National Republican., 1880-07-12
PONDER AND PERsPIRE.
Twenty-Five swciterlng Days in a Ii,

Twenty-Five swcltering Days In q Line.
A comparison of the present with past sum.
mers shows that up to this time there has
becn greater number Of hotter days than any
similar season can show for score OF years ut
least There was heated term IN May. the
first tangible whisper Of the torrid gone that
reached this latitude. 1t was heard and felt
bringing with IL not the odor of orange
flowers but the hot aud sitting breath OF pes
tilcntisl swamps with their bare hearts palpi.
tatlng In the glsro of vertical suns. For four
days the thermometer marked from O5o to go
in the shade, the latter figure being one moro
than tho maximum at Maracaybo, which
Humboldt pronounced tho hottest place on
the American continent. AT Lima In Peru,
100 oflatitude south Of tho equator, the thor
mometer has reached 95o but once since l775.
June came in with roses aud sunstrokes, the
first day bearing o heat OF So The Glth was
SO, commencing a cheated spell" Of four
days. all above 500. With an intermission Of
two days the hot weather again broke out on
the 1ltb with 500, on the 10Th with 95o, drop
ping suddenly Oh the 10Th to the comfortable
figures Of CO.. On the 18th another heated
wave passed over the city, which has lasted
clear up TO to-day, with n prospect Of iudeh-
mite duration. For twenty-five consecutive
days the thermometer rs registered by the
signal service bureau, has measured from 81 to
09l0, longer continuous season of hot wealth
CT lilAu HAS ever DttO nOicu III IlllS Guy. IOf
eleven of those days the heat was registered
as over 009, for eight Of tho remainder as SO
and over, on one day only going as low us So.
In such torrid days one feels as Mariana
In the Moated Grange with the shadow Of that
ono tree only to reliovo the binding
glare on the shining sands. Visions of
cool, salty waves aud of caravansary life
by the tawny sands of the sea come up
with a feeling of shelter and infinite rest.
Ono thinks, these long, still, sunny afternoons,
Of the blue breakers, tipped with cool white
foam that WOO him, Lurlei-ilSc, TO a plunge
into their grateful embrace. The cool breezes
from over tho main mock the sweltcriug
dreams of the denizen amid brick walls aud
heated pavements. And so all the world has
gone down to the sea or up on the breezy
mountain top, leaving behind only q corporaPs
guard to dream of pleasures forbidden by duty
or-poverty The duri sdcfd pduciids is older
than Virgil And doubtless mauy worthy
Roman patclfdmilins often cxecrated the lack
of sestertiae which denied him a visit to
Bai@, NapOli and other Campanian watering
places toward which SO many of his fellow
lcgionaries wended their way in the good old
days when pancus was consul Not to all
mon doth Phebus show himself" sang the
Crock poet; "who secs him, hc is great" Aud
not for oil men does Plancus the good, hold
the consushp, any more than 10 the old
Roman whom fate or duty or lack of dcnarii
kept within the walls to "a daily tramp down
the Via Sacra, when the south wind blew hot
from the Cyrenaic shores, and fragrant Cam
punia, with its roses twice bossoming in
year, offered the whole wealth of her coasts to
his coming. All the world of Rome went to
the seashore, leaving behind the pancm aud
the circences to those who could not get away.
And all the world of to-day goes down to the
sea, leaving behind those who cannot get
away But, unlike the Roman, il is satisfied
when it leaves with them the pancm. The
circenscs are not deemed Of right the heritage
of the populace, in these degenerate days.
Alas for the brave old days when Plaucus
was consul