Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-12-21

Inc yellow bound almanac,
The dust covered almanac.
That hung in the corner
In our grandmother's day the al
manac was an essential piece of fur
niture. Year in and year out it hung
in its accustomed place in the Chin
ney corner. 1t was sacred as a book
OF reference, and, though thumb
marked, it was not destroyed until
the end Of the year and even then it
was often allowed to accumulate I'M
til five year series was no unusual
sight.
And the almanac has not entirely
outlived its day. The modern cal
endar has taken Its place to an ex-
tent, but sentiment still binds many
to the old time paper backed PAM
phIet.
Just now the 1911 almanac and
climate calendar is coming out and
with it all the information one
could possibly desire regarding the
new year. When one looks over the
almanac one wonders why the gov
eminent employees. a lot of weather
experts to forecast the weather for
81 or SO hours. The almanac has
them all skinned, for it tells at this
early date what kind of weather we
are going to have every day in the
year up to Jan. 1, 1912. These fore
casts may not all come true, but
then that is the fault of the weather,
not of the prOgnosticator.
Sometimes. for instance, when the
almanac prophet has the earth and
the sun or moon in conjunction, or
maybe all three, one of the planets
gets to acting up and the weather
just simply won't come right &C
cording to predictions. but that can't
be helped The different almanacs
do not always agree, either, but by
getting all the patent medicine cal
endars given away free, a family
can form an opinion what kind of
a day Easter Sunday is going to be.
or by watching the weather accord
ing to the predictions of all Of them,
find out which one comes closest to
local conditions.
January is the first month and
this naturally interests US most just
now. The predictions of one almanac
are as follows: IA, cold. stormy;
SIS, clearing; 9-12, clear, cold; IL
IA, fair. warmer; 1917, clear,
frosty; 1920, cold. cloudy; 2I-23.
cold. rain or snow; 1926. blustry;
27-29, cold; 3O-3I, snow" Febru-
airy is the same, only there is
"changeable" weather on the 18th.
18th and 2Gth. March is also cold
TO the finish, but April has no snow.
only cold rains. mixed with sun
shiny days. May is mild and pleas
ant with only three rainy spells and
no frosts June also is going to be
pleasant with a fair amount of rain.
while July is actually going to be
sultry. In August we must prepare
ourselves for thunderstorms and
continued warm weather. September
will bring windy. threatening, vari-
able and stormy weather. ending the
month with few cool and clear
days. In October comes the first
frost and November brings blustry
weather again. while in December
the weather is really going to be IN
pleasant, while it is possible that
there will be snow on Christmas.
The representations may not be
accepted by all but one thing in the
almanac is always reliable and that
is the number of eclipses and when
they occur During 1912 there will
be but two OF these heavenly phe-
nomena and both will be of the sun.
Not once during the entire year will
we have an opportunity of watching
the moon hide its smiling face be-