Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-11-13
BIG HOT SPELLS.
SOME HISTORIC FEArs OF MER,
curry CLIMBING.
Recent Hot Days Amount to Moth
ing When Compared With Former
Times-Fearful Experiencas.

AsoSeAo AoI lays Amount to Moth
ing When Compared With Former
Times-Fearful Experiences.
The remarkable exhibition of solar en-
ergy witnessed in various parts of the
United States during the present season
was not really phenomenal event in
our meteorological history. In fact,
compared with the experiences of other
years and other countries, the broil was
not an excessive one.
1t IS not easy to get at the old records
on this subject, but from the few at hand
it appears that the people of the old
world have suffered more intense heat
than those of the new. For instance.
cites the Brooklyn Citizen, in 1904 the
Rhine, Loire and Seine ran dry. The
heat in several of the French provinces
during the summer of 1905 was equal to
that of glass furnace. Meat could be
prepared for the table merely by expos
ing it to the sun. Not soul dare ven
ture out between noon and p. m. In
171s many shops had to close. The
theatres did not open their doors for
three months. Not a drop of water fell
during six months. In 1878 the Their
mometer rose to 118 degrees. In 177s
the heat Of Bologna was so great that
numbers of people were stifled. In July,
1898, the heat again became intolerable.
Vegetables were burned up and fruit
dried on the trees. The furniture and
woodwork in dwelling houses cracked
and split and meat went bad in an hour.
In 1910 Spain was visited by swelter-
<,,v %loA &,
fearful. Madrid and other cities were
deserted and the streets silent. Laborers
died in the fields, and the vines were
scorched and blasted as if by simeon.
Another disastrous hot wave swept
through Europe in June, 1851. The
thermometer in Hyde Park, London,
indicated from 80 to 81 degrees in the
shade. In the Champs DIES Mars, Paris,
during review, soldiers by the score
fell victims to surstroke, and at Alder
shot, England, men dropped dead while
at drill, compelling the officers to sus-
pend the exercises.
Some of US recall the terrible expe
riences of 1853 in New York and else.
where. In that year New Orleans was
desolated by the yellow fever. 1t seemed
10 A ANSW AOAA was VI ulSs Xuc lucE-
mometer ranged from 90 to 81 degrees
for five or six days. In that SUMMER was
opened the Crystal Palace in Reservoir
square, at Sixth avenue and Forty-second
street. On the day of the Inauguration
the mercury indicated 81 degrees, and
people tainted in the crowd and fell dead
in the streets. During the week ola
persons were killed in New York of
sunstroke
The year 1872 was another fearful one
in the metropolis. One hundred and
ffty-tive cases of sunstroke occurred on
July 4, of which seventy two proved
fatal. The principal thoroughfares
were like fields of battle. Men fell by
the score and ambulances were in con
slant requlsition. Working people
staggered in sheer exhaustion, great
globules of Precipitation flowed from
their faces, and laborers along the docks
and on buildings in process of erection
We're obliged to stop work or pay the
dread penalty. Dumb beasts lay down
by the wayside and painted their lives
away. Sleep for two or three of the
hottest nights was well nigh impossible,
and in the tenement districts women and
children were found dead on the roofs to
which they had clambered in the hope
of getting breath of cool air. The
scenes in the morgue were appalling !;
dozens of bodies We're on the stone slabs
under the splashing water awaiting the
recognition of friends; here stalwart
man who had been stricken suddenly;
there comely woman with her face
turned toward the light; yonder the
official photographer, doing his CHASTITY
yet necessary work in preserving the
pictures of the dead; eager-e eyed rel
atives hunting among the corpses for
some missing loved one; a horrible
stencil mingled with the oppressive heat,
and lamentations filled the air. Over
200 deaths were recorded in three or
four days.
The next serious visitation took place
in 1876, and about July began to make
its power felt throughout the Middle
and Southern States, as we'll as in New
York. In Washington the heat was par
ticularly oppressive. General Sherman
declared that the car rails became so ex-
banded by the action of the sun as to
rise up in curved lines, drawing the
bolts. In one instance the rails burst
away from the bolts and left the track
entirely. The thermometer marked 1O4
degrees.
The summer of 1879 will long be re-
membered for its torrid atmosphere.
The situation will be better understood
from the following record: Norwich,
Conn, June 2, 100 degrees; New York,
June 90, 50; Charleston, July II, 101;
on the same date, St. Louis, 100; Knox
vile, Tenn, July Is, 1903; Charleston,
July IA, III (sixteen deaths); Detroit,
July 16, 1902; New York, July II, 101.
In 1881 it is said the heat throughout
the United States was the greatest on
record, the thermometer in many places
registering 105 degrees in the shade. In
England the mercury ranged from so to
1O1 degrees, and in Paris 90 degrees. In
tropical countries the heat often rises
above 105, and at the Cape of Good Hope
the thermometer sometimes marks 100
without fatal results; but in America,
especially in the early part of July, be-
fore the human system has become thor
oughly adapted to the hot season, the
poisonous effect of temperature above 80
degrees puts it in jeopardy. In London
it was the hottest season known in
twenty-five years. The director of the
Paris observatory declared there was no