The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-10
SCIENTISTS DISCOVERY
OF A PROPHETIC PLANT
WAS FIRST LAUGHED At
Austrian Baron Claims that 1t
Foretells All Meteorological
Disturbances.
GOOD WEATHER BUREAU
Predictions Have Proved So Ac-
curate that Plant Is Getting
Respectful Attention.
EDWARD VII INTERESTED
Austrian Government Endorses the
Baron's Claims, but Does Not
Aid His Investigations.
EDWARD VII INTERESTED

Special Correspondence of the Journal.
LONDON, March 31.-Some day the ro-
nance of Baron Fridland Won Nowack and
his plant may be added to the stories of
Franklin and his kite, Newton and his APP
pie, Edison and the needle that suggested
the photograph and Watt and the lid of
the tea-kettle that supplied the idea for
the steam engine.
The baron's plant. which is indigenous to
India, has been known to fame much
longer than the good baron himself, and
had a reputation of being a respectable,
wel-meaning sort of a plant, barring a
few eccentricities to which no great i'm
portance was attached. The baron was
the first to be impressed seriously by those
eccentricities He made a Teutonically
thorough study of them and became finally
convinced that he had made great dis
covery. That was years ago, and was only
the beginning of the story From that day
to this the Austrian nobleman has devoted
most of his time and most of his income
in trying to establish for his plant an in
ternational position an official weather
prophet, whose warnings would save innu-
merable lives and untold wealth.
The whole thing looked so much like an
world over gave the patient baron the
laugh. To-day things different, as can
be judged from the fact that the conserva-
tive Earl of Aberdeen presided over a
notable gathering of scientists in London
the other night to hear the Austrian ex-
plain his discoveries; that Lord Rothschild.
who is by no means a visionary, has be-
come interested in the thing, and that the
sl1~,.
the advisability of providing an official es-
tablishment for Baron Nowack's mysteri-
Gus vegetable prophet.
Later in the year the baron hopes to go
over to the United States with his wonder
full plant, whose Latin name is "Arbrus
precatorius nobilis,' ano will undertake to
get weeks ahead of the Weather Bureau in
foretelling floods, firedamp explosions, tor
nadoes, earthquakes and cold snaps.
OFFICIAL ENDORSEMENT.
The baron can no longer be dismissed as
crank. That supposition is at once dis
posed of by official letter from the Aus
trian government, in which it is stated:
THE results which you have obtained are
| undoubtedly such as to prove that by your
| system the weather can be prognosticated
not only with certainty but for long time
in advance. This is ascertained by COM
| pairing the weather charts published by
| you a result of your observations with
| the weather plant, with the synoptic charts.
/ There can exist no doubt that this discov-
| cry, if used methodically, is of far-reaching
| Importance to meteorology.
THE Chancelery of the Imperial and
| Royal War Office Navy Department, con-
slider it their duty TO recognize once more
your endeavors and to recommend them to
| the patronage and support of influential
| personages and public bodies in order that
you may be able to turn your studies to a
| practical use.
More substantial recognition was given to
| him by the Austrian government in the
| form of annual subvention to assist him
in prosecuting his Investigations. And when
Shirt front a diamond pin that Was 81 pre re.
scented to him by the Emperor Francis
Joseph as a personal testimonial to the
! value of his discoveries.
An interesting personality is the baron
| large framed, portly, fair skinned, well
| whiskered, good looking, with lofty brow
and face that, despite his forty-five years
| his long and strenuous struggle for recog-
| milton and his arduous studies of the most
| turbulent phenomena of nature shows nc
trace of a wrinkle. His eyes alone betray
| the indomitable spirit that is in the man
| They sparkle and flash with enthusiasm
| when he dilates on the scientific aspect OF
| his researches and their value to humanity
| Then he talks volubly and his English gets
| very much mixed, and it is hard matter
| to find an opportunity to inject a question
| that will betray him into talking of himself
4, Money! he exclaimed scornfully to tn,
| writer. I've been told that there is mil
| lion in it if l work il right-that is if
| grant some government or some private
corporation a monopoly of it, but what de-
| l care for more money than will enable ms
| to live comfortably? / know that my dis
coveries are of great practical, value t.
| mankind, and | want the world to have tn,
| benefit of them. 1 have expended all my
own private means, which were not large
| CONTINUED ON PAGE 2, PART %