St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-04
The GOOSE ROME


If congress were in frame of mind to
inaugurate an era of retrenchment,
probably the first move in that direction
would be to abolish the weather bureau
and buy lot OF goose bones for distri-
button among the people. As an ac-
curate weather prophet the goose bone
beats Gen. GREELY's machine all hol-
low, and as goose bones are much
cheaper than weather stations, there is
no good reason why the latter should be
perpetuated. While Gen. MYERS lived
the official weather predictions COM
manded respect, for they were reason
ably accurate; but since he died no
weather prophet has had honor in this
land. 1t is now limited that ''Old Prob
abilities" carried goose bone in his in
side pocket, which he was in the habit
| of consulting on the sly, and that is
why he succeeded in hitting the weather
| mark with so much more accuracy than
his successors have done. Down in the
neighborhood of Woodstock, Conn.,,
the people have altogether dis
| carded the almanacs and the official
weather representations. and arrange
for their winter work exclusively On the
prophecy given out by the goose bone.
This plan has been tried for three con-
| Seeutive seasons without failure. There
| is local weather prophet who inter-
pretS the goose bone signs for the peo-
pie of the community, and they COVER n
| themselves accordingly. Like our friend
KELLOGG. the Woodstock prophet pre-
| dicted that this would be an open win
| ter, when everybody else was dead sure
that it was going to be the stiffest we
had in years. HIS predictions for De-
cember and January have been fulfilled
| to the letter, and it is singular fact
| that his prophecies for February tally
| very we'll with those of Prophet KEEL
| LoGG. He says that February will be
disagreeable, with heavy SHOWS. to be
| followed by succession of thaws, and
| will "burst'' into March with floods and
swollen streams. Even disastrous floods
are predicted about the last of Febru-
airy, and when the waters have run
| down and the snow all been carried off
we will have spring.
Mr.. STILLMAN, the Connecticut
weather man, tells how he prognosti-
Gates from the goose bone. He says the
| goose must be of the right sort. The
| true prophetic bone belongs only to the
| wild goose, so there must be at least a
| trace of the wild fowl in the bird whose
| bone is used for weather purposes. AS
| wild geese are scarce in the East, they
! have established goose farm at Wood
| stock. where the tame fowl is crossed
with the wild, and the bones from these
birds are distributed around the neigh
borheod every fall. Another condition
| is that the goose must be a spring
| Matched bird. One Matched later than
May does not count. The breast bone
is the one relied on for weather prophe-
cies, and this bone is divided into three
parts. Indicating the three winter
months. Around the keel of the bone,
according to STIILMAN's explanation,
are to be found a row of dots indicating
the probable temperature for each
month. The darker these spots are, the
| colder the weather is sure to be.
A visitor to Woodstock recently
found a goose bone hanging in every
| house, and the people read them from
day to day with more faith tuan other
| people read the weather bulletins sent
out from Washington. They arrange
their winter clothing and fuel according
to STILIMAN's Interpretation of the
goose bone, and for three years have
had no occasion to regret their conf
dence in Natures weather bureau.