The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-13
IT WAS IN 1S16.
COLD SUMMER OF HAST CENTU-
 RY.
sums Rays Destitute of Heat-Ali Crop,
 Were Killed.

Were Killed.
 There are few persons now living who recollect the year 1916, but Euro pean and American data represent it as having been phenomenal in almost eve ry particular.
 In New England the year went by 1 the name os eighteen hundred and starve to death, and the summer months are known in history as "the cold summer of 1S16," so remarkable was the temperature.
 The suns rays seemed to be desti- tute of heat and all nature was clad in sable hue. Men and women became frightened, and imagined that the fire Tn the sun was being rapidly extin- guished and that the world would soon come to an end.
 Ministers took the phenomena for the text of their sermons, and pseudo-sci- entif1c men talked of things they knew not of while the fanatics took advan- tage of the occasion to form religious organizations.
 The winter of 1S15-16 was very cold in Europe but comparatively mild in this country, and did not in any way indi- cate the severe weather that soon pre- vailed.
 EVEN ALMANACS FAILED.
 Even the almanacs were silent and, although the usual indications about now look for cold weather" were en- tered in the regular portions of the books devoted to the winter predictions, those used for chronicling the pleas anter months had no such alarming warnings
 January was mild, so much so that for days the people allowed their fires to 20 out, ss artificial heat made the buildings uncomfortably warm. This pleasant weather was broken by q se- were cold snap in February but this low temperature passed in a few days and a warmer condition, similar to the month previous, set in.
 March 'came in like a lion but went out like a lamb" There was nothing unusual in the climate conditions of the month which differed from those gene- rally found in this windy season.
 Aprilewas the advance guard of this strange freak in temperature The early days were warm and bright, but as the month drew to close the cold increased until it ended in ice and snow and a very low temperature.
 VEGETATION RUINED.
 To those who delighted in balmy May days and loved to watch the budding flowers, the May of 1916 was a bit ter disappointment. True, buds came, but SO did the frost. and in one night laid all vegetation blackened waste
 Corn was killed, and the fields had to be made ready for another planting, but the peoples astonishment was com plete when they found ice formed in pools.
 June, "the month of roses" was this year month of ice and desolation The "oldest inhabitant' was surprised for never before had the thermometer sunk so low in the tube in these lati- tudes in the last month of spring
 Frost, ice and snow were common Almost every green thing that had taken advantage of a few warm days to develop was killed, and various kinds of fruit were nearly all destroyed.
 One day the beautiful snow fell to a depth of ten inches in Vermont, seven inches in Maine and three inches in and central New York
 Matters were beginning to be inter- esting. People were undecided whetEer to spend the summer in the south or at the seashore and mountains. One day the latter resorts were desirable, and the next would decide in favor of the former but on the whole, the southern climate was preferred
 ICE FOR JULY f.
 July was accompanied by frost and lee, and those who celebrated the glo- 'ious Fourth, mot wisely but too we'll" found an abundance of ice handy for immediate use the next morning. It was not very thick, not more than one sixteenth of an inch, but it was ice, and 1t caused the good people of New Eng and, New York and some sections of to look grave. That month Indian corn was destroyed in all put the most favored locations, and but l small quantity escaped.
 Surely August would put an end to such cold weather, but the farmers as we'll as hotel proprietors were doomed 70 disappointment The midsummer month was, if possible, more cheerless han the days already passed. Ice ormed even thicker than it had done he month before, and corn was so bad y frozen that it was cut for fodder, and llmost every green plant in this coun- ry as well as Europe was frozen. Papers received from England stated , hat the year 1916 would be remem- )ered by the generation then living as | year in which there was no summer | What little corn ripened in the unex- | posed states was worth almost its | weight in silver, and farmers were | to provide themselves with | orn grown in 1915 for the seed they l lsed in the spring of 1917. This seed | lever cost so much. being difficult to | ,et. even at five dollars per bushel.
 WARM WEATHER IN AUGUST. The last month of summer was ush red in bright and warm, and for two weeks the now almost frozen people egan to thaw out It was the mildest weather of the year, but just as the in- abitants got fairly to appreciate it Id Boreas and Jack Frost came along | nd whitened and hardened everything n their path.
 On the 18th the ice formed a quarter f an inch thick, and winter clothing, hat had been laid away for a few days, ias again brought forth and wrapped Ound shivering humanity.