The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-10-22
Weather Warnings.

weather warnings.
The weather is merely the state er
condition of the air. Heat and cold,
moisture and drouth. wind and calm,
all make themselves felt by us princi-
pally in and through this element. The
study Of the weather is but the study OF
the variations of the air.
Man is so dependent upon the weather,
not only for his comfort but even for his
subsistence, that to be able to ascertain
it's coming changes has naturally al
ways been to him an object of extreme
solicitude. The weather is one of the
subjects upon which the credulity OF
mankind has in every age been taken
advantage of.
Many people remember the prophetic
and weather almanacs with: "The
dull, though mild" fair and frosty"
! mild for the season, y" frosty and more
fair" "rain, perhaps hail." WINDY,
perhaps rain" and other phrases which
were scribbled at intervals along the
calendar and were sometimes lucky
guesses. About forty years ago an Irish
schoolmaster named Patrick Murphy,
who was great mathematical scholar,
published a"W Gather Almanac "in Lon
don. in which he predicted the nineteenth
of January to be by far the coolest day of
the season, and, rs luck would have it,
so it was. The fact was noticed in the
papers, and there set in most enormous
demand for 'Murphy's Almanac" Over
10000 copies were sold in three weeks,
and for several years after Murphy's
Almanac" continued in great demand, +,
though it never again made any decided
hit in the weather prophecy line. In
various countries, and, of course, in
various languages, there are many pro-
verbs in rhyme as we'll as in prose about
the variations in the weather and their
causes.
The belief that Saint Switnin's or
Swithum's day (the fifteenth of July)
appears general-that if rain should
fall on that day there will be rain on
each of the following thirty-nine days.
Swithin was 4 Bishop of Winchester,
whe died A.D. e65. He desired that he
might be buried in the open churchyard,
"where the drops Of rain might wet his
grave" thinking that "no vault was so
good to cover his grave as that of
heaven" This 'was done; but in 965
some of his admirers removed his re-
mains, with the intention of placing
them in the choir of their church, but
Just when the funeral rites were com.
mencing a terrible rainfall drove every
person under cover, and trained SO vio-
lently for forty days that the design was
abandoned. There are many weather
rhymes about Saint Swithin's day. A
Scotch proverb runs thus:
Saint Swithin's day git ye do rain.
For forty days it will remain;
Saint Swithin's day, an ye be fair,
For forty days twill rain nae mair.
In 1907 it. rained in England on the
day in question, and q dry time followed !:
and the same in 1903. In 1873 and 1919
it was dry on the fifteenth, aud a
very dry time in each case followed.
The other summers between 1907 and
1918 appear to have come under the gen.
eral proposition, that in a majority
of the summers of England, a showery
period which, with some latitude as to
time and local circumstances, may be
admitted to constitute daily rain for
forty days, does come on about the time
indicated by the tradition of ST..
Swithin." The raining saints in France
belong to June, and are Saints Medard.
Gervais and Protals. In Flanders it is
st. Gadelicve, and Germany has three.
The tradition Us to the forty days rain
APPLIES to each. In Scotland where
saints days are not observed, July 3 is
the day. In different climates the date
varies.
From out of mass of old weather
rhymes and sayings we have collated the
following:
The evening red and the morning gray,
Is the sign OF n bright and chcery day.
The evening gay and the morning red,
Put on your hat or you'll wet your head.
The corn swells into ripeness in July,
and the farmers saying is:
A shower of ram in July,
When the corn begins to I'LL,
Is worth aplough and oxen
And all that belongs there still.
The sailor notes the tightening of til
cordage on his ship rs sign of coming
rain. Swallows fly close to the ground
or water before rain. When hens are
observed to pick themselves more than
usual, rain is near. Swine carry straw
in their mouths and toss about their bed
ding .efore storm. Cats are observed
to scratch the wall or post before wind
and to wash their faces before a thaw:
Winter thunder
Bodies summer hunger.
"Who dofs his cont on a winter day
Will gladly put it on in May"
The following is full IF poetical ex-
preston:
If the moor shows like a silver shield,
Be not afraid to reap your field;
But If she rises haloed ound,
Soon we'll tread on deluged ground.
A farm-yard couplet very tersely in
forms every one that:
II the cock goes Growing to bed
He'll certainly rise with watery head.
In the winter, when the muon's horns
are sharp and we'll defined, frost is ex-
pected.
Clear moon
Frost soon.
If the old moon embraces the new
moon stormy weather is foreboded.
saw the moon late yestreen
WI the auld moon in her arm,
And il We gang to sea, master,
fear we'll come to harm.
This observation used to be regarded
rs infaliible:
If there is in October much frost and wind,
January and Februa' y both mild you'll find {;
lIrt when in the autumn the weather is clear
The Geld wind full soon will appear.
The following is a hint to baseball
players and housekeepers:
Do not let October flies
Lead you to expect warm skies.
The following prediction is based upon
the law of equality:
Stops tho winter long away,
So much longer will it stay.
We may not improperly conclude this
article with some lines which were writ
ten by Edward Jenner, the discsverer
and propagator Of vaccination.
SIGNS OF RAIN.
addressed by DR.. Jenner to n lady who
asked him if he thought it would rain to-mor-
rew.)
The hollow winds begin to blow,
The clouds look black, the grass is low;
The SCOT falls down, the spaniels sleep,
The spiders from their cobwebs creep;
Last night the sun went pale to bed
The moon in halos hid her head;
The boding sheppard heaves sigh,
For see. a rainbow spans she sky;
The walls arc damp, the bitches smell,
Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernell;
The squalid toads at dusk were seen
Slowly crawling o'cr the green;
Loud quacks the ducks, the peacocks cry
The distant hills are looking nigh;
Hark, how the chairs and tables crack,
Old Betty's joints are on the rack,
And see yon rocks, how odd their flight