The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1899-08-25
WHEREITIS HOTTEST
- HE judge and the colonel were drink
ing their midnight bottle of beer and
complaining about the heat All day


nineties and even now there was no sign
of breeze. The judge had taken off his
coat and vest and the colonel's uniform
was reduced to point where it would have
been the proper thing for active service in
the Philippines.
"Must be above the hundred mark to-
day." said the colonel. "Warmest day we've
had this year, | should say. Bout equal to
some | experienced in the south one sum-
mer during the days of the war;"
"'Tis pretty warm, for a fact" replied the
judge, Especially for night time. Hot
enough to have little more ice around an
other, bottle of beer, should say. What do
you think, Haner?"
"Old Man" Haner, however, seemed to be
suffering from a chill. He had heavy,
double-breasted REFER buttoncd tightly
around him and an old fur cap on his head.
He was sitting on the extreme edge of his
green bench, his shoulders bumped and his
whole body shrunken together.
"Whats the matter, Haner?" asked the
judge? Cant you keep warm?"
Now "Old Man" Haner had camped on
an iceberg for three consecutive years. He
had used the equator for skipping rope
half way round the earth. He had, perforce,
inhabited the crater of an active volcano
for ten days and had sailed through the sea
of liquid air which surrounds the north pole.
Weather" said "Old Man" Haner to
the judge, sis all matter of habit. l found
that out when l got home from my second
whaling trip to the Arctic in 1907. Our
ship, the Saucy Sally, was frozen into an
iceberg off the north coast of Alas slia. We
left it there and started off in whaleboats.
Capt. Hawins and /, with three of the
men in one of the boats, finally lost sight of
the rest of the crew. Then we found place
where polar bears and walruses were plenty,
built hut of ice, and settled down. 1t was
pretty middling cold. The alcohol in our
spirit lamps often froze while the wicks
were burning. The air was so nearly frozen
and so thick that we had to dilute it with
melted snow We lived in the hut for near
ly three years. Every day the captain took
our bearings. We were drifting slowly
around to the east. At half-past five on the
morning of July 5, 1906, we woke up and
there, not a mile away, lay the Saucy
Sally, sound as nut. 1t had drifted right
through the arctic circle from one side to
the other. If we had staid on board we
should have discovered the north pole.
"But started out to say that weather
is all a matter of habit" and "Old Man"
Haner shivered. "When we got back to
New York it was in the middle of January,
but l was so accustomed to the arctic cold
that l was almost overcome by the heat.
In the 40s | spent eight years along the
equator, and when l got back to this coun-
try in August, just in time to be present at
the siege of the Alamo, / suffered terribly
from the cold"
"What was the hottest weather you ever
experienced Haner?" asked the judge, anx-
ious to get back on a seasonable topic.
"There was some complaint about the
heat" he said, when we were going
through Africa after DR.. Livingston, an
just before the Sepoy revolt, while was
serving in the English army in India, the
thermometer frequently touched l20 de-
grees. Once, in the great desert of Africa,
| saw a camel killed by a sunstroke and
found it was l30 degrees in the shade. On
July IS, 1851, in Ecuador, when we were
out on an expedition after Jesuit's bark, we
ting on their eggs to hatch them are obliged
to fan them constantly with their wings
in order to keep them from getting too
hot. The native Indians of Ecuador de-
pend chiefly for food on the llamas, which
llama is covered with thick hair or wool,
which, in their case, strangely enough, pro-
tects them from the heat One day told
native l was hungry, and watched him
while he went out and shaved all the wool
off of one of the animals. Then he tied
it out in the sun for few minutes, and di-
rectly brought me in a piece of the roasted
meat. 1t was so well done, however, that
| could hardly eat it. 1t appears that the
natives get expert in gauging the heat of
the sun and by cutting off much or little
of the wool can serve either we'll done or
rare llama steaks at pleasure. Broiled live
llama is in fact the national dish of Ecua-
dor.
"The fourth time was in Manila, in 1896,
| noticed a rather peculiar thing, which
am surprised has so far escaped the atten-
tion of the newspaper correspondents. You
may have seen mention in the papers of the
fact that the Tagalogs, or natives of the
interior, have fine and luxuriant heads of
hair. That is because they never cut their
hair. Instead it is singed by the sun. AL
most every native house has a hair singeing
window built out over the street SO that
the suns rays will not be interrupted. Be-
tween twelve and one O'Clock any day you
can look up the streets of the villages in the
interior of the islands and see these win
dows occupied"
"Haner," said the judge, impressively.
you evidently don't know much about hot
weather. Now, I've seen it much hotter
than anything you have described right in
New York city. Before tell you about it
perhaps you had better get another bottle
of beer out of the icebox. | shall need it
before | oct thrOuph Tho difTaranna ba-
tween my story and those you have been
telling, Haner, is that | have the colonel
right here to testify that ! do not exaggerate
anything in the slightest. The colonel was
with me on that hottest day. We had got.
ten to New York in the morning and moth
ing but the automobiles were running, be-
cause it was too hot for horses. About noon
We went into a basement restaurant on tho
East side to get something to eat. The
colonel ordered three eggs fried on one
side and l wanted mine fried hard. We
were sitting next to a swinging door that
seemed to lead out into the kitchen under
the sidewalk. The man that took our order
left the door open when he went out and we
saw just what he did. So far as we could
see there was no stove in the kitchen. The
cover of a coal-hole in the sidewalk had
been lifted off and down through it streamed
the sun. The waiter broke three eggs on a
plate and simply passed it once under the
open coal-hole. Then he brought in the
coloneps order. Going back he broke three
more eggs and passed the plate twice under
the hole. That finished up my cggs-fried
hard on both sides. had always wondered
before how those East side restaurants
could serve meals so cheaply. Then | un-
derStoOu. In the summer at least they nra