The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-07-30
COUNTING THE COST.
The Weather Is Little Better
To-day, But
THE SLAUGHTER is TERRIBLE.
Deaths Due to the Heat Reported by the
Health Department - The wife OF n
Governor Fatally Prostrsted-where
70 Go Tomorrow.

"Oh, wish was dead" was what she
said, and she sighed as though she meant
1t. That was yesterday.
WHY"
Because then I'd be put on ice."
This Is the last day of the hottest week.
perhaps. In the history of PROVIDENCE,
and people are just recovering their en-
ergy sufficiently to talk about 10.
Down in the NEWS press room was one
OF the hottest places in the city. Here
was four horse power boiler steamin q
away all day long to make steam for the
drying bed in the stereotyping process;
the steam bed itself--a fiat. hollow plat
form OF steel, thr ee feet by seven--threw
off from every inch of its surface caloric
rays enough to set up a bakery In bust
ness.
Then there was steam jacket and DO {
in which matrix paste Is cooked, and last
but not least, the furnace in which the
stereotype metal Is melted. 1t got so hot
that three of the linking rollers on the
NEWS press got soft and were battered
out OF shape. These are made of glue and
molasses, or something of the sort, and
are particularly impressionable.
Portly Officer Brown of the Broad street
square said last night: Fat people stand
the heat better than lean ones. The sun
strikes right through thin man aud gets
at the vitals. while a fat man has layers
of flesh to ward it off, just AS you wrap
chunk OF ice In cloths 10 keep It,
You wouldn't think" went on Mr..
Brown, "that this weather was harder
on night policeman than day man,
but IL is. The patrolling may be easier,
but think of trying to sleep in broad day
light with the sun shining on the house,
and the flies buzzing aud the noises in the
street. It's hard enough at night. If
they've got any cold wave in Chicago
wish they'd send it on"
No class OF public servants suffer more
from the heat than letter carriers, and of
all the letter carriers those are worst off
who have the downtown beats where
there are many stairs to climb. There are
not few Of our carriers who are driven
to the verge OF serious illness by such n
week as this day closes.
Here are a few places which have been
hot during the week: The engine room at
the electric light; the Jail: the furnace
room of big steamboat; Exchange place
at midday; the particular place where
you happened to be. And the cool places
were-well, what were they?
It's an awful record of mortality and
suffering the week has to tell. Yester-
day afternoon at Swan Point cemetery
there were at one time five white hearses.
Each meant a dead baby, killed by the
heat, sorrow that might have been
spared had not that great wave of blast
ing air risen In the parched aud sultry
West and rolled its slow course over fifty
million people.
The deaths during the week number
103 or these six were directly caused by
the excessive heat. There were forty
three from diarrheal diseases, twenty-six
being from cholera infantum. Last week
IL a... H.. L..
all the increase Is due to the heat.
The deaths during July, less four days,
number 279. In July, 1891, there were 2ll
deaths. For the week in July correspond
ing to this one there were sixty-four
deaths.
There is no doubt that the increase in
the number of deaths during the past week
and month over the corresponding week
and month Of last year Is due to the heat.
The highest temperature in July, 1891,
was 80 degrees on the 18th. The mean
July temperature in 1891 was 709 degrees
1t is interesting to note that the mean
of the maximum temperatures during
July for the past eleven years is 92. 1 de-
grees and that the highest this month
was 96 degrees.
But it is all over The Thermometer.
which rose yesterday TO 95 degrees stood
at 81
The "cold wave" has found Prov
IDENCE. But, while to-day is more COM
Portable than the past few, the city can
stand cooler weather.
Last night rain began at 10 o'clock and
stopped at this morning. The fall was
.03 of an inch.
Yesterday 100000 gallons of Paw
tuxet water were used, and on Thursday
IL ,060, 900 gallons.
Up to date the mean temperature for
July is IA degrees. Cool weather, for
which all hone. NAV hiring down fbia
figure. The highest mean July temper
ature is 1916 degrees, in 1887. The mean
July temperature for the past eleven
years is 723 degrees, so this months mean
temperature will probably be above the
average.