The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-14
YESTERDAY A SC0RCHER
THIS VAS ONE OF THE HOTTEST
 CITIES IN THE COUNTRY.

 Hot Wave Not Over Yet-Thunder Show ers--several Places Struck by Lightning Slight Damage Done by the storm-A Drop of 23 Degrees in Twenty Minutes Heat and storm in Other Planes.
 The usual form of salutation between friends meeting on the street was yes terday changed to Pretty warm, isn't it?" and "Hot enough for your" and the funniest part of 1t was that the peo- pie so accosted in this usually fight
 provoking phraseology were so busy trying to keep cool that they failed to take offence The sands of Sahara
 may be hot, but it is toss-up if they were yesterday any hotter than the streets of New Haven. New York pa-
 pers state that Philadelphia was yes-
 terday the hottest city in the United
 States, and also say that the thermoIn-
 eter registered 80 degrees there at o'clock in the morning. If that is true
 New Haven can also lay claim to that distinction, as, according to the local
 weather bureau, the thermometer at the office on the Insurance building registered 80 degrees above at o'clock
 a. m and rose to 90 degrees just before l the storm. After the storm began the
 mercury took a sudden drop of 23 de-
 grees, falling to 67 within twenty min- utes. After the storm it again rose and at o'clock last evening registered 70 | degrees
 l There may be balm in Gilead, but we | can hold out to our readers no balmy | hope of cooler weather in New Haven | to-day, and the only way of keeping cool that we can suggest is the refrig- I orator process or a trip to the shore. | The indications for to-day point to 1 thunder showers, with blazing heat in- 1 tervening-an exceedingly pleasant prospect
 It was even warmer here than at Key
 West, Fla, ordinarily the hottest place l in America. At Washington, New Or
 leans, St. Paul, Chicago and St. Louis | the temperature ranged from 75 to S5 1 degrees.
 l The hot belt embraces all the terri
 tory east of the Rockies and south of
 the Great Lakes. The southern states
 have been visited by a few electrical
 storms, but they originated in purely l local conditions.
 Some damages, but in no instance of
 any great extent, were done by yester-
 day afternoons storm, The dancing pavilion at Lighthouse Point was struck l by lightning, but was not damaged be-
 yond slight scorching on the roof. l A house in the northern part of the city occupied by a colored family was struck by bolt, and a house opposite Welchs coal yard in West Haven, but
 neither was much damaged. A chim- 1 ney on the house of R. w. Coe of Coe | & Brown. on Elm street in West Ha- | ven, was struck and a part of the 1 bricks ot the chimney were knocked off. A large field of corn at Morris Cove was leveled flat to the ground by l the wind, and so strong was the wind l that trolley pole oman electric car of 1 the Morris Cove line was blown around | sideways so far that the rope held it | broke, and the car was delayed about 1 fifteen minutes, until it could be fixed. 1 The scenery for the opening of the production of the "Destruction of Her. culaneum," at Savin Rock, last night, I had all been placed in position yester- | day afternoon, but 1t, together with the l woodwork supporting it, was blown to | the ground during the storm, and a l force of men was kept at work all dur
 ing last night repairing the damage. COTTAGE BLOWN DOWN. 1 Branford, July 13.-A cottage in pro-
 cess of construction at Crescent Bluffs, | Pine Orchard, for H. L. Schliter of Meriden, was blown down by the wind | during the thunder storm this after
 noon The walls were up, but there
 was no roof stretched over them as yet. i The timbers were lifted from the un l derpinning. The building will have to l be begun anew
 THE STORM IN TWISTED. i Winsted, July 13--A rain storm of
 unusual severity passed over this sec-
 ton o2 the state this afternoon. The storm struck this place about o'clock Washouts are reported from many towns of northwestern Connecticut.
 Main street here was converted into a
 river, and hail stones the size of hick-
 ory nuts fell breaking glass in differ
 ent parts of the town. Scores of cellars
 along Mad river are flooded tonight. l The tobacco crop in the Harrington valley was considerably damaged. | OVERCOME BY HEAT. Portland, July 1S.-George Penfield,
 while engaged in repairing a tobacco barn in Portland this morning, was
 overcome by the heat and fell twenty
 five feet to the ground, fracturing his I skull He will die.
 MIDDLETOwN NOT FAVORED.
 Middletown. July 13-This has been
 the hottest night of the season. The
 thermometer registered S3 degrees at | S:30 o'clock.