Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-07

unknown; and where the marrow in his bones
was curdled with such chilling dampness as
he could in nowise endure. That was e1-
ceptional. too, and proved that the climate
was changing. For better or for worse
fear we must accept the conclusion OF the
pessimists.
Science says not, but that makes little
difference. Science is neither optimist nor
pessimist. It has no preferences in the mat
ter. 1t is simply Judicial. 1t is simply
mere colorless medium in which statistics
are held in solution. In some matters
science is unimpeachable; but when it as
sumes to contradict the weather it under
takes what is beyond it. The mistake it
makes is radical and elemental. 1t starts
from the wrong premises 1t takes ther-
mometer and hangs it somewhere in the
upper air, away above the highest roof.
No radiated or reflected heat can get at it.
1t is shaded from the direct rays of the sun.
1t is guarded by Venetian blinds so that no
current of air can cross It's bulb. Then the
figures it registers at certain times OF the
day are noted down, and are published to
the world.
What Science Says.
There" says science, sis your tempera-
ture. This is official. You can see for your
selves that the day has not been hot enough
or cold enough to make anybody uncomfort-
able. If any person has suffered q sunstroke,
or has frozen his ears, he has done so with
out any proper and scientific excuse"
That would be all rig ht if the human race
lived up there where the thermometer of sci.
ence hangs; but it don't. Men and women
in their daily lives are not canopied and
shielded in that manner. They y>have to take
the rays the sun shoots at them, and must
endure the added pangs of heat reflected
and heat radiated. They must take what
comes in the way of winds, hot or cold. In
other words, the climate which science
figures upon is not the climate we live in.
So the recollections of the oldest inhabitant
will have to be relied upon as basis of
prophecy rather than the provisions of sci
ence.
Still, science has done we'll within its linn
itations. 1t we have to make allowance
concerning what it tells US of yesterday, we
have the delight of knowing what ought to
happen tomorrow. There is unfailing en-
tertainment in that. suspect we all have
something OF the gamblers instinct in us,
and are fond of game that depends some
what on the element of uncertainty. There
fore we cover up the cabbage plants when
frost is predicted, and take it as joke if
the irost follows some obstructing isother-
NAL line up into Manitoba, where it belongs.
And if predicted hot wave keeps the prom
Use that it made and overwhelns u.s. we take
our winnings of discomfort, and make the
best of them.
The Use of Fore. knowledge.
What we wait tor now is for science to de-
wise some way of preventing the dire things
it prophesies. Without that there is little
real good in fore-knowledge. 1t is not COM
Portable to be told that tempest is coming
your way, and to have no way of mitigating
its ravages. Perhaps it would be as we'll to
let the tempest make its own announcement.
Still there is comfort in the element of un-
certainty have spoken of. There is one
thing science will undoubtedly have to do,
IN view of these climatic changes; and that
is to shorten up its chronology. 1t has al
lowed too much time to the various eras into
which the worlds past is divided. I sus-
pect the scientists have made the world sew
eral millions OF years older than it ought to
be.
When we consult our own brief expert
ence, and reflect how swift and sudden have
been the changes OF temperature, we are led
to question whether it was not SO in the past.
And if SO, is it not probable that series of
our cold waves precipitated the glacial per-
iod, and that a series of our hot waves
wound the period up, both in much less
time than is commonly assigned to the pro-
cesses?
Undoubtedly the pessimists are right, and
there Is trouble ahead for all of us because
of the changes in the climate of our region.
But it is likely to be such trouble as those
same changes have brought us in the past;
such trouble as we are well accustomed to
and ought to be pretty we'll reconciled to.
And the optimists may lift up their heads
and smile with confident hope. For while
the climate is certain to change, it is also
certain to change back. again!
JAMES G. PURDY.