temperature by means of a thermometer
an interval of extreme heat occurred which
was the object of much conversation. In a
little town of Germany there was single pos
SCISSOR of a thermometer, which was consulted
by all the neighbOrhOOd several times in the
course of the day. 1t was the beginning of
dog-days, and instead of becoming cooler the
weather to their great disappointment grew a
little hotter with every successive day, every
body was remarking how uncomfortably warm
the season was. At last the owner of the Their
mometer, Michel by name, having duly reflect
ed on the subject, determined to put an end to
the Inconvenience which his neighbors were
suffering. and taking down the thermom-
eter from the place where it hung by the
side of his door, he packed it in cotton
and hid it in little drawer the key of
which he kept in his pocket. Now" said
Michel to his neighbOrs, I'VE shall have COOL
er weather. I have put out of the way that
rascally thermometer which marked the tenn
perature two or three degrees higher every
day, and YOU will be no more troubled with the
heat" The story goes that from that time to
the dog-days the good peOE lie of Katzenwinkel,
where Michel lived, were divided into two par
ties, those who maintained that since the dis
appearance of the thermometer the heat had
greatly abated, and those who insisted it had
grown more intense. They perspired and
painted as before, but some of them declared
hat the weather was almost cold enough for y
fire, while others were positive that the at.
mosphere was nearly at blood heat. They
had no thermometer to settle the question,
and SO the dispute went on.
short time since we had the means of
| measuring the price of gold by the sales made
at the meetings Of the board of brokers in this
city. 1t was an index of the imitation of our
currency. which told how its vo.ume was ex-
pandng from day to day. The gold bill, as it
ls called, prohibiting all sales of gold except in
those cases in which the contract was fol-
lowed by the instant delivery of the CON-
modify, has Just been passed by the
House at Washington, and needs only the
concurrence of the Senate or President to
become law. Then there will be no sales of
gold at the board of brokers. Michel will
have taken away and hidden the thermometer
by which we have hitherto observed to what
degree the atmosphere was heated. The wea-
ther will be just as hot the air as sultry, the
perspiration as copious; but there will be no
room to wrangle about the precise degree of
the prevailing warmth. To form some toll
eraby accurate notion of it, we shall be
obliged to go about dipping our fingers into
standing water wherever we see it, and to
observe how thinly the people are clad, to
what degree they affect the shade, and in what
quantities they consume ice-water.
We have for our part no confidence
whatever IN that class OF expedients to
which the gold bill belongs. They inter-
fere with the usual course of trade, and how
ever they may be recommended, they are in
the main and in their general consequences in
furious to the public interests. They are Also in
the greater number of instances wholly ineffec-
tual to prevent the mischief which they seek
to obviate. Trade, when such necessary
commodity gold is cOuceri ed, is to meet the
utmost skill of legislation with ingenious evasions
which render new legs alton necessary. Thespecu-
Iations in gold will either here er take new form
or be conducted in priva c. 1t is already proposed
by some OF the shrewder operators to begin the sell
ing Of ''greenbacks" at gold rates. which would
amount to the thing the present speculatons
in gold, but with much more dangerou. tendency
dozen other expedients indeed are discu -sed on
the streets and in the counting houses any one of
which, if carried nto effect would largely defeat the
purposes of the legislators. 1t was UCOnnell We
believe, who used to say that Parliament could not
make statute in restraint of natural freedom which
his countrymen would n go round, jump over or
crawl under and suspect that the makers of these
statutes for regulating trace will find THAI similar
word might be spoken of them