Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-27
of all the sad words that mortal can spell,
The saddest are these: it's hotter than -

Just below In big letters was written
Please do not say it's hot;
The man who said it last got shot.
And it was no wonder than even the
iron bound, rock-ribbed, cast-steel,
double-plated signal-service men were
gone, for the humidity was something
awful, and like an invisible vampire
sapped the vitality of man and beast and
made them weary of life. Everywhere
the people said so; they told it to one an
other as they hurried through the swelt-
ering streets; they talked of it in the hot
restaurants where they tried to eat and
drink and forget their misery, and up in
the great high factories and workshops.
Down on the Stock Exchange the bro
kers stopped in their wild chase after
money and found the weather a uDiver-
sal meeting ground where bull and bear
could stand together, and the women in
the big tenement houses painted and
wondered to each other if it would ever
be cool again.
The thermometer. at the top of the
Equitable building at So'clock in the
morning marked II degrees. The
humidity then was 76, and the air-belt
thick and sticky. As the day advanced
heavy clouds hung like blankets over the
earth. Men found the air sitting. 1t is
doubtful if a more distressing hour than
that between 80 and 2 80 has been ex.
perienced in this city this summer. The
air became closer and closer, and finally
the big drops of a thunder shower began
to fall. The shower lasted about an
hour, and during that time .06 of an inch
Of water fell. After that the air percep-
tibly cooled, and at o'clock last night
the official tube registered 7S degrees.
The air was still full of moisture from
the rain, for the humidity was so.
While New Workers sweltered, how
ever, people at Moorhead, Oak, wore
overcoats and shivered over fires. The
thermometer was just eight degrees above
freezing point. Last night Feather
Point, on the st. Lawrence, was the
coolest place. the thermometer showing
4S degrees. A hot wave seemed to be
sweeping along the Atlantic coast, for all
the Indications from Maine to Florida
were unusually high. The weather
mems prophecy of 'cooler weather soon"
is too vague to bring much comfort.
But while some joked and tried to
make light of the terrible oppressiveness,
sorrow and death were borne to others
homes on the humid atmosphere. Anna
Fitzpatrick, go, of No. 332 East Fifty
fourth street; Daniel Shea, 4S, of No. SO
Baxter street; Kate McGovern, Is
months old, of No. 500 West Thirty-sixth
street, and Louisa Kurtz, months old,
of No. 673 East One Hundred and Fifty
sixth street, died from the effect of the
heat. The prostrations unattended with
fatal results were as follows:
Mary Flaherty, thirty-6ve, of No. 342
East Sixty-first street, overcome at
Broadway and Park place; taken to
Chambers-street Hospital.
Peter Conway, twenty -four, of No. 221
East Thirty first street, at No. ITO Hester
street; to Chambers-street Hospital.
John Matchet, forty-fve, of No. 444
West Thirty-sixth street, at Tenth ave-
nue. and Twenty-second street; to New
York Hospital.
Hugh Tracey, sixty, of No. II Tenth
avenue, overcome at Forty-sixth street
and Ninth avenue; to Roosevelt Hos
pital.
Mary Lally, eighteen, domestic at
the Grand Union Hotel, overcome while
at work; to Bellevue.
Joseph Tasker, thirty-fve, of No. 36
Cherry street, at No. "a Wall street; to
Chambers street Hospital.
James Mccall, thirty, of No. 506 West
Twenty-ffth street, at No. 531 West
Twentieth street; to New York Hospital.
John Barry, twenty-eight, of No. 16
Jones street, at Morton and West streets
taken home.
That our climate is better than the
best in Europe may be seen from the
following table: