Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1891-07-12
HISTORIC HOT SPELL
SOME VERY Big FEAfS OF MERCURY
CLIMBING.
Recent Hot Days Amount to Nothing When CON-
pared With Former Exrsrsncss-Ths
Gid World has Suffered Much
More Than the New.


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
en- 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 In
stance. cites the Brooklyn CITIZEN, In
1904, the Rhine, Loire and Seine
ran dry. The heat in several Of the
French provinces during the sum
mer of 1905 was equal to that OF
a glass furnace. Meat could be pre-
pared for the table merely by exposing
il to the sun. Not a soul dare ven ture
out between noon and p. IN. In 1915
many shops had to close. The theatres
did not open their doors for three
months. Not drop Of water fell dur
ing six months. In 1883 the thermome-
ter rose to lis degrees. In l77S the
heat OF Bologna was so great that num-
bers 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 1900 Spain was visited by a swelt-
ering temperature that is described as
! fearful. Madrid and other cities were
deserted and the streets silent. Labor
ers died in the fields, and the vines were
scorched and blasted as II by simeon.
Another disastrous hot wave swept
through Europe In June, 1851. The
thermometer In Hyde Park, London,
indicated from 90 to "a degrees in the
shade. In the Champs des Mars, Paris.
during a review, soldiers by the score
fell victims to sun-stroke, 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 expert
ences of 1853 in New York and else
where. In that year New Orleans was
desolated by the yellow fever. 1t
seemed as II New York was on fire.
The thermometer ranged from % to %
degrees for five or six days. In th4t
summer was opened the Crystal Palace
in Reservoir square, at Sixth avenue
and Forty-second street. On the day oil
the inaug uration the mercury Indicated
| o. degrees, and people tainted In the
crowd and fell dead in the streets. Dur
ing the week pa persons were Killed In
New York of sunstroke.
The year 1872 was another fearfu
one in the metropolis. One hundred
and fifty-seven cases OF sunstroke &C.
Cured on July 4, OF which seventy-twc
proved fatal. The principal thorough
fares were like fields OF battle. Men
fell by the score and ambulances were
in constant requsition. Working
people staggered in sheer exhaustion,
great globues of perspiration flowed
from their faces, and laborers along
the docks and on buildings In process oil
erection were obliged to stop work OF
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 a
breath of cool air. The scenes In the
morgue were appalling; dozens OF bodies
were on the stone slabs under the
splashing water awaiting the recogni-
ton OF friends: here stalwart man
who had been stricken suddenly; there
a comely woman with her face turned
toward the light; yonder the official
photographer, doing his CHASTITY yet
necessary work in preserving the pic
lures Of the dead; eager-eyed relatives
hunting among the corpses for some
missing loved one; horrible stencil
mingled with the oppressive heat, and
lamentations filed the air. Over 200
deaths were recorded In three or four
days.
The next serious visitation took
placedn 1876, and about July 0 began
TO make its power felt throughout the
middle and Southern States, as well as
in New Pork. In Washington the heat
was particularly oppressive. General
Sherman declared that the car rails be-
came so expanded by the action OF the
sun as to rise up In curved lines, draw
ing the bolts. In one instance tee rails
burst away from the bolts and left the
track entirely. The thermometer mark
ed 1O4 degrees.
The summer 1870 will long be remem-
bered for It's torrid atmosphere. The
situation will be better understood from
the following record: Norwich. Conn,
June 2, 100 degrees; New York, June
%, IS; Charleston, July IL, 1O1; on the
same date, st. Louis, 100; Knoxville,
Tenn, July 13, 1O3; Charleston, July
IA, III sixteen deaths): Detroit, July
Is, 1O2; New York, July II, 101.
In 1881 1t Is said the heat throughout
the United States was the greatest on
record, the thermometer In many places
registered los degrees In the shade. In
England the mercury ranged from 90 10
lO1 degrees, and In Paris SO degrees. In
tropical countries the heat often rises
above los, and at the Cape OF Cool
| Hope the thermometer sometimes marks
100 without fatal results; but in Ameri-
ca, especially in the early part OF July,
before the human system has become
thoroughly adapted to the hot season,
the poisonous effect OF temperature
above 90 degrees puts it in jeopardy
4 In London IT was the hottest season
known in twenty-one years. The direc.
tor Of the Paris observatory declared
there was no record OF such intense
heat and its interference with every de-
partment of trade. July 81. 1881. 1:
| said to have been the hottest day eyel
known In Charleston up TO this time.
Another torrid wave came In August
Of that year, and, with a brief intermis
sion, continued until the middle OF Sep
TENDER. In Richmond the thermometer
registered los degrees; In Washington
and Trenton, 1o4; In Baltimore, Washing
| ton. PhfladeIphia. Rochester and else