Omaha daily bee., 1902-02-03
sun SHINES ON CROUBDaOC
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OBSERVER WELSH IS RATHER sKEPTlcAI
Governments weather Man Takes No
omciaI cOGnisanee of the RRsor-
bnek PIG end Discounts HIS
Significance.

Here's TO the ~groundhogi May his shad-
ow never grow less!" is the way the ice
men are toastins the prophetic porker to-
day, for yesterday, being February 2. was
~groundhog's day, and he came out ac-
cording to tradition, saw his shadow, and
went back again for n six-weeks' snooze.
This, according to folk lore. means six
weeks more Of ice, snow and cold winds. II
the sky had been overcast, however. says
the unwritten code, 40 that the badger
couldn't have seen his shade. he would
have remained out. because that would have
indicated that the backbone Of the winter
was broken.
The weather bureau in the federal build
ing doesn't take oficial cognizance Of the
grounding. To Observer Welsh the ground
hog has no more prognostic value than a
gopher or weasel. He doesn't believe com
ing billiards cast their shadows before in
the form Of q rasorback pig. He is a skep-
tic when Il comes to pork-chop weather,
and thinks that the burrowing swine, along
with the goose bone and the rheumatism,
should be relocated to superstition's lum-
Der room. He has set up a new god In
place Of the old. and anchors his faith to
the eurdled fluid In q tube. called q barom-
eter.
some Thought of Injunction. q.
But while the ice men and a few others
are drinking the health Of the ground
hos, nearly everybody else is displeased,
and IL It hadn't been Sunday they would
have applied for Al injunction restraining
him from coming out until after sunset.
The prospect of six weeks more Of winter
is not cheerful to those who hoped to be-
gin gardening early in March.
| nh w.a.kA.- 80, NAaHa ara a0raa mr.
tions of the country wherein his porclne
majesty didn't see his shadow. The great
lake region is one that Is exempt. North
Dakota and Manitoba are also mentioned as
having passed the day under cloudy skies
But upon Omaha and Nebraska the sur
smiled o sardonic smile all day. and every
county In the state, with possibly one ex-
ception, is doomed to forty-two more days
Of Old Boreas. The exception is Blaine
county, where the g~rouhdhogs are SO pool
their shadows look like erayon drawings
Of corncrlbs. and so the beasts probably
were deluded into staying out in the hope
OF getting something to eat. II
the state he crawled back in and put his
shadow on hle in his own weather bureau
or, more properly, w~ashstand-as th'
burrows are too small to admit q bureau
History May Repeat Itself.
The weather history Of the last two years
tends in a general way to bear out trsdi'
tiens concerning the grounding. On Feb
ruary 2, 1890, the hog saw his shadow thu
same as yesterday. The sky was clear and
the sun shone brightly all day, and thu
consequent prediction that there would b
six weeks more Of winter lacked little o
being fulfilled.
On February 2. 1901. the sky was %oyercas'
and the grounding did not see his shadow
1t didn't follow that the backbone OF winter
was broken. but 1t is a Significant FAC
that the ensuing six weeks were muci
warmer than the corresponding six weeks
OF the preceding year.
In, view Of the foregoing 1t may be tina
Uncle sam will have to abandon his baron
eter after all and start a ~Eroundho'
farm.