Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1909-10-28
NO. 81.
SOMEWHAT
WARM

Talk about heat. said Abner Byng.
is We sat upon the porch uf Jones'
country store trying to keep cool.
this Is nothing at all To what I've
seen. It's GOODNESS. absolute frigidity.
Why. when lived out in the Canni.
bal islands. back here in 1878. II the
people would see the Thermometer fall
to 100 degrees In the shade they'd
get out their skates and begin to con
slider the probability Of an ice crop"
How high did It used to getF-
asked Major Potts
Generally up to four or 1--WE hun
dred in the shade. They never did
any cooking with fires out there. Al
ways baked their bread in the sun. Lay
a steak on the window sill. and u
would be done on one side before you
could stick fork into " to turn v
over. The water was hot. too. Peo-
pie never thought OF trying to get
cold water to drink. Put n leg OF
mutton down n well and it'd come up
boiled. and you could pump mutton
soup out Of the well for two or three
days. The FIRST time went to swim
in the ocean out there I didn't know
about IL. and was nearly scalded to
death"
In the ocean,"
Yes. sir. In the Pacific ocean.
Why. a dog in that country couldn't
put down four legs at time. He
would go on three legs SOS To give
the other one chance 20 cool. u
was a common thing for horses to gee
their shoes red-hot. and one summer
| remeSber the pavement got so warm
that several horses and their legs
burned OF clean up To the knee
Did they have no cool weather az
all"
%. yes. Of course. that was In the
rainy season. Then Il would get
very cold sometimes. and this caused
a curious phenomenon. The island I
lived on was about eight miles long
in winter time. but the heat OF sum-
mer was so intense that Il would ex-
pand the island 10 the extent Of abou.
four miles. and so she'd 20 on ex-
panding and contracting from year to
year in the most extraordinary man
uer know just after went there
I bought a piece Of l2 acres OF a man.
II was summer time and paid him
so much an acre. when the cool
weather came found that IL wasn't
more than half the size IL ought TO be.
and the trees were crowded up to-
gether so close that you couldn't walk
through them. Took advantage Of me.
the man did. ought to have bought
In the winter
Was IL a prolific soil,'
Well. yes. when the season was
good. In real hot weather. things were
slow IN growing But ordinarily
my corn would be between 200 and
400 feet high. and the stalls -frow ssv
to nine feet In diameter at the base.
We cut II with axes The ears were
generally about the size OF a large
lobster. There was a man over on
one OF the islands, named Smith, who
used To raise one turnip a year. and
that was enough. because a single
turnip would cover three-quarters OF
an acre. But one good growing sea-
son Smiths turnip grew So fearfully
that II covered the entire island, and
Smith had to move OF and go up on
the side of a volcano back OF his place.
however. the turnip would grow
couldn't be stopped. you know: and
1t did grow until finally it got so heavy
that it sunk the island"
Did WHAT"
Sunk the entire island. and that
YOU know. let the ocean into the vol
eano This generated steam so fast
that the whole thing exploded. and
Smith was blown So miles out to sea
and picked up. discouraged. by a San
Francisco ship. He told a friend OF
mine that that was the last turnip he
would ever raise.
Yes, sir. II was hot in these re-
gions. Let a man in good health step
out of doors in the middle of the day
and he's come back all black and
wrinkly. exactly like dried beef. I've
known men who cured themselves that
way SO that with couple of days in a
smokehouse they'd keep for 200 years,
alive and good as ever"
"Alive7r
Yes. alive. And evaporation was
so great that I've seen the ocean fall
l50 feet under a hot sun until you
could wade 20 miles from land"
Did you eve- do it," asked the
l major