New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-11
THE HOT WAVE.

HeatD explained Colonel sellers Wnen uie
stove door fell off and exposed to view his pious
fraud, cheat is a non-conductor.0 Ihat IL coli.
drcts itself badly. on occasion, the people OF
this so-called Temperate Zone are ready WIN
one accord to bear witness. Yesterday was such
IN occasion. Save those three stiff days in
June the summer has been so cool, compared
with the normal summer Of our dreams ana
fears. and of our uncertain memories; 1t has
been so bearabe, and the nights so easy 10
sleep through, that we have all fallen more or
less unconsciouSly into a way Of thinking IL was
not going to be much of a summer after all.
True. the Signal Service began to whisper, last
weel, of hot wave in the Far West; it was
in Montana, it was crossing Dakota, baking
broiling and frying men, women and crops as
it rolled onward and eastward. But like an
other Gallo comfortable in his open WINDOW
with his letters from his family In his other
poclzet, the wise New-Yo ker, taking his sum
mer inning near his tub and his club, cared for
none of these things. Saturday began heating
Sunday was hot yesterday was hotter, to-day
NAV be hottest Sunstrokes are reported, a
few black or blacklist suits are scarce; over
coats have disappeared for the first time In
three weeks and the voice of the salamander
is heard no mora in public places Dragging OF
his nrudence in the matter Of "my heavy fan
nes. sir"
To say that yesterday was the hottest 10th
Of August IN twenty years means nothing, be
cause really there is no reason why the 10Th
should be either hotter or cooler than any other
given day of the month. 1t was the hottest
August day since the sweltering summer OF
- 4ba
present summer, 80 far, although the max
imum temperature as observed at the weather
station on the roof of the Equitable Building
was shade lower than at the same hour on
June 49, when "a degrees were recorded. by
the 18th of June the afternoon temperature
had fallen TO 90, and since then the range has
continued below 90 until this present "sun-
burst" which has the very unusual feature or
embracing with impartial yet unequal fury all
sections Of the broad territory of the United
States In tho upper counties Of North Da-
kota. especially in those that lie close TO the
Tanitoban border, the fierce sirocco winds have
scorched and parched the filling ears of the
almost ripened wheat, and there, as well as in
parts of South Dakota and Minnesota, have in
ficted damage the extent of which is as yet
II.
sudden cyclones that follow in the wake OF the
storm OF heated ain have contributed their
quota of devastation to add to the general
suffering. After all, those of us are well of
who are simply much too hot
By a somewhat curious coincidence the region
of chronic earthquakes near the mouth of the
Colorado River appears to have chosen the time
of the passage of this hot wave over the North
west for a rival disturbance in the Southwest.
On Thursday while all Montana was roasting,
the Cocopali country is reported TO have been
the scene of the Simultaneous explosion of hum
dreds of mud volcanoes. violent thunder
storm followed and on the heels OF this the
waters of the Gulf -0i California came rushing
over the land in series Of tidal waves eSti-
mated at from 40 to 100 feet in height. Be
fore this dreadful invader with one impulse the
Indians and the cattle turned and fled for their
lives over the raised plains that border the
deep-cut Colorado. Are the two phenomena in
any way connected? II might be as rash to
assert that they are as it would be difficult to
prove that they are not.