Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-01-23
STRANGE PHENOMENA.
WHICH FRED DOUGLASS ASCRIBl S
TO CLIMATIC INFLUENCES.
and Paris but Didn't Know
Him in Washington

A group OF prominent Republicans had
gathered about an open CRATE ire at the
headquarters of the Natiogal Republican
League few evenings ago, when in some
mysterious manner the conversation drifted
from politics into discussion of strange
mental phenomena. When the subject
had been pretty thoroughly discussed, and
many queer and weird yarns had been
spun, Fred Douglass, who formed one OF
the group, and had been silent listener,
suddenly cleared his throat, and with a
cynical smile, said
Gentlemen, the strange phenomena you
have referred to, while they undoubtedly
impressed upon my mind the multiplicity
of things We know nothing of, are not
nearly so mystifying as is the effect OF
London fog or Paris sunshine upon the
average American"
Every member of the circle about the
fire sought the face of the speaker, doubt
full whether he was attempting to give the
discussion a humorous tinge, after it had
been running along in serious manner,
but his countenonee bore only the signs OF
grave thoughtfulness, and his eye we've
looking directly into the flame that shot
up from the burning log.
Il suppose" he continued, "the scientist
would tell us that fog is fog and sunshine
is sunshine the world over; the one, mois-
ture suspended in the air; the other, rays
of light and heat from the central body Of
our solar system. | can only give you the
phenomena which proved to me their diff
ference from Washington sunshine and its
occasional fog, leaving the subtle train of
action connecting cause and effect TO be the
subject for your speculation.
"In the course of my European trip.
nearly two years ago, spent large por-
tion of my time in London and Paris, and
one of my pleasantest remembrances is the
cordiality of Americans who met me there.
Time and again, when | have been walk
ing down the Strand, along Picadilly, or
sauntering on the Boulevard have ! been
slapped on the shoulder and greeted
warmly:
"'Hello, Douglass, how are you? Glad
to see YOU
''Then the friend in foreign country
would wiring my hand till I'd feel faint,
and many time have | helped to block
up the sidewalk and make pedestrians cut
a curve around us as | was being almost
devoured in this exhibition of friendship.
| liked it. It's rather fiattering to be on
such good terms with ones countrymen.
To be sure, my shoulder came near being
dislocated, and | had 20 pay . tailor to
pad my coat on the shoulders to ease the
blows, but didn't begrudge the money il
cost me- wish to put myself on record
in saying l never saw such warm hearted
friendliness as exhibited in Americans
whom met abroad. | may say did not
know most of them, but it made no differ.
ence. They recognized me, and after the
shoulder slapping and hand shaking, they
would urge me to accept a more substan-
tial hospitality in a neighboring cafe
After | was abroad year l accepted these
cordial meetings as matter of course, and
they became natural part of my seeing
an American.
FINALLY | drifted back to America, and
again took up my home across the Eastern
Branch, and occasionally drove in the city
and INDUCED in a walk down Pennsylvania
avenue. As the year grew older many oil
the tourists | had seen abroad appeared or
the avenue, and remembering our cordial
greetings in Europe, I'd look to catch
their eyes. But, curious to say, the shoI
windows seemed to have such attractions
for them on such occasions, or perhaps {
fine team would come tearing down from
the Treasury, or some vague point O
interest would suddenly loom up on the
other side of the avenue-they never saw
me. Now, they always saw me first in Lon
don and Paris, but here it seems different
was the first and often the only one tc
recognize an acquaintance and wher
there would be mutual recognition il
would be one merely made known by q
nod of the head. 1t struck me as being
odd; and this is the queer phenomenon tC
account for which ! have lain awake
many night thinking and cudgelling my
brain. | have now concluded that il is
due to the difference between London foe
and Paris sunshine and our fogs and our
sunshine; but, gentlemen" said Mr. Doug
lass, in concluding, as he pushed his chair
back from the warm glow of the log fire
and light broke in on the attentive
countenances watching him, "if you are
going to record this as scientific puzzle
want the indefinite point of interest or
the other side Of the avenue, which have
found to exist in Washington to much
greater extent than in London or Paris,
noted down as an important factor in the
phenomenon York Tribune.