Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1878-09-12
HOW THE WEATHER IS FORETOLD.

weather was the almanac, which ambitlously
prophesied whole year of cold and heat, We
and dry, dividing up the kinds of weather
quite impartially, if not always correctly.
But the almanac, good as it was now ane
then, and the weather-wise farmers, correct
as sometimes might have been, were not al
ways able to impart exact information to the
country; and they have been thrown quite
into the shade of late, by one who is popular
ly known under the somewhat disrespectfu
title of "Old Prob" or "Old Probabilities.
He has become the herald of the weather to
the sailor near the rocky, dangerous coasts
to the farmer, watching his crops, and waiting
for good days to store them to the traveller
anxious to pursue his journey under fair skies
and to the girls and boys who want to know
before they start to the woods for a picnic
what are the "probabilities" as to rain.
Every one who reads the daily paper is ia
miliar with the "weather record" issued from
the war department Office of the chief signal
officer at Washington. These reports give
first general statement of what the weather
has been for the past twenty-four hours all
over the country from Maine to California
and from the lakes to the South Atlantic
States and then the "probabilities" or "indi'
cations" for the next twenty-four hours over
this same broad territory. The annual re-
ports of the chief signal officer show that in
only comparatively few instances do these
daily predictions fail of fulfillment.
The reason these prophecies are 80 true is a
simple and yet wonderful one The wealth.
er itself tells the observer what it is going to
do sometime in advance, and the telegraph
sends the news all over the country from the
central signal office at Washington.
The atmosphere has weight, just as water
or any other fluid, although it seems to be
perfectly bodiless We must comprehend
that the transparent, invisible air is pressing
inward toward the centre of the earth. This
pressure varies according to the state of the
weather, and the changes are indicated by an
Instrument called barometer. Generally
speaking, the falling of the mercury in the
tube of the barometer indicates rain, and its
rise indicates clear weather. Sometimes the
rise is followed by cold winds, frost and ice.
What these changes really indicate can be de-
termined only by comparing the barometic
changes, at certain hours, in number Of
places very far apart This is done by the
signal service. Observations are made at
about one hundred and forty stations, in diff:
ferent portions of the country, at given hours,
and the results are telegraphed at once to
Washington, where our faithful "weather
clerk" receives them, reasoning out from them
the probabilities" which he publishes three
times in every twenty -four hours.
But the atmosphere varies not in weight
| onlv hnf o1oo aturo The fhar.
mometer tells us OF such changes.
Besides this, the air contains great amount
of moisture, and it shows as much variation
in this characteristic as in any others. For
the purpose of making known the changes in
the moisture of the atmosphere, an instrument
has been invented called "wet. bulb" ther-
mometer.
We are thus enabled to ascertain the weight
or pressure, the temperature, and the wetness
of the air, and now it only remains for US to
measure the force and point out the direction,
of the wind. This is done by the familiar
weather vane and The thermometer. The vane
shows the direction, and the anemometer is
an instrument which indicates the velocity OF
the wind.
1t is by right understanding of all these
instruments that the signal service officer is
enabled to tell what the weather says of itself;
for they are the pens with which the weather
writes out the facts from which the officer
makes up bis reports for the benefit Of all con-
cerned. Thus, however wildly and blindly
the storm may seem to come, it sends messen.
gers telling just where it arose, what course
it will take, and how far it will extend. But
it tells its secrets to those on y who pay strict
attention. Fl. Flint, in St. Nicholas
ORIGIN OF TWO WELL KNOWN PHRASES.
"Cutting Dido" is phrase older than
most people imagine. The husband Of Dido,
the Princess of Tyre, was Acerbas, priest of
Hercules, and that respectable gentleman was
murdered for his wealth by the King Of Pyg-
malion, brother of Dido The widowed prin-
cess was enabled to escape from Tyre, bearing
with her the wealth of her husband, and &C.
companied by number of disaffected mobiles.
After variety of adventures they landed
upon the coast of Africa where Dido bar
gained with the natives for as much land as
she could enclose with bulls hide. Select
ing a large, tough hide, she caused it to be cut
into the smallest possible threads, with which
she enclosed a large tract Of country, on
which the city of Carthage soon began to rise.
The natives were bound by the letter of their
bargain, and allowed the cunning queen to
have her own way ; and after that when any
one had played off sharp trick, they said
they had "cut Dido. That was almost
three thousand years ago, and the saying has
come down to our day.
The phrase "to scrape acquaintance, comes
to us from the Roman Emperor Adrian. He
was at the public baths one day, when he
saw one of his verteran soldiers scraping his
body with tile. That was such poor luxu-
ry that Alrian ordered that his old comrade
should be supplied with more suitable cleans
ing materials, and also with money. On
subsequent occasion, when the emperor
again went to the bath, the spectacle before
him was highly amusing. A score of old
soldiers who had fought under Adrian, were
standing in the water, and each was currying
himself with tile and wincing at the selt-in-
fcted rubbing. The emperor perfectly un-
derstood what he saw and what was the pur-
pose of the sight. "Ha ha!" he exclaimed,
''you had better scrape one another, my good
fellows" He added, "you certainly shall not
scrape acquaintance with me-"
ANOTHER MARKsMAN-The St. Louis
Evening Post says: adam Goldies, of SHAH
non county, Mo-, is a great adept with the
rife, and has performed more real and mar
velous feats of Workmanship than even those
with which DIR. Carver has of late been aston
ishing the world. At one thousand yards
he will hit the centre of the bull's-eye, and then
send six bullets, one after the other, hitting
! the very indent made bY the first A potato