The Evening critic., 1881-09-30
Let. ram Ahou,. the weather.

The weather of the present summer-we
call IL summer because no sign nor SEM
blancc of fall has as yet shown up-has
been the most disagrceable and bcastly
since the food. Our Oldest inhabitant has
been questioned on the subject, and Susan
b. Anthony interviewed. The former takes
oath with an intermingling of profanity
that this year discounts anything within
the schedule of his recollection, and the
amiable dame, Miss Anthony says that
throughout her long experience In life,
there has been nothing to equal 1t since the
hot day on the Nile, when the stern cold
blooded Caesar made it. so hot for her first
husband Mark.
For one hundred and twenty days, more
or lcss--probably more--the thermometer
has been dancing the racquet among the
nineties, and very frequently gets in ahead
of the Old Hundreds, mingling sacred
music with the lightning changes Of the
secular waltz. The central locality of
Tophet in the valley of the son Of Hinnom,
was not hotter than the National Capital
has been during that four months solstice
of the summer and Nature seems so well
satiied with the misery 1t inflicts that,
like an ungodly mother-in-law, 1t continues
the visit.
Our city of magnificent distances and
munfcent dust has throughout its thor
scorched and burned by an omnipotent sun,
and the city, with its usual magnanimity
of character, has reciprocated the warmth
received from the sun upon its citizens, and
succeeded with unexcelled intensity of pur-
pose in getting in its work upon them.
The amount of liquid fluid burned out of
our humblest inhabitant during the con-
tinuous summer would be an ocean to the
tears shed by Niobe, and extinguish the
flames about tho funeral pyre Of Dido.
Oysters have suffered from the hot
weather, aud the sun cooks the fish before
they are imported from the sea. Philan-
thropic dogs have been known during the
past few months to bark themselves to death
In front Of the Office of our alleged newspa-
| per evening contemporary for fear of doing
harm through hydrOphobia, and all vegcta-
bles, milk, and butter are increasing in
price.
1t is expected that the winter will be u
very serious season for the poor, rs the rails
ing of the more immediate necessaries of life
has been handicapped by the wretchcd
weather.
In Virginia and Maryland the corn crop
was almost universally cut down and cured
for fodder as there was no possibility of a
crop. The tobacco crop was dead failure.
The oyster dealers have lost and continue
losing heavily. 1t is not an unusual cir
cumstance for men engaged in supplying
oysters in this city to lose from $50 to $3.50
a day by reason Of the condition of the she'll
fish when they arrive here.
On the whole, in a temperate sense, it is
not at all out of place to state that this has
been terrible summer; hotter than Hades
and scklier than Gehcnna. Whether it be
due to the comet, or to Vennor and the
Signal-service combined, or whether it be q
visitation of Divine Providence preparinp
us for our future eternal abode, we know
not, but certainly it is fact that the sum-
mer of 1881 has made it more pleasant for
the human outfit Of existence than any
other season on record in the chronicles OF
national history or Ayers almanacs.