Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-20
HOT WEATHER.
THE TERRIBLE HEAT IN THE CITY OF
PARIS.
The Question of Religion
in the Schools.

"Water - Water !" has been the de-
spairing cry of Parisians these last ten
days. Surely nothing but comet would
be guilty of so turning Natures head that
she recklessly stirred up the suns fires to
almost burn us alive. In all our suffer.
ings of this terrible heat we have been
consoled with the reflection that we were
not alone in our misery, for not only those
ceived little more than their usual
share of ardent rays, but different Euro
pean cities have swelled the chorus with
their lamentations. In the midst of our
suferings we were informed that the wa
ter was becoming scarce, and that those
additions by which we took in a little
freshness through the pores would have to
be limited that the water wasted from
the pumps SO as to obtain cool daught
must be carefully preserved and drank
howsoever warm, with the risk of having
none at all to drink. This information
was like the cry of fire aboard ship among
a crew Of seasick passengers. We almost
forgot the
ToRTUREs OF THE HEAT
While rejecting on worse miseries which
were likely to befall US. The first intima-
ton of the scarcity of water came from
the Government authorities ordering more
equal economy of the fluid else necessity
of putting us on rations. Then did male
dictions fall on the head of the water COM
pany who had made contract with the
city to furnish it with water, and as they
had the monopoly from the Government,
that august body received some serious
raps over the water company's shoulders.
1t really did seem preposterous that a large
city like Paris should need water, and it
appeared a most lamentable misfortune to
be deprived of it at time when its demand
was so urgent. The streets were no longer
sprinkled. and the French capital, which
has heretofore always boosted of its clean
and careful toilet, began to look like any
other ordinary dame belonging to less
civilized country. Then there were the
sewers, constant reproach to our olfac-
tories, which lacked water to hasten the
current beyond the city, and in conse-
quence threatened us with siege of
cholera, or some other as terrible mis-
fortune. We really seemed doomed
to all imaginable horrors, and we expert
enced great desire, with the natural in-
stinct of our ancestors, to hang the entire
water company, whose only excuse was
that they had counted on the rain to aid
them in their provisions, just as do the gas
companies count on the moon. Fortu-
nately the savage intentions of the thirsty
inhabitants were not put to execution, for
the company have been found less guilty
since we have learned that Lyons and
other cities of Francs have fallen short of
water, and even London, the capital Of an
leland, is suffering from the same mis-
fortune, and all Impotence and animosity
have been concentrated in the expression !:
HANG THE COMET
Nothing else can account for the great EN-.
barassment in which we have all been
thrown over here, and it is easy to sup
pose that that luminous body is some ter
rible thief in disguise, who has come to
empty our springs and river beds to fur
nish water to some thirsty planet, like
any man who would go TO the we'll
with bucket. The suferings from
the heat at Paris were intense,
from which there semed to be no
refuge, for the houses are not con-
structed to keep the heat out any more
than the cold, and the people are not yet
cured OF their belief that they are the IA
vorite children of nature, whom she is ever
81 III; IL A.,
OF the houses varied little from that out
| doors, to realize how warm it was one
| needed to descend to the cellar or visit the
ground floors of the museums. had oc.
casion to GO to the Musee du Louvre, where
in the picture galleries l met scarcely other
than Americans complaining that it was
| growing hotter all the time, but on de.
scending to the sculpture department
| found a very good-natured crowd and a
larger one than had ever before seen there.
| The very undress of the statues was re.
freshing to look at, and the cool air was as
agreeable as hot air bath on cold day.
Every one seemed 10th to leave this
delightful retreat and never before perhaps
were the statues socaressingly admired, the
Apollos and Mercuries SO charitably com.
pared, and SO plying and interesting
| glances bestowed on unrestored figure:
presented as discovered in the bowels Of
| the earth, and of which there are so many
| at the Louvre that it seems inhabited by
| the ghosts of 4 hospital. All throughout
the gallery artists were to be seen, prin.
cipally young ladies who were preparing
work after the antique, and they were tC
appearances coolly at their labors. Before
the door of exit is the grating Of calori
fere, and as | stepped out 1t seemed as
though | was stepping into the very jaws
OF furnace, so fearful seemed the hot all
of the exterior. On Tuesday evening few
clouds gathered in the sky, which were
watched with intense interest by every
one, for we felt our salvation depended
upon the charity of the heavens. 1t rained
but little, sufficient barely to lay the dust
but the clouds do not abandon us and we
| feel that we are saved.
THIS SUMMER
| OF the comet is likely to have it's place il
astronomical history. The warmest sum
mers in the last centuries have been those
of 1854, 1856, 1851, 1899, l70l, l704
I7l2, l726, 1927 and 1881. In 1898 the
| summer was torrld, IL ala not commence
until the 4th of July, but the Sth of July
the thermometer marked Celsius ther
mometer) 3S degrees in the shade, which
was very near the degree of heat this year
In 1919 the summer, which was moderate
in Europe, was murderous in Asia Minor
at Bagdad, in the freshest places in the
houses, the thermometer reached 40 de
grees Fahrenheit. The summer of 1922 wa!
in Europe also very hot and very long
But the most terrible summer for France
was that of 1882, when the heat aided the
| cholera to claim at Paris alone 90 600 vic
tins. On the subject of heat and Their
mometers, it has been stated that no coun
try makes use of its own thermometer, fol
inFrance the Celsius Swedish thermome
ter is employed, in England and Americt
that of Fahrenheit (German), and il
Sweden that of Leslie (Englishl.
POLITICAL.
The vacation of the Chamber has no
yet commenced, and the seances may con
tinue until way into August, much to th'
| chaorin automatically of the majority of tn,