The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-02

Inc Importance Of the modern wealth
err prophet remarked a well-known at
tache Of The local bureau the other
day. 'is not fully appreciated by the
public which takes only a casual inter
est in the skies when they threaten to in
terfere with his own convenience. In
his capacity as recorder Of meteorologi-
cal conditions, the weather man is fully
as necessary an adjunct 10 our civiliza-
ton as in the distinct role of prophet.
The complications of his calling multi
ply as the convent ouce to which he can
be put becomes nj re generally known.
and IL is reasonable to suppose that in
time, as a matter of seIf-protection. he
will have 20 wrap himself fin the robes
Of his profession and refuse to dispense
knowledge outside Of the regular chan
nels. The publication Of the weather
forecast in the papers should be sufi-
Gent to satisfy the curiosity eff the av-
erage mortal, but 1T appears that there
are plenty above or below the average.
who Insist upon something more definite
than the daily published prediction.
"One Of the most frequent uses to
which the official weather prophet is
put, either in person or through his as
sistants, is that Of tesbfying in court
One of the favorite lodges of sharp
lawyers today IS to tangle up a witness
about the weather. and then put the off,
cial weather man or his representative
on th estand and make him prove on
the date Ga question the weather con
tradieted the evidence. Sometimes this
does not affect tte legal ASPECT Of the
case at an. for 1t might prove nothing
mere than that the witness was a lit
Gle mixed I'm his weather memory. or
that be was careless in swearing to
things about which he was not abso-
luteiy sure. It is curious. however. to
note with what absolute certainty most
people VIII talk about weather of only a
few days back. or OF certain date Of
year or two ago. They VIII tell YOU that
last Christmas or THANKSGIVING was
rainy or snowy day, and nothing can
convince them otherwise And vet. SO
strangel freakish is the average memory
concerning the weather that i'm nine cases
OUT of ten such people are wrong.
know it to be a fact because have
taken the trouble TO look the matter I'D
many times.
--Fl --9-A-4H4 10 Lle F0lulEl0nS or the
weather score of times. and I'M nearly
every instance 7 have had to prove the
witness wrong in his impressions. Why
is this2 Or course. T was inclined at
first to believe that the witnesses were
deliberately perjuring themselves. Az
ter serving ON many trials have
changed my opinion. and decided that it
was merely memory freak The average
man. I believe would be safer in pre-
dieting the kind eff weather we are go
ing to have next week than in attempt
ING to tell what were the meteorological
conditions few days ago.
"As an illustration Of this. 7 recall
case where a mans barn was fred by
a locomotive spark The railroad attor-
ney was trying TO prove that the cause
Of the fire was NOT from the passing
locomotive. To carry his case he COM
pletely bewildered the farmer. and made
him testify that it had rainea the night
before the fire. and that the wind was
blowing a small hurricane from the
northwest which would carry the sparks
directly away from. instead Of toward
the barn. Had not been subpoenaed by
the farmers lawyer to refute this testi-
mony. the case would have gone against