The New York herald., 1879-01-04
..Relow Zero.

In seasons of extreme heat or cold the
thermometer becomes popular study, and
our people who use the Fahrenheit meas
urement often exhibit q strange impatience
at the instrument when in midsummer hot
spells it fails to touch one hundred de-
grees, or when in midwinter cold snaps
the little column of mercury does not
shrink to zero or below. From the
time it passes eighty on its way upward. or
thirty-two (treezing point) on its way down
ward, it comes into vogue. People love
round numbers, and zero and one hundred
satisfy them, all over or under that being
special boons to the frivolous. But these
arbitrary figures represent only the merest
fraction of the ranges of heat. Fahrenheit,
having learned from Reaumur to mark his
thermometers by first dividing the differ
ence between the freezing and boiling points
of water into one hundred and eighty
degrees and adopting as zero the
temperature of mixture of snow
and common salt, thought he had
reached the bottom of the scale, while
Celsius marked his zero at freezing point
dred. But it is not by the columns of mer-
curry that we should alone gauge the cold.
How it strikes the human frame and con-
geals the current of life is of keener inter-
est. How the poor and the homeless suffer,
how shelter from the bitter wind means no
refuge from the biting cold, is of greater
moment. "a family of eight persons frozen
to death )" Brakeman Opdyke found dead
and frozen at his post on the hurrying
train;" "a waif found dead from the cold
near Wilkesbarre;" ''the east side ele-
waited road is running its trains all
night to keep the engines from
freezing up"-these stray items of the
news give us a measure of what is meant
when man reads at his breakfast table that
over wide territory it has been "below
zero" man goes forth warmly clad; he
keeps moving to keep up bodily warmth;
he finds all the devices that served him in
milder weather are failing him now The
thick fur gloves do not altogether protect
his hands; his fur cap and earlets
cannot keep his face warm. The
air seems stripping off his clothing
the further he goes, and he is soon glad to
rush indoors. Let the wind be blowing as
it was in New York last night, or fine, dust
like snow be whirling thick upon it as fur
ther west, and these conditions become in
tensifed almost beyond description. Woe
to the thinly clad out Of doors or the fire
less and blanketless in poor abodes. Such
one walks along the darkened Streets his
hands become numb, his feet are cold, and
his ears, that were paining him, lose all
sensation; he draws his breath in pain.
The chill is searching out his bones,
and his feet, though heavy to lift
as lead, seem to touch the earth
like feathers; then he feels more
tired than cold his eyes are growing
heavy. He will sit down and wait while,
as if warmth would come to him. That is
nearly the end. Stupor comes, and then
death. This is whnt ''below zero means
for many. For thousands beside it means
longer, if less deadly suffering. Think of
this by your warm fresides to-day. The
extreme cold will remain over wide
stretch of this continent tor four or FIVE
days to come, and the winter through
promises to be unusually severe. Think Of
and help the poor, then, who are 'always
with yOu'