The sun., 1900-05-16

spending increase as the hours went by.
At O'Clock 96 was reached against so
for the preceding day. The highest
record fer any previous May Is was in
1850, when the mercury reached So
degrees. ..---',-.,.>-,
There was scarcely breath of air stir
ring when the city awoke yesterday
morning, and citizens generally, feeling
the heat, made up their minds without
delay that they were in for very un-
comfortable day. Summer is here before
its time and the result is that the city
sweltered under temperature such as
would be expected in the middle OF
August. This, too, while wearing winter
clothes and with heavy overcoats not re-
moved from the hall racks to place
where their safety from moths is as.
sured.
Not in the history of the weather
bureau and not in the mind of that
much-talked-of person, the oldest in
habitant, has real hot weather made its
appearance SO early in the spring, and
local history does not record before such
lightning change in the weather as has
marked the last few days. On Thursday
last overcoats were almost a necessity.
The air was cool, the sky was dark and
wintery. Friday was almost as bad. On
Saturday overcoats were laid aside and
on Sunday the city began to feel the
heat. Monday the mercury got up to
the 80 degree mark and the city was half
roasted, and yesterday the job begun
on Monday was completed.
At no time latt night did the heat
lessen very much. At midnight the tenn
perature was 75 deg. At2 O'Clock this
morning it had dropped deg. and an
hour later the mercury stood at the ~
deg. mark. That was the lowest temper
ature Of the night, and knowing this it
is easy to understand why SO many per-
sons will sit down to the breakfast table
this morning and announce that they
had not slept we'll. 1t is not to be ex-
pected that one can sleep well with 70
deg. weather in the middle of May.
Most persons were better prepared for
the hot weather yesterday than they
were on Sunday and Monday, but there
were thousands who suffered particularly
because of the sudden change in the sea-
son. The persons who were prepared
were, as rule, those who had
last summer clothes to fall back on, and
those who suffered the most were those
who, having no old closhes, were COM
PEELED to keep on their winter ones for
the time. OF course, the clothing stores
did lot to lessen the suffering, but it is
not every one who can walk into a store
and come out after having ordered new
suit sent home all ready to put on next
day. One result of the hot wave is that
tailor shops all over the city were piled
high with orders yesterday, and the
Il. ors had to tell even old customers
who always pay their bills on time, when
they made inquiries concerning clothes
yesterday, that they could not promise
tu do anything for them inside OF a fort.
night. Dressmakers, too, reported that
they had more than they could attend to
aud they especially discouraged the
woman who wanted a few cotton shirt
waists made. They tod her that they
had no time for that kind of work and
did not know when they would have.
The business part OF the city yesterday
very good field for the stndy
OF styles of other years. Seersucker
coats were displayed that were certainly
made not later than 1890, and flannel
trousers were exhibited that had been
shrinking during at least a dom sum
mers. Faded shirts and shirt waists
were seen on every side, and one man
was bold enough to board the Delaware
Road train at 4.27 o'clock wearing
large linen duster. Not many straw hats
were seen, for some reason or other, and
such as were displayed were practically
all old ones. Until business began yester-
day the hat stores had not encouraged
their sale and very few new ones were
worn. Neither were the hat stores
crowded. When asked abeut the cause