Omaha daily bee., 1881-09-01

sure to prevail in the middle states,
in New England, and at other points,
in localities larger or smaller, rs may
appear, in exact accordance with es.
tablished rules touching the weather
known at my CENTRE, Montreal.
Just now | have not the time to recite
| those rules-the various relations and
the similarities and contrasts. Re-
Gently l have given more than ordi.
nary attention to the weather of the
| states, and no change of temperature
of storm is allowed to be passed by
u~nrecorded in my office. | would
like to have you visit my headquar.
tiers in Montreal; you would find it in
teresting. Aside from that part of
my bureau covering Canada you
would see with what care i am gath.
ering facts relating to the states.
Nearly all of the principal newspapers
of the union reach me, and l have as
sistants whose special duty it is to
read the journals and clip out every
reference to the weather and con-
nected subjects. All this data is cat
alogued ready for reference and use. +"
"When did you first set up in the
prophet business ~ questioned the re-
porter.
"That is rather hard to state. For
years | had been associated with the
Canadian geological survey, and, TO a
greater or less extent, always was
making predictions. j had got hold
of my theory, and was developing it.
1t was in 1875 that | dared to make
my first noteworthy forecast. Early
in the autumn | published in an en-
phatic n the prediction that
Montreal society men would make
their next New Years calls on wheels,
and that rubber, instead of moccasins,
would be the order of the day. Every
body laughed at me--the newspapers
held me up as a butt of ridicule. The
winters for several years past had
been extremely severe, and my pre-
diction was rated on all sides as the
summit of absurdity. But | stolidly
stood it all. And when New Years
came, wagons on wheels and men
without their moccasins filed the
streets. 1 was happy; the press be-
came kindlier, and my friends began
to pat me on the back. Later l dis
solved my connection with the geolog-
ical survey, end recently, as engineer,
l have been interested In phosphate
mines in the Dominion. But | have
never allowed other business to take
me from my tavorite study. My
weather work is growing constantly,
and has now reached almost startling
proportions. Yet it brings me in not
"a single penny. All is outgo. The
expenses come wholly from my private
purse.
"You said Il moment ago." re-
marked the reporter, "that you ~
yet claimed to forecast only within
a week. Do you expect to be able
soon to make closer calculations ?"
"Of hat l would rather not speak
at this time. But, to be honest, l
assure you it is my belief that only
the good Lord can tell what is to hap
pen in the future to the exact hour
or day. Now, the United States sig
nal service works on a system decid-
ly different from that of mine, and
there is no reason, none whatever,
why it should ever make any mistake,
however trivial. Oh, don't l wish l
had the facilities your officers have at
command. l think l could make a
big record. Your signal force, ! see,
has recently been indulging in criti-
cisms of me end my system. Not
only r they ungenerous, but they
seem to be willing to do me a wrong.
They talk much about verifying my
forecasts, when the truth is they have
never had opportunities for such veri-
fication. They have never, in a SIN
gle instance, directly received a pre-
diction a originally made by me, but
they pick up my forecasts after they
have fioated about in your newspapers,
and then, when they are old, proceed
to pass upon them. Somebody has
charged that not half of my forecasts
are correct. That is false, absolutely,
maliciously false. But we will dis
miss this subject"
"What sort of weather will you
give us ior the coming winter?'
''Ihe winter of 1882 it is yet i'm
possible TO forecast. 1 am ~wavering
betweeh two points, and find myself
unable 10 decide whether there is to be
cold weather and light snow falls in
New York, with more snow in Canada,
or whether the season is to be a dupli-
cation of last year. Interview in the
New York Times.