The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-09-10
And I. looking at Madame's brown
curls, roseate skin and faultless figure.
thought amusedly: "What miracle
of French art !''-English Magazine.
The Australian Sirocco.
(Letter to the Alta Californian. J

lLetSef 10 the Alta CalnOrman.
The colonists Of Victoria and New
South Wales boast of the great beauty
of their climate. A description of the
hot winds, which are so boisterously
prevalent there during short periods of
the summer months, and which are
very extraordinary in their character
and effects, will help to show how far
the boast is justified. A misty smoke
darkens the atmosphere, which feels so
oppressively hot as to render breathing
at once laborious and painful. The sun
shines with lurid glare far hotter
than when in open brilliancy, and pre-
senting to the eye the appearance Of a
full moon behind feecy cloud. Dogs
crawl along with their parched TONGUES
dangling almost to the ground, and
horses move on with dropping heads
and convulsive gasps. All kinds of veg
citation first hang their tendrils, then
shriyel up, and finally yield to prema-
ture decay. And as the burning siroc-
co increases apace. and thick clouds Of
dust desiccate the air, animal and vege-
table life would seem to be threatened
with total. destruction. Cattle
Of every description often succumb
to incalescent exhaustion, and die by
the roadside: fields Of grain, which in
the morning were fresh and green. he
come, before evening, yellow as with the
ripeness of maturity, but in reality,
stunted and singed by the fiery in
huences prevailing; trees, yielding their
sap to the slakeless temperature, rapid
ly incinerate and cast OFT their but re-
Gently luscious fruit, and flowers pass
through all the graduation of growth
and development-fo into bud, open
into bloom and drop their leaves in the
cauldron around-in less than o day.
All nature, in fact, would appear for
the time to be trying experiments in
TECHNOLOGY, totally Indifferent about
health and life. The igneous elements
so wildly careering suggest NOTHING
but encircling volcanoes pouring forth
and scattering around their burning lava,
reduced to scintillant powder. 1t is a
scourge Of the most destructive charac-
ter. Out door business life is virtually
suspended, and the few people moving
about are every moment employed in
wiping off the profuse, dnsty perspira-
ton that streams down
their faces. Cafes and hotels
swarm like beehives with languid, thirsty
men, and the numerous iced beverages
drank would astonish the host credu-
lous. So hour after hour passes, the
heat increasing in intensity; and thirst
becoming more universal and Unsuitable.
Indoor life is alone endurable, and rooms
so carefully deprived Of air and light
as to give them, in any other weather,
a high fever temperature are now com.
paratively cool. The external aspect
of houses is somber and funereal, every
shutter and door being closed, and the
occupants lounge, gasp and sigh most
piteously. Reading is out of the ques-
ton, music is forsaken, and active
blank. Gentlemen smoke,
swallow ices and yawn. Bathing is the
only thing really enjoyable, and am
becomes almost a human
attribute. While these terrible hot
winds prevail, entire crops are some
times destroyed, homesteads burnt and
many lives lost. Fortunately, they do
not last more than two or three days at
a time, otherwise life and property
would be so insecure as to render living
and investment in the colonies unde-
sirable in the extreme.