The Portland daily press., 1892-06-25
HEAT And HUMIDITY.
Twin Horrors that Make Life a
Burden in New York.
Goth am Takes the Palm for Humidity.
Chicago Bakes, st. Louis Blisters, New
and SweIters Its Inhabitants.

Orleans Roasts, While New York stews
and Swelters Its Inhabitants.
| Especial Correspondence
| NEW YORK, June 23.-Old Soil warm
ing up again and it is probable that for
the next sixty or seventy days we shall
be grilled, sizzled and sweltered. The
latter word expresses the idea the more
clearly, as during the past three years
the residents of this city have suffered
from combination of heat and moisture
| during the summer months. This COM
| bination has become known by those
versed in weather lore as humidity"
which, being interpreted, means the
| presence of moisture in the atmosphere
on hot day.
Breathing hot air and water has a
most depressing effect upon a man. Tt
saps his vital forces, and frequently re-
suits in cerebral apoplexy and death, as
has been the case in New York city in
many instances thus far this summer.
This humidity is something new, and as
Gotham has always been noted for
novelties it is getting the full benefit of
the hot water innovation Very few of
the readers Of this article who have
reached the age of forty years have
heard of humidity as factor in swell
ing the death rate until of recent years,
but now it figures in every weather re-
port, and its degrees are as regularly
noted by the weather sharps as those of
heat.
Various theories have been advanced
| by wise men to account for this deadly
| phenomenon, but none has been sufi-
GENTLY clear to be readily understood.
The men who profess to be learned in
reading the weather have language of
their own, in which such words as '.iso-
therms" and others of like character
figure largely. They mix us all up with
their assumed knowledge, while we die
of humidity meanwhile, without really
knowing what has killed us. OF course
it is easily understood that owing to the
| proximity of the sea there is naturally
| more moisture in the air of New York
| city than in that of an inland town. But
why there should be more moisture in
!
ago the majority of persons cannot un-
derstand and probably never will.
| Another thing that causes good deal
of mental as well as physical distress to
New Workers is the fckleness of the
| weather. Why cannot we have, say,
ninety days of 80 degree weather, be-
ginning at about the LIST of June and
ending on the list of September? There
| are few of us but can remember when
such an approximate condition of heat
and time existed. Under such condi-.
tions we soon became accustomed to the
heat. Our necks became sunburned,
| perhaps, but, like the residents of New
Orleans or Houston, we soon adapted
ourselves to the changed order of things.
But what do we get now? June ushered
in with snowstorm, iclcles in our
whiskers, pneumonia in our lungs.
Forty-eight hours later it is 80 degs.
in the shade; pedestrians caught in win
ter fannels, their tongues protruding
like lizards on hot rock, streams of
perspiration sprinkling the streets, and
a general frying of fat. This continues
until the graveyards are replenished
nicely. Then comes week of rain,
during which it looks as if Broadway
were located off Newfoundland in fog
and umbrella ribs drip like leaky roofs.
If MI. James Russell Lowell were alive
today and lived in New York city he
wouldn't write any more poetry about
rare days in June, unless he meant that
they were as rare as porterhouse steaks
in the desert of Sahara. The modern
New York June day means either par
boiling in humidity or a SILVER in an
overcoat.
June is not windy month in the city.
What air there is is apt to movevery slow
ly, and not even the police can make it
hustle. The only wind is produced by
the political conventions. The normal
velocity of wind in June is about twelve
miles an hour, but very little of this is
felt in the street owing to the height of
the buildings But when the sun goes
down red and angry behind the statue
of Liberty, as if loath to leave his vic
Tins, there comes little relief. The
children tumble out of the tenement
houses like kittens, the sidewalks in the
crowded portions of the city are filled
with men and women seated on the
doorsteps, the fire escapes are utilized
as balconies and lovers seek trysting
places on the roofs.
But to return to the lack of continuity
in either hot OF cold weather, let us
quote Gerrett Serviss, the astronomer, in
explanation of the fickleness of dame
nature in this respect. He says that all
this "shenanigin" is due to the sun as
nearly as he can find out. Old Sol, he
states, has been very frisky of late, cut
ting up all kinds of pranks up there in
the sky. In fact, Old Sol has been in
dulging recently in series of cleo
trical storms, caused by the Lord only
knows what, and has been having lot
of fun by himself and incidentally MAX
ing things rather unpleasant for us.
Mr.. Serviss says that when Old Sol
gets real hot and angry he shoots out
enormous tongues of fire which leap
thousands of miles into space; that these