Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-04-11
HIGGINS 1T LAST.

liability as weather prophet. But as he
did not figure on st. Paul as basis he got
left, as all do who leave ST. Paul out of
their calculations.
The gentle spring rain storm--the one
so anxiously looked for-which commenced
Monday afternoon, continued as a rain
storm until early yesterday morning,
when, the wind having shifted into the
north, it turned into snow, or rather sIeet.
During the forenoon the wind increased in
velocity, until at noon it blew a gale,
turning the sIeet into hail, and hurting it
through the air and into the faces of those
who were obliged to be out of doors with
terrific force, making progress against it
one Of great difficulty. As the afternoon
advanced the velocity of the wind and The
amount of the snowfall seemed to increase,
and by 8 o'clock nearly all
out door business was suspended.
In the meantime the snow had become
mixed with the surface mud of the streets,
making thick, sticky and tenacious COM
pound, through which it was extremely
difficult to propel any kind of q vehicle.
The street cars got along fairly well until
about 3 O'Clock, by which time the COM
pound had reached such proportions that
the cars could be kept On the track but for
short distances at time. The manage
ment sent out large force of shovelers,
and started their snowplows out in the hope
of being able to keep the cars going, but
at o'clock, with cars stuck fast in the
mud at different points along their lines in
all parts of the city, the effort had to be
abandoned, and the attention of their regu-
larIforce, and large numberof extra shov-
elers, was directed to digging out and re-
ieving their blockaded cars and getting
them under cover. No attempt was made
to get the cars to the barns
in which they are regularly housed, Univer-
sity avenue cars being run into the Fourth
and st. Peter street barn, and vice versa.
Though all energy possible was employed
in this work, and four horses were often
used to haul an empty car, it was after 9
O'Clock in the evening before the work was
completed. But once during the past win
ter, with its superabundance of snow and
high winds, was the company obliged to
suspend running cars, and even then the
obstruction was nothing like as serious
to combat and overcome as was that of
yesterday.
Soon after sunset the wind commenced
subsiding rapidly, and the fall of snow
began to abate, and by 9 o'clock the sky
was cloudless, and the wind had almost en-
tirely died away, though still remaining
IN the north, under the influence of which
the snow and mud was stiffening and har-
dening, which will most likely keep the
car-tracks blockaded for some hours this
forenoon.
A Talk by DR.. SimOntOn at the Academy.
The Academy of Natural Science had
very interesting meeting Monday evening
which was addressed by DR.. t. D. Simon
ton.
The speaker said he was glad to see it
announced that this evenings entertain
meDt was to be q familiar talk" not
lecture, for which he would have felt himself
incompetent. And, indeed, since it is the
object of theAcademy not simply to amuse
or to fill the mind with gaping wonder,
but rather TO inform it and to incite in
otlers tastes for the different branches Of
natural science, we can probably do more
to accomplish The object by familiar talk
and illustrations than by any other means.
We can thus bes help others to help them
selves. and it is ' 5on those who need such
help, upon the yet unde-
veloped mind and taste, that
our Academy Is dependent for
generation Of trained thinkers ana search
ers after the Truth in nature; and the best
way to do this IS 20 gather in the young
and help to start them on the right way
from the beginning.
ho,J
ing talk, most happily illustrated by means
of his calcium light microscope, from the
Rev. d. r. Breed. He introduced you to
some of the wonders of little things
things all about you, but beneath the pow
er of the unaided eye to discern. Tonight
we direct your attention in an opposite
direction: to the sights and wonders above
you. There is boundless field IL beth
directions, and is just as Legitimate
and worthy exercise of your powers
to search into and admire the
infinite variety and nice adaptation in the
one field as to stand in awe and be over
whelmed by the power and immensely dis
played in the other. And it is fortunate
that tastes and studies run in these differ
ent directions, SO that no department
may be neglected. For no more can the
nOAAO u oOAO4IOO OO 11oNO VI VI OEc IlluR
than can our every day life.
To begin with; perhaps there was never
a greater discovery made than that our
world is a round globe, moving through
space and rotating on its axis. Just when
these discoveries were made we cannot
say, but it is not many centuries since they
were first demonstrable facts, COM
polling general acceptation. These
were great discoveries for two reasons;
great because of their being so opposed to
our natural senses, great because of what
they explain. We all know how hard it is
to realize that there is no such a thing as
up and down in the universe-that if we
point as we say sup" at intervals of an
hour each for twenty-four hours, we in that
time point in as many different directions
really as the spokes of a wheel radIate
from the hub. We really mean that we
point away from the center of the earth;
just as when we talk of weight, we mean
how much this thing or that is drawn to-
ward the earth's center; not that weight is
a thing in itself, but force that would
vary with the mass of every planet we
might visit.
We all know the difficulties the ancients
had in explaining the motions of the
heavenly bodies As long as the earth ives