The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-18
STRANGE WINTERS.
SOMETHING ABOUT YEARS WITH
OUT WINTER OR SUMMER.

cyclones Which Have Come in Their
Wake-Records of Old Time.
From the st. Louis Republic.
Never was there more truthful saying
than the one which tells US that ''superstI-
ton dies hard" Fully understanding his
ova weakness in the face of natures
Greater manifestations, man seeks to peer
into the future through the instrumentality
OF signs and omens. The exceptionally
mild weather which has characterized the
last two months Of the past year q had as
well include the entire twelve. as 1889 will
doubtless go into history as the year with
cut a winter, has caused brood of calam-
ity prophets to spontaneously spring up all
over the country.
The croakers have promised us famine
and rest Ience in wholesale doses. One pro
fessor with A. NJ. D. d. aud other sections
Of the alphabet, both before and behind his
name, tells us that 1t Is not generally known,
but it is a fact, nevertheless, that the
earth's crust is hundreds of feet thinner than
it was decade ago, that fierce and insati-
able fires are now raging but a few hun
dred feet below the outside covering upon
which we live, aud goes oa to say that the
newly developed gss fields of the middle
and northern sta es are but conditions
which owe their origin to the gradual as
cendlng internal fires; that these fires will
eventually penetrate to natures great gas
retorts and cause an explosion which will
kill all the Inhabitants of the gas regions.
besides opening up chasm through which
the waters of tue great lakes will rush and
blot the Southern States off the face of the
earth.
Another thinks somewhat in the same
vein, only he bel ewes that the inhabitants
= i
with pestilence years before the final ex-
plosion and consequent rush of waters.
Both are of the opinion that winter is
thing of the past, and that in the future the
mercury will rise to 1902 more frequently
than it will fall to the freezing point. An
other sees the "black death" following in
the wake OF the Russian influenza. and Dre-
ducts that 1890 will not lie 100 days old be
fore our ciUles and towns will be sadly
decimated by the plague.
THE LAW OF COMPENSATION.
All these and dozens of other dire calam;-
ties have been promised US by these modern
astrologers and soothsayers, as pay for the
privilege of enjoying two semi-tropical
winters. not stopping to think of or to take
into consideration the fact that these mild
winters, tue present and the past, are of
themselves pay for the five Arctic winters
which were given us without intermissiou.
The daily papers this year devoted column
after column to accounts of sub-tropical
Christmas festivities at various places
throughout the United States Thinking
that these must be the signs of the end of
time, which the scriptures tells us will be
preceded by season IN which summer can
not be distinguished from winter only by
the falling or tue leaves, the writer be-
thought himself that it was time to make
an investigation, anent the saying that
forewarned is forearme1
SOMETHING LIKE IT.
counterpart for this unusual phen-
omena was found much sooner than was
expected. On the second page of
Vennors Weather Bulletin for Jam
uary, 1882 was found the following:
During December, 1877, a western
newspaper remarked that not since 1887
has any December season been known
SO mild. Lawn grasses are growing finely
and dandelions are in bloom; navigation is
perfectly open" Commenting on this,
NJ. Vennor says: Now, again, In
similar state of affairs for the same
month of the year" The christmas
Weather" dispatches in the Republic of the
10Th ult., especially the one from st. Panl.
MIMI, one would think " ere without par
allel. Investigation proves the reverse.
The ST. Paul iOneer Press of Dec. 90, 1877.
contained an editorial of which the follow
ing is an extract: ''This remarkable
weather knocks the Old Settler Associa-
ton on their beam ends. y 4 Here il
is the 22d of December, with the mer-
curry dancing on its heels to the
music of 50' above in the shade
y Ten boats of the st Paul
Boat Club. each occupied with scullers or
crews of oarsmen, sporting upon the placid
bosom Of the ancestor of meandering
streams-al this and more, too, is the
result of the remarkable weather which
now prevails in Minnesota. * This
is a fact worthy of being placed on record
for the benefit Of all coming investigation
Of climatic facts and theories in Mime
sofa" At Kansas City the temperature on
Christmas day, 1889, lacked three degrees
of being as high as it was at ST. Paul on
Dec. 90 1877. Only one of the Republics
many dispatch sendeTs, the one at Lock-
port N. Y, ever heard tell of a warm
Christmas before. He admits that Christ
mas, 1877, was five degrees warmer than
the same day in 1889.
NOTHING TO FEAR.
But the winter of 1S77-'7S is not the only
one of exceptional mildness from which the
writer has authority to draw. If it was
the present warm spell would be ANYTHING
but encouraging to our neIghb0rs of the
Far South" the summer of 1878 having
been the year Of the great yellow fever
scourge; further on, however, it will be
of pestllence are no way connec cd.
The winter of 1SSI-'S2 was as phenomenal,
as far as unreasonable weather was con-
cerned, as that If 1S77-'78. On Christmas
day, 1881, the mercury stood at from As to
So above zero throughout the Mississippi
valley, merging into summer heat from the
mouth of the Ohio southwark. The day
was clear and bright. with wind south to
southwest In Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mis-
souri,, Iowa, and Nebra,ka the farmers
plowed every month during the winter
The lilac buds swelled into full leaf In
February, 1882, in nearly all the states
named.
On Jan. %, 1882, the best tested Their
mometers stood at 420 above in the morn
ing, at 570 in the afternoon, and did not
fall below 500 for over thirty-six hours.
February showed twenty-one days upon
which the mercury rose above 400 in the
shace, and upon sixteen of these the tenn
perature was above 500 sometime during
the day. On the 9Th, 9th. 10th, 18th, 18th
and 18th it marked 500 or above, and upon
one occasion. the 18th. stood between 75'
and $40 for five hours.
The thermometer responsible for this