The Washington times., 1901-07-02

| saved but for the fact that when the
| ambulance reached the corner of Ninth
| Street and Maryland Avenue southwest
the gates of the railroad crossing were
| lowered. Despite the violent ringing of
the vehicles gong, the gates were kept
| lowered, ii is said, for a period of five or
ten minutes, while freight train was
being shifted. Everything was done to
prolong Ashton's life, but the surgeon S
| efforts were of no avail Ashtons body
| was placed in the morgue, and Coroner
! hewitt was notified.
The official thermometer at the Weather
Bureau YESTERDAY reCiSt cred l02 degrees
al $50 o'clock, and at 10 o'clock last night
| II mad only fallen to s. degrees. The
( Government weather indicator is
! eighty-four feet above the ground en-
| cased in a box and shaded from the sun 5
| rays, so that it does not tell the actual
| heat on the concrete pavement along
| Pennsylvania Avenue or any other street.
| Hence, the downtown thermometers
| showed that the mercury had climbed to
/ 1U9, and in one or two instances TO 1O0la
! degrees All along Pennsylvania Avenue.
/ from until o'clock yesterday afternoon,
/ the thermometers upon which the sun fell
! showed the tiny silver line extending to
| the figures indicating 100 degrees or more.
: Yesterday was not the warmeSt day the
/ National Capital has ever withstoOd dur
! ing the memory of the Weather Bureau,
| but 1t was the warmest day ever recorded
] up to July of any year. The records for
! the seventh month of the year is held by
| July IS, 1887. when the mercury in the
| official indicator reached 1853 degrees, and
/ On Juig 10, 1919, WneN IL attained u HelSHI
/ OF lO2, the same as yesterday.
! All July records for Philadelphia were
| broken yesterday when 102 degrees was
! reached. Fresno, Cal, was the warmest
| place recorded yesterday, with 10i de-
! grees, exceeding Phoenix, usually the hot
| test place, by four degrees. Washington
| and Philadelphia tied for second place,
each with 102 while St. Louis and Kan
| sas City each had 100 degrees of warmth,
| New York and Pittsburg each registered
9S Helena, Mont. and Bismark, n. Oak.
were the coolest places, with tempera-
lures of but "A degrees.
Indications point to a continuation of
high temperature for the next forty
eight hours, at least in Washington and
while there is always a possibility of
rains, there is hardly a probability of
any shower before Wednesday night at
the earliest and more likely not until
Thursday if then The Weather Bureau
officials, who are able to see into the fu-
ture conditions for two days, discern no
rainfall within that time.
4 see no relief for Washington during
the next two days said ForeCaster
ETankenfield, last night. although there
may be some slight showers in the coun-
try round about US. During d warm
period like the present rain falls more
readily in the country than in large
cities. The present wave Is general
throughout the country, both sides of the
Rockies, with the exception of the Gulf
and South Atlantic States, where it is
cooler than at some points considerably
and moved eastward, becoming most in
tense since Saturday. 1t is produced by
a condition where there is a low pressure
TO the north and a high pressure to the
south so that the hot air from the equa-
tor settles down upon the country. Water
seeks its level and so does air.
The warmer the air becomes the more
moisture il contains, and summer rains
are produced by a current of cold air COM
ing in contact with hot air, charged with
moisture, which il condenseS into water
a hotter
the more moisture and the more liability
OF rain whenever crossed by cooler cur
rent of air.
There is relief in sight by showers for
the Mississippi and lower Missouri Val
leys, as well as the upper lake region, to-
morrow, and on Wednesday l expect it
TO reach the Ohio Valley and the lower
lake region. but | can see no immediate
hope for Washington or the country
along the east coast
There was a rainfall Of i56 inches yes
terday In Chicago, and general showers
in Iowa, which served to cool the atmos-
phere TO some extent in that section. 1t
also rained more than one inch in Jack
sonville Fla.
Washington street cars have never be
fore presented the sight which has become
familiar one during the hot spell OF
shirt waist men but men with their coats
on, and their suspenders on, have been
so numerous as TO excite comment no
longer. Such disregard of Washington
ethics would have been frowned upon
week ago, but the sudden rise in tenn
peratuTe has placed a premium upon all
methods Of keeping cool, and the dis
carded coat has passed unmOlested.
Men with their coats on their arms were |
plentiful on the Avenue, and large palm |
leaf fans have not been despised by the !
crowds in the streets. In the parks and |
public squares, the keep OF the grass |
rides have been suspended. Sweltering |
Washington took possession of the parks |
last night and held them until after mid |
lite place, and many people took advan- |
tage of the open eXpanse CT parking and |
enjoyed what few breeZes blew through |
the Mall and the Monument Grounds.
Franklin Park was crowded until long |
after y o'clock Thousands of people |
the city end,Svored TO escape |
visiting the larger parks A greater |
crowd than usual sought Lafayette |
Square. This was one of the coolest |
places in the city In all Of the parks |
the shirt waist man was much in evil |
dence. The supporters of the shirt waist |
for men could not have had stronger !
ally than the present unprecedented hot |
The intensity of the heat of yester-
day and last night is best evidenced by /
a glance at the casualty book kept by the |
Emergency Hospital surgeons. Accord |
ing 10 many OF the Oldest surgeons at |
tached to that institution, yesterdays |
list OF casualties from the heat was
record-brea<ing one in the annals of
that institution. All day long the sur
geons were kept busy attending to the
victims Of Old Soils fierce rays. and up |
to clock last night the record showed
that twenty-three persons had been |
treated for urOstratiOn. In fact. the |
work of all the attaches OF the hospital
was so great that the unfortunate horse
attached to the ambulance nearly drop |
ped dead from exhaustion, while many |
OF the surg cons and nurses We're COM |
PEELED to do without meals in order to !
attend the wants Of the many sick. For |
fear that the service might be crippled |
by the giving out of the lone horse at
tached 10 the ambulance, which is the
property Of that institution, many of the |
livery stables in the city were asked TO
hire the hospital n fresh animal. How
ever, il is said that many Of them re-
fused 10 do SO Finally, as a last resort.
Major Sylvester was communicated with
in hopes that he might possibly detail |
the hospital officials a horse from one
of the patrol houses, but he informed |
the surgeons that even the police horses |
were in bad shape Upon receiving this
Information every effort vas made by
the institution officials to tighten their
horse work. Calls came in so fast that |
1t was necessary for the surgeons to |
ask the police patrol wagons TO respond
to many Of them.
Few OF this city's residents suffered
mere yesterday than did the policemen.
aho, with their uniform coats, which are |
anything but cool, together with their tall
helmets, walked up and down this citvfs |
prominent thOroughfarcs with a continual |
stream of perspiratiOn running down |
heir faces and necks, but none of them |
suffered 50 that medical attention had TO |
De rendered.
Horses were also greatly affected by the