The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-12
Register OF U. S. Treasurer.

but another instance of a popular falacy
arising in obscurity and catching hold of
peoples minds for some quite unexplaina-
bic reasons, without a shadow of proof to
support it, yet with a vitality invulnerable
to any amount of statistc-supported argu-
ment against it.
A whole procession of 21sts of March
and 23ds of September may pass without
any sign of a gale within a week of them.
and the absence of the equinocial gale will
never be noted, but should a high wind
occur about those dates, especially if any
damage worth noting be done by sea or
land, then the equinootial gale n be quot
ed everywhere, and whole host of people
VINO have never even noticed the words
before Will have them impress sed upon their
memory, and in their turn will go on us
ing them at the proper season until the
DAY Of their death.
In fact, so strong was, or rather is the
bellet in the regular recurrence of euui-
noctial gales that about three years ago
Mr. r. H. Scott, the secre tary 10 the Me-
teorologtcal Council, was led to make an
exhaustive investigation into the matter
not, of course, to satisfy himself that there
was no connection between gales and eoui
noXes, but in order to show by the only
means possible that the idea was based
upon nothing worthy of notice He tabu-
lated every gale reported in the United
Kingdom for large number of years, ami
then by means of an ingenious diagram.
an enlarged copy of which was shown at
the Imperial Institute, showed that the
equ noctial period had absolutely no claim
to be raised to its popularity awarded bad
eminence.
But such labors as these are seldom rec
ognized by the general public. and the
probability is that the belief in euulnoctiaI
gales has not been one whit shaken in its
hold on most peoples minds And YET one
would think that the approach OF winter
would be sufficient to lead most people to
expect the worsening weather common to
extra tropical regions at that season.
Imagination, of course loves to copiure
up some romantic vision of the benefcent
suns departure being the signal for a let
ting loose of the unBindly forces of the ar
mosphere held in check by him during his
summer reign, or Of the storm demon sum
moning all his forces for one last tremen-
dous outburst before being compelled 70
retire into his celestial Businesses at the
northward march of the sun. And. per-
haps in these prosaic days Of ours il is
somewhat cruel to destroy any such harm
less faucies. Yet they must 60 when thew
are treated as facts, because they mis-
lead, and, misleading, may do harm.
Strange to say, on the stern coasts OF
British North America firm belief is en-
tertained among seamen in the regular re-
currence of an August gale, a furious
storm which ravages those shores before
the advent of that beautiful period known
variously as Indian summer, the summer
of all saint, or the little summer of ST.
Anthony. Weird tales are told by the
coasters and fishermen of Newfoundland
and Nova Scotia of their hair-breadtb es.
capes during this awful visitation, always
spoken of with bated breath as the Au,
gust gale.
The highest praise that can there be he.
slowed upon a seaman is that he has run
the August gale in a schooner without
damage To the hearers it speaks vol
umes as to--frst, the prowess Of the mas
ter, and, secondly, the quality of the ves-
sell Yet there is no doubt whatever that
the belief in such a regularly recurring
phenomenon as violent August gale over
there has no more justification in actua,
facts than the belief in equinoctial gales
has over here.
Unhappily, there is no room for doubt
that the coming of winter is heralded not
only by falling temperature, but by ris-
Ing winds. Why this should be so would
require a long treatise on meteorology to
explain, and even then students of wealth.