The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-10-20

of Cities Strewn with Dead
and Dying Men and
Beasts, etc.
PIKEsvILLE, Nd, October 9Th, 1900.
Editors Union The remarkable exhibition of
solar energy witnessed in different parts Of the
FIRING The past summer will place
one of the hottest for the past
Yet, If we compare the record with
Fences of other years and other coun-
q will see that the last was not truly ex-
Ne, though long continued. Itisnotan easy
hitter to get at the old records on the subject.
but from what have been able to compile it
appears that the people Of the old world have
suffered more intense heat than of the new.
In the years 1904 the Rhine, Loire and Seine
rivers went dry. The heat in several of the
French provinces during the summer of 17O5 was
equal to that of glass furnace. Meat could be
prepared for the table by merely exposing it to
the sun. Not a soul dare venture out of his
house between noon and P. NJ. In the year 171S
many shops had to close all over Europe. Nota
drop of rain fell for four months. In 1773 the
thermometer rose to 118 degrees. In IT'S the
heat in Bologna was so intense that numbers of
people were stified. In July, 1793 the heat again
became intolerable. Vegetables were burned up
and fruit dried on the trees. The furniture and
woodwork In dwelling houses cracked and split
and meat became tainted in an hour. The French
Revolution was then at its height of its bloody
carnival and many superstitious persons thought
that the wave of heat following this mighty up
heaval was the curse of God. In 1900 Spain was
visited by a sweltering temperature. Madrid
and other cities we're deserted and the streets
became silent. Laborers died in the fields.
Another disastrous hot wave swept over
s,,1 T,,k s1oc Mo- Do,
during the review soldiers by the score fell vic
tins to sunstroke. and at Aldershot England,
men dropped dead while at drill. compelling the
officers to suspend the exercises.
There are many living who recall the terrible
experiences of 1853 in New York and elsewhere.
In that year New Orleans was desolated by yell
low fever In New York it appeared as if the
city was on fire. The thermometer ranged from
95 to 98 degrees for seven days. In that summer
was opened the Crystal Palace in Reservoir
Square. On the day of the opening the mercury
rose to 96 degrees and people tainted in the crowd
and fell dead in the streets. During the week
2l4 persons died from sunstroke in New York.
The year 1872 was another fearful one in the me-
tropOlis 155 cases of sunstroke occurring on July
4. of which ~ proved fatal. The principal thor
oughfases were like fields of battle. Men fell by
the score and ambulances were in constant
side and painted their lives away. SleS,s -. TWO
ss,,1r 49,. =. a. districts women
a,',,,.s - dead on the roofs, to
49, 49, ~. - oered in the hope of getting
-. - na Z. The scenes in the morgue
s-,,.D.,; dozens of bodies were on the
welo appesnnder the splasbiax- wafer awaiting
the recognition of friends; here stalwart man
who had been stricken suddenly; there come
foa fOxu0 rd hQ oh
yonder the official photographer, doing his
CHASTITY yet necessary work in preserving the
pictures of the dead eager-eyed relatives hunt
ing among the corpses for some missing loved
one; horrible stencil mingled with the oppres-
sive heat, and lamentations filled the air. Over
200 deaths were recorded in three or four days.
The next serious visitation took place in 1877,
and about July began to make its power felt
throughout the Middle and Southern States, as
well as in New York. In Washington the heat
was particularly oppressive. The rails be-
came so expanded by the action of the sun as to
rise up in curved lines, drawing the bolts. In
one instance the rails burst away from the bolts
and left the track entirely. The thermometer
marked l04 degrees. The summer of 1879 will
long be remembered for its torrid atmosphere.
The situation will be better understood from the
following record: Norwich, Conn.,, June 2, 100
ueBfeees NEW 1Ork. June 20, 20, C0drleeJOu,
July IL. 10l; on the same date, st. Louis, 1OO
Knoxville, Tenn. July 49, 1903; Charleston, July
IA, Ill DC deaths) Detroit July 16, 1O2; New
York, July II, 101.
In 1881 tits said the heat throughout the United
States was the greatest on record, the thermom-
eter in many places registering los degrees in the
shade. In England the mercury ranged from 80 |
to 101 degrees, and in Paris 90 degrees July q,
1881, Is said to have been the hottest day ever |
known up to that time. Another torrid wave |
came in August of that year, and with brief |
intermission, continued until the middle of Sep
TENDER. In Richmond the thermometer regis |
tered los degrees; in Washington. 1O4 in Tren- |
ton, 104 in Baltimore. Wilmington, Philadel |
phia, Rochester and elsewhere. from 80 to 101; |
yet on September snow fell in Deadwood, s. |
D.. to the depth of five inches, and at Bald Noun
tain the snow was two feet deep.
The month of September this year was one of I
the hottest ever known in the history of this |
country. On the 9th and It'll the thermometer |
here in Maryland registered 1O7 degrees. A Pc
culiar smoky haze pervaded the atmosphere and |
the sun dinly shining through it gave a sickly |
yeilowish tint to every object. In New England
it became so dark on the afternoon of the 9th |
that the factories and stores were compelled to
use their gas. Schools in many places were dis
missed and the chickens in the farmyards
went to roost. The Second Adventists donned
their robes ready to make their ascent to
heaven, thinking that the judgment day was at
hand. The writer, who was then boy, together
with his brother. cut of piece of corn belong
ing to gentleman on the northern outskirts of
Pikesville on the same day. The heat was be-
yond description and the corn, stalk, blades and
tassel stood as if carved out of marble, or like
"a painted ship on painted sea- not breath
mn.
writer, who had read the thrilling pages of
Dante's Inferno, thought that the afternoon of
September 6, 1881, between the hours of 2 and
O'Clock, was fair sample of the Plutonic regions
The months of June and July, 1882, were nota-
bly, oppressive in their atmosphere. On the 18th
of July So children in New York died from the
effects of the heat. Car horses fell dead in their
traces; drivers dopped from their seats on trucks
and wagons. Broadway was like great trans
parent flame of fire. Business was partially sus-
pended and many workshops were closed. The
crowded parts of New York on the east and west
sides were filled with families mourning for their
dead, and undertakes went their busy rounds
as if an epidemic prevailed. The housetops were
turned into vast bedroom and the pitiful cries
of sick children mingled with the blinking of
glasses in the beer shops. Seven hundred and
seventy-nine little ones died during this period
from diseases superinduced by the heat.
Coming down to later years we all remember
the terrible spell of August 1895. when for pc
riod of five days the thermometer over the en-
tire country ranged from 9S to 103 degrees. Hun
dreds in the various cities died from sunstroke
and the mortality among infants and young chill
dren was appalling.
The heat term of the summer that has passed
need not be commented on. believe that the
general wish of the public is that it will not be