The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-02-21
N0RTHERS--THEIR INFLUENCE
on TEXAS AND ITS GOVERN
MENT.

The atmospheric disturbances Of
the last few days are suggestive of
thought on a most interesting sub
ject. Human reflection, productive of
the most advance science, has opened
up multitude of lights rejecting
upon what were. not long ago, known
only as atmospheric phenomena. Air
currents are to-day almost as well IN |
derstood as the circulation of the hui
man blood. Scientists, rejecting the |
doctrines of mythology, gave in
teTest to the study of natures laws,
and governments, recognizing the in
calcllabl advantages to man
kind from their mo perfect
comprehension, have expended vast
sums of money in furthering weather
researches, until the "immutable ways
of God" evinced in the winds and the
waves, have been reduced to mathe-
NAUTICAL problems of easy solution.
Jove Numbered, and to Aeolus he
gave the direction of the winds. The
lettered ancients, with all their CLASH
cal learning, accepted the doctrine Of
godly agencies as controlling the
winds and air currents. Boreas sent
cold blasts to chill the blood of man
and beast, to check vegetation
in its growth, and then
Zephyrus, in compassion and love,
breathed softly on Flora, and earth
was again clothed in beauty, and all
animated nature was warmed and re-
vivifed, while the provocative power
of beings and plants were encouraged
to fulfill the increasing and fructify-
ing purposes of creation. In Para
disc Lost, Milton expresses this gen.
tlenesS and love when he says:
Then with voice.
Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breatheS
Her hand soft touching, whispered thus:
Awake
Such mellow lines, in COM
memoration of gentleness and
warmth and love are in pleas
ing contrast to the icy embraces
if the "blizzard'' that comes down
upon us this morning from the far
away perpetual abode of the icy king.
Here we were, onlyia few days ago,
enjoying the pleasant sight Of opening
buds and tender blooming flowers,
listening to the nelodious voices of
birds made joyous at the prospect of
spring; to-daj frost makes all nature
crisp and stark; buds and flowers
droop and hang their tender petals in
| frigid death; the birds seek
shelter in sombre cedar coverts; and
man and beast shiver with cold. aud
the tender and feeble perish. Were it
not for these cold blasts the climate of
Texas would be one of alternating
eternal spring and summer. A nor
NAL climatic condition asserts itself,
and its influence extends northward
over open, unbroken prairies, un-
til this horrid arctic monster,
outraged at an apparent man
Hesitation of usurpation, tears and
rends himself with fury and sweeps
down these plains to chastise the re.
gion of would-be perpetual summer
Mythologists, clothing everything in
poetry, accounted for the unpleasant
visitations of Boreas because of his
love for the gentle Orithyia, whom he
at last seized and took away to his
| icy home. But the approach
of these unpleasant blasts
are well understood and may now bt
calculated with certainty. They art
as sure to follow the sultry seasons of
winter in Texas as that popular
frigidity overcomes the nervousness
of political demagogues. But we were
referring to modern science as
applied to air currents. 1t is under
stood how these northers of Texas are
produced by atmospheric density
which is necessarily succeeded in its
ratio by cold currents from
the north. Such currents, being
regulated in their velocity by condi.
tions of the earth's surface, these
northers always travel with great rap.
idity along the western prairie region
which lies directly in the track OF
these cold currents. Texas northers
have their counterparts in different
portions of the globe. The bora, de-
scending from northern Europe
produces a similar effect upon
regions extending from the
Adriatic to the Black Sea-
while the tereno of Asia sweeps with
equal blasting effect from the cold
peaks of the Himalayas over India,
expanding its force upon the waters of
the Indian Ocean. These cold blasts
are by no means beneficial to animal
health; they affect delicate constitu-
lions, and wherever they prevail are
said to increase mortality; certainly
they are most prolific causes
of fatal disease in Texas 1t is
said of these winds that they are
especially irritating in their influences
upon the human mind; that they in
crease the nervous temperament of a
people, and destroy the peace and quiet
that would otherwise reign in the
human intellect. These facts open UP
strange visions as to the unaccount-
able ways of men in the far west. Can it
be that desperadoism in the west is to
be traced to the prevalence of these
nerve-trying natural influences
Looking down the long line that
stretches from Manitoba to the gulf,
we find the desperate thriving most
gloriously in the track Of these north
ers; and Austin is in its very CEN
ter. But it cannot be alone
in the direction of despera-
doism that nervous influences
operate in Texas and particularly
at its capital. A Texas legislature,
generally speaking, is an enigma, and
legislators who last appeared among
us, representing the worst norther-
plagued districts were the!most unac-
countaDle of human beings. Legisla-
tive conservatism came from Eastern
Texas, where northers are felt least,
and that accounts, probably, for the
adaptability of the Alcalde to man.
age the fence cutting mule of Western
Texas. This sort of donkey is not to
| ha ,nanooad bu opu cont IF 1arDoD0r.;