Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-10
Washington Sweltering Under an
Unusually Hot Spell Of Weather.
EXPLANATION GIVEN, BY PROF. HAZEN
It Will Have Spent Its Force by
Tomorrow Night.
A COLD WAVE COMING

Woe is the young man who thought he
heard the straw hat gun go of on the 1st
Of September. Woe. likewise, Is the math-
ematical citizen who regulates his life by
the drug store calendar and dons his fan
nels on the initial day Of the month of
oysters. g.,
For they are both sad. even to the point
Of sorrow.
In the first place, the gun missed fire.
and 1t hasn't gone off yet Something is
the matter with the powder and the month
Is all awry. The man who put on his fian-
nels ten days ago is muttering matters
Unfit for publication and mentally tossing
pennies to find out II he will violate his
vow and take them of. The straw hats
have been brought back from the closets
and doLed with milk and starch and made
to look seemly once more, and the ther-
mometers have gone sizzling up and up,
and that old plague. humidity. has kept
company with the mercury until the neigh
bors have begun to talk.
A Full Pledged Warm Wave.
In short Washington is having a tussle
with q full-hedged, able-bodied. ambitious
warm wave. Coming as 1t does in Sep
tember 1t is a sort of surprise. one of those
unwelcome visitations such as the coun-
a good time to mention winter, 1t is SO
cool-when the neighborhood drops in en-
masse to spend the evening and the ap-
Piles are all gone and there is no more pie.
Surprises are all right enough In their
way, but they do make trouble sometimes.
That's just the way with this one; II ar
rived with a rush, and came within an ace
Of breaking the record. II II had only con-
tented itself with being just mild little
surprise, one that would have made the
folks mop their brows and wonder II 1t
wasn't bit warm, 1t wouldn't have mat
tered SO much. But there's another trouble
with the weather. 1t Is SO everlastingly
enterprising. and is always trying to beat
something other. Perhaps 1t isn't that
way in Europe. or Alexandria, but that Is
quite another matter after all.
Congress got itself into lots OF disrepute
for having tarried here all through June.
and then July, and even through August.
1t was called all sorts Of hard names, and
the people said that the members did not
selves in cool places while the hot weather
wes here But those chaps who draw five
thousand apiece for breaking quorums
knew what they were ebout. Some enc Of
Secretary Morton that this thing was going
to happen, for they are now getting a Va
cation in what Is, IL not the hottest part Of
the year, at least the most uncomfortable.
There's the rub. 1t isn't so much the
actual number of degrees that counts as 1t
Is the way the degrees affect US. It's COM
fort, and not statistics. that regulates the
world, after ALL So in the present case,
although the thermometers do not record a
temperature as high as We have had this
year, there Is probably more good solid
misery to the square inch scattered around
by this hot wave than by any Of its pre-
dec cessors of 1894.
Relative Humidity Indicated.
This is what the meteorologists mean
when they indict relative humidity" with
the crime Of making the world perspire.
That is an old friend. He used to be known
as general humidity" and the newspaper
men had all manner Of fun with him by
playful illusions to his title. Later the
more scientific name for him came to be
relative humidity" and now the jokers
are trying to get even with him by calling
him a poor relation" and ether scandalous
things But he doesn't seem to mind it.
He just squats down on a community and
makes the folks swelter. He grins and
they bear it. He has his best fun when
the sun shines hotly, for then he just
whoops himself and makes the collars fall
down and the cuffs gets mushy, and the
extreme peak Of the bald-headed man grows
pink. He kills the babies and worries the
horses. He drives sick people into spasms,
and makes the heart Of the ice man glad.
He reduces the population and increases
the beer bill.
Oh. he is a sly dog, is relative humidity.
He is hard to find, too, as a Star reporter
ascertained this morning. when he journey
ed to the weather bureau to find out just
why and when, and how much and how
long, and q lot Of other things about this
hot wave. The reporter found Prof. Hazen
in charge Of the hot and cold water spigots
The professor Is not a pessmist, and he
does not like hot waves any more than the
bootblack at the corner, the society
young lady who has just come down home
from New Hampshire, where for some time
past she has been sweetly sleeping under
pair Of blankets. When the reporter
IN h0 h06 % Nanr rL-,.
hot weather the professor waved his hand
and smiled beamingly Of hope for the
future. He said:
A Talk With Prof. Ha.en.
"Oh. that is almost over" and then he
led the way to the place where he finds out
all about those things, behind a large
screen. where he thinks out the facts and
figures concerning the maps.
This is very warm weather." he said, in
the manner Of a nan who knew he was
not telling a secret. 1T is hot even for
September, which, as perhaps you know,
Is apt to bring some very warm weather
1t may be Interesting and comforting to
ture ever known here-that is, since the
organization Of the weather bureau and
the starting Of the recorGs-occurred on
the 1th of September, 1881. That was the
year that Garfield died. and about the time,
too. 1t was an abnormal year, with a ter
rible brought, and some intensely hot
weather. 1 remember that just after that
hot day We had very dark day. But that
temperature, by the way, was registered
at the old office on G street, and perhaps
1t was little high. 1t was 1O4.4. On this
occasion the heat has been just ten de-
grees less. being 04 yesterday, and it will
probably be higher today. On Saturday 1t
was 30. The maximum for the present year
is 97.5, which was recorded on the 18th of
July. The September maximum, you might
tell the folks, is 73.4. -
THE trouble this time is with the mois-
ture. If 1t were not SO moist we could
easily stand the heat. But l think the
worst Is over, and there are signs that the
hot wave has spent itself The humidity
was 16 per cent this morning, and now
well. I'll find cut for you how much 1t is"
And that was how the reporter came to
discover how relative humidity Is drag
ged from his hiding place. The professor
took from his desk q glass apparatus that
looked something like a two-pronged grid
iron, but which was really a pair of ther-
mometers. One of them has q piece of
cotton tied around its bulb. like boy with
a sore finger. This end the professor dip
ped into a bottle Of water, and then he
unwound a string that was tied around the
kend and gripping this tightly he swung
Ithe apparatus around and around vigor-
ously.
1t reminded one of the old-fashioned direc-
tions on medicine bottles: ITO be well
shaken before taken" After q minute or