The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-08-25
The Hot weather-The Chicago As
tronomer and His Sun Spots-His
gheory-Hot Weather O DelusiOFl II
not n Snare.

not n Snare.
The Chicago Tribune enjoys the luxury
| of an astronomer on its editorial sta1l-a
real, genuine astronomer, too, who is on
terms of the greatest intimacy with the sun
and the moon while, as to the stars, no
| matter how distant a planet may be TO
others, il Winks with sldereal familiarity at
him. He knows the names Of all the stars
seen in the heavens as well as though they
were his own children, and he can tell an
invisible star as soon as he sees IT.
He gives himself up to astronomy COM
pletely, hardly taking time to eat OF sieep;
Belonging to secret society, he was called
upon one day by a brother member TO give
him some of the signs of the Order, and be-
ing abSent-mlnded, lie gave nlih Tue siSus
of the zodiac"
All the other Chicago papers are jealous
and mad because they haven't any astrono-
mer. They have frequently made oVertures
to him-tried to hire him away, or at least
induce him to quit astronoming 1--WE think
that is the world for the Tribune but he
won't listen to them.
Last spring, one sunshiny day, ne notlced
something peculiar in the light he thought
the sun wasn't shining SO, brightly az the
Dublic. who are paying heavy gas bills,
have n right to expect. He felt rather hurt
nj this. as his relations with the sun up to
that time had been of the most intimate and
friendly, not to say confidential, character,
and he naturally wanted to know the rea-
son of it.
So. climbing to the roof of the new Iri-
hume building, he adjusted his spectacles to
take a survey Of the solar luminary, when
his establishment and dismay were very
great on discovering spots on the sun
Choking down bis chagrin at not having
predicted the spots months before, as he
hos, ir1cf 30 Ual1 NOT had no
oniy thought of it, he descended to his Office
| and proceeded to prognosticate what the
effects of those spots would be on the earth's
| temperature, the price of stocks, the quail
ity of beer. &C., all of which appeared in
the next mornings Tribune. lie demon
strated very clearly that the spots on the
sun, if not really icebergs, would have
something of the effect of icebergs, and
very senSibly reduce the heat of the sun
this summer. This bad such an effect on
numerous readers of the Tribune, who re-
pose implicit faith in the astronomer, that
they didn't pawn their overcoats, as they
usually do, when spring arrives, but kept
them to wear; and great many families,
for the first time in years, neglected to lay
in q stock of ice-cream for the summer
He wrote about those spots, described the
spots, printed maps illustrating the spots,
until every schoolboy who read his paper
could tell the spots on the sun as easily as q
gambler could tell the spots on q marked
card. He took the spots under his special
protection, and looked at them SO much ne
began to grow little spotted hlmseM; IL
is even said that he followed "Spotted Tail y
around with a telescope all of one day
when that celebrated chief was in Chicago.
Well, the cool weather he predicted didn't
oecur. not by a-not by long shot,
as the people Of the entire North American
continent and the the British provinces are
/ ready to swear-and if there is anything
that will make man ready to swear it is
the weather for six weeks past. The Chi
cago astrono mer, however, had perslstently
refused to acknowledge that it was hot. He
days, and on one occasion, when the Their
mOmeter was at 100 in the shade, he was
seen shivering along Dearborn street in
buckskin gloves and fur overcoat ..
Such an example Of devotion to theory
has never been known. The people in
sisted that 1t was hot, but he assured them
it wasn't-only their notion. They derided,
swore, rayed, gathered in great, sweatty
crowds before the Tribune office, and
groaned at the astronomer. Appeals began
to come in from abroad beseeching the as
| Economical editor either to stop the hot
weather or explain. Bushels of letters on
the subject came every day.
| Finally he explained. He admitted that
it did seem little warm some days along
about II o'clock in the forenoon, although
an overcoat was comfortable the rest of the
day, and there hadn't been night when
| wooen blankets were not necessary to
keep from freezing; but the heat was only
apparent, not real. The sun spots had ac-
tually reduced the heat of the earth very
materially, but there was lot of heat left
over in the earth from last year that we are
using too layishly. He advised more
rigid economy in that particular. The sun
itself wasn't hot all, he said, and, in short,
hot weather was "all in my eye"
1t is good thing the temperature has
moderated, or the Chicago Tribune astrono-
mer would shortly have fallen victim to the
ace Sa tn thus fooiins with the sn0d R3pu-