Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-19
A SUMMER TOWN
Advantages Possessed by the
National Capital.
A HOT WEATHER PLACE
AT THE NEEDLES IN THE CALI
FoRNIA DESERT.
Facilities of Citizens of Washington
for Keeping Cool During the
Torrid Season.
A HOT WEATHER PLACE

| iced tea, the summer girl, Panama hats
| watermelons and Washington as summer
| resort reminds me of a brief stay at a
place called the Needles in the southern
California desert, close to the Colorado
river, the dividing line between that por-
| ton of the golden state and Arizona, and
since then Washington has seemed to me
| like cool. green meadow dotted with
shady groves and intersected with crystal
brooks, purring and babbiing their joyous
way to the far cerulean sea-" remarked a
correspondent in uptown hotel this
| morning to a man from the Hub who was
complaining that it had been very hot in
deed in Boston"
Eastern people think that Yuma is as
hot as the lower stratum of hades. where
the superheated 1.O00-degree furnaces are
situated for the slow broiling of the burglar
murderer and other rascals of correspond
ing crimson dye, but Yuma is no hotter
than any other place in the desert, nor so
hot as spots along the lines of the rail-
roads where the surface is several hundred
feet below that of the desert.
In fact, Washingtonians do not know
what really hot weather means. They may
comfort themselves with this brief pen pic
ture and rejoice that they still on the
sloping banks of the Potomac famed by
the breezes which sweep up from the ma
JeSllc chesapeake. w neH i stepped on tne
train at the Needles one night at 10 o o'clock
the thermometer on the porch of the big
railway hotel registered 100 degrees Every
thing was baked hot and dry except the
bear greese in the long curls Of the Mojave
Indian beau'S hair. The pen with which
registered my name felt as though ] had
lifted it from the lid of a red-hot stove,
while the open pages of the register were
about the same temperature. The nickel
plated conductors punch with which the
rogf9 INF f.1S G had "a
mems meal checks felt even warmer than
the penholder, and the knives, forks,
spoons, plates, napkins and even the back
of the chair possessed the same degree of
heat. AS for the hot meat placed before
you, well, it seemed sin to eat 1t, the
sizzling flesh and oily potatoes making me
gag. All you wanted to swallow was iced
tea, served by the railroad company with
out stint, and the men individually would
drink gallons of it in day. In fact there
was overpowering sense Of heat, heat
and nothing but heat, and yet they have
be L calling it warm in Washington!
The Capital Hath Summer Charms.
Il spent two nights at the hotel, but the
story told me by the clerks about guests
perspiring SO freely when in bed that they
had to be rescued from the flood by a spe
cially trained crew of agile life-Saving Mo
jave Indians / found to be not quite veri-
fed though the nights to the uninitiated
were as terrific they We're restful TO the
railroad hands, and were cool compared
with the day. The mercury stayed all day
around the lis notch in the shade. Never
theleSS the crews worked in the repair
shops over the furnaces with the thermom-
eter 4: 125. AID in the sun the fluid went up
20 40. And yet I:eTe are some of us here
J who s-e .Ucors!dsra:s enough to think 1t
warm when ola Sol and general hu-
mildly join forces and advance vigor-
ously upon their common enemy, poor man.
This is iceberg weather, compared with the
Needles. On the contrary, Washington pos
sesses advantages over other cities for
those who cant get away, and VIII tel
YOU in what respect
"All inland cities as regards the point I'M
der discussion are handicapped by their
situation Seaboard cities may depend
upon sea breeze during the day and near
" always at night, yet the meteorological
records show that, while Washington was
thermometrically hotter than New York
during the recent hot spell, the percentage
of heat prostratons was one to thirty,
and. while a number of prostrations from
the heat in New York were fatal, there
were no fatal cases recorded in Washing
ton.
las I have made this question a study I
have observed that during the torrid spells
of the different years of the past where
there would be from thirty to fifty heat
prostrations in New York in day, with a
corresponding percentage of fatal cases,
there would be but three or four heat pros
trations in the capital sometimes none at
all while the instance of fatal case was
the rare exception.
Other Points Favorable to Us.
This is a fact worthy of more attention
than it has or will receive, and ought to set
at rest many of the filings of our northern
urban neighbors as to the alleged torridity,