The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-05-21
owHEN I WAS a BOY"

| off and completely sienced. He mas abso-
lutely no evidence TO offer that ne has
ever seen a winter equal to the one just
passed. There was no winter Of his hey
hood that eqUalled il, and he might as well
own up.
The Sunday after the election last Nov
ember in Wichita was mild and gentle.
Men sat aroma that SUNDAY eveanIg on
the front porc1es in their shirt sleeves.
Aocut o'clock the next NOR lg twenty
tot SAND people tried ID pull tho single
sheet up higher under their chins and
wondered why the Sam Hill they couldn't
get warm BY o'clock it was showing
great guns and the wind was blowing a
hurricane from the north. People kept in
doors and during the hard winter the
streets were never so much deserted as
they were that first day. although the
thermometer was only little below freez-
ing on that occasion.
Since that day on, every disturbance in
the weather has been followed by cool
weather even to the present time and We
are nearly to June.
Taking it alb in all, this part of the ma
ton has never seen such winter. No
old settler or Oldest inhabitant ever saw
anything like the intensity of cold, of for
instance a more persistent high wind than
blew three weeks ago today.
And yet older people believe that winters
were more severe in their youth than now
1t has always been so. People imagine
that winters in their youth were something
terrific. Thomas Jefferson, in 1871, wrote:
"a change of climate IS taking place.
Bothsheats and colds are much more mod
crate THAI within the memory even of the
midde-aged. Shows are less frequent and
less deep. They do not often lie below
the mountains more than two or three
days and very rarely week. The elderly
inform me that the earth used to be COW
cred with snow about three months in
every year"
This is a typical opinion of Jeffersfns
time and of every generation since that
day. Prof. Willis L. Moore, chief of the
weather bureau, says that Jefferson ana
his neghbors were mistaken; that never
in the period of authent:c history did the
snow cover the part Of Virginia anont
which Jefferson wrote for three months
Of the year for three years in succession.
Prof. Hazen Of the weather bureau made
some investigations, a few months ago,
CT the alleged moderatiug of the winters.
and he found that The month of Janu-
ary 1895. was generally marked by the
icngest cold season that had been recorded
s.nee accurate observations were begun
by the signal service. In Chicago, how
ever, the coolest January in sixty years
was that of 1858, which had a mean tenn
perature nine degrees below the normal.
The March blizzard of that year was the
severest of which there is any record in
this country, and observations go back
to 17So.
As everybody knows, the winter just
closed has been an exceptionally severe
one. In consequence, it viii be some time
before parents begin again to tell their
children that the winters are not what
they used to he. One correspondent cites
to the weather bureau an incident to
illustrate the prevalence of the warmer
winters superstition. He says that when
a boy he went TO school one day in
storm so severe that only five pupils were
present; and the teacher, IN dismissng the
five who had 'braved the elements con-
graduated them upon their courage, and
also deplored the faintheartendess af the
present generauon, saying that when he
was a boy half the winter in that locality
was about as severe as the day in ques-
ton. Illustrations of this kind might be
multiplied. There is a sort of ''mnemonlc
Illusion about the weather. People gen
orally remember the exceptional instances
and forget the average; this makes the eX-
traordinary blasts of winter, the heavy
sr0ws. and the blizzards stand out so upon
the memory of the oldest inhabitant"
that he forgets about anything else, ard
finally concludes that in his boyhood all
weather was Of phenomenal variety. An
other thing that may have something to
do with the Illusion is the growing ability
of the human race 10 keep warm in cold
weather The Introduction of anthracite
coal furnaces. steam-heating, Ter the
greater popular use Of wooden for under
clothing and of furs for outer clothing
have male the severe winters much less
formidable than in earlier years.
The weather bureau has long been
preaching the substantial uniformity Of
nature in this particular. but among the
public generally with little acceptance.
The winter lust closed has lent strong
support to the scientific contention Of uni
formity in averages. From all parts Of
the country stories come intense suffering.
and for the next few years less VIII be
heard about the winters whsn I was a
boy" \ sojouvner on an Indian reserva-
ton in South Dakota writes, under date
of April 30: I'VE have had 4 winter here
that VIII 50 on record. I have lived
through four winters in this place. but
in the one Just past have seen q COM
hinauon Of the trials Of the other three.
We have been showed IN and frozen in.
and nearly starved OUT. on one occasion.
we received no mall for two weeks; three
times the mail carrier lost his way in
storm and wandered about the prairie ali
night. his only safety from freezing TO
death being TO keep in active motion.
When the breakup came we were nearly
drowned our. the creeks being -urneI into
muddy rivers that overacwe5 the great
canons n which they .ake their course.
Then the roads became alnost impossible.
When I Went n the agency on The Isl Of
Aprii. rode horseback Io-ty-7ye miles
rather than 80 through the risks md diff
cult.es Of driving. I left my wife alone
here three days. VIA no whites nearer
Than seven miles. bnt the In5an Is
harmless creature when NOT on the war
path"
some Of the most ancient weather rec
o-is are highly interesting. Since 1850 for
example. the record has been kept ~ the
date al which the ice al Rtsa. IN The