Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-03-03
Ge South Shore Weather
Bureau
From the "Old Home House"
by S c. LINCOLN
Copyright. 1907. by A. S. Barnes @ Co,

I'm 1UT," says Cap'n Jonadab and
Xxi me together, jest as if we was
D reading in concerto same as
~ the youngsters do in school
"but," We says, will it work? Will
anybody pay for it"
"Work!" says Peter T., with his fin
gers in the armholes of the double
breasted danger signal that he called
a vest and with his cigar tilted up till
you'd think 'twould set his hat brin
afre. "WorKv' says he. "Well, may
be 'tWouldn't work If the ordinary
brand Of canned lobster was running
it, but with me to jerk the lever and
sound the loud timbrel-why, say, it's
like stealing money from a blind Grip
pie that's hard of hearing.
"This amt any Washington cold slaw
like Weather for New England and
Rocky mountains Tuesday to Friday,
cold to warm; well done on the edges
with a rare streak in the middle, pre-
coded or followed by rain, snow or
clearing. Wind, north to south, vary
ing east and vest No, stree! This
is today's weather for Cape Cod served
right off the griddle on a hot plate and
cooked by the chef at that. You don't
realize what a regular dime museum
wonder that Teller u.s." he says.
TWAS in the early part Of May fol-
lering the year that the Old Home
House was opened, and it looked as if
u second season would be better'n
our first.
Then the Dillaway girl thought
'twould be nice to have what she called
a spring house party for her particu-
lar friends fore the regular season
opened. Cant you get" says she,
"two or thee delightful, queer old
longshore characters to be at work
round the hotel? It'll give such a
touch of local COLOR" she says.
"Barzilla," Peter says to me, 81
want some characters. Know anybody
that's a character? What I'm after is
an odd stick, a Teller with pigeons in
his loft, not q %lunatic, but jest a queer
genius-little queerer than you and the
cap'n here"
After awhile we got his drift, and
I happened to think Of Beriah and his
chum, Eben Cobb. They lived in a
little shanty " to Skakit pint and
got their living clustering and so on.
Beriah's pet idee was foretelling what
the weather was going to be. He'd
smell a storm further N q cat can smell
fish, and he hardly ever made a mis-
take. Prided himself on it, you under
cto,J orI -o oo,,1I,,3% I,ox,o J;ooI I,s~o
to foretell what he knew was wrong.
Peter said Beriah and Eben was just
the sort Of "cards" he was looking for
and drove right over to see 'em. He
hooked 'em too. They didn't have any
thing to do but to look picturesque and
say II snum" and II swan to man!!'
and they could do that to the shippers
taste. The city folks thought they was
"just too dear and odd for anything"
The second day Of the party was to
be a sailing trip clear down to the
life saving station to Setuckit beach.
1t certainly looked as if twas going
to storm, and the gov'ment predictions
said it was, but Beriah said no and
stuck out that 'twould clear up by
and by. So they sailed away, and,
sure enough, it cleared up fine. And
the next. day the gov'ment fellers said
Clear and Beriah said 'rain," and
she poured g food. And after three
or four Of such experiences round
comes Peter busting with a new no
ton. What he cal'lated to do was to
start a weather prophesying bureau
oil ~, Iyo ~,,~ hall -s@I, Do,.of, fo,
prophet and him for manager and gen
eral advertiser and Jonadab anG me
to help put up the money to get her
going. He argued that summer folks
from Scituate to Provincetown, on
both sides of the Cape, would pay
good prizes for the real thing in
weather predictions. His idee vas to
send Ber.ah's predictions by telegraph
to agents. in every Cape town each
morning, and the agents was to hand
'em to subscribers. First week a free
trial; after that so much per prophecy.
And il worked-oh, land, yes, it
worked! Brown rugged up a little
shanty Gu the bluff in front Of the
Old Home and filled it full Of barome-
ters and thermometers and chronone-
tiers and charts and put Beriah and
Eben inside to look wise and make
b'lieve do something. That was the
Office of rhe South Shore Weather bu-
reau, and twas sort Of sacred and
holy, and 'twould kill you to see the
boarders tiptoeing up and peeking in
the winder to watch them two old
coots squirting through a telescope at
the sky OF scribbling rubbish OF paper.
And Ber1ah was right most every
time. I don't know why, but I'll never
forget the first time Peter asked him
how he done it.
"Waal," drawls Beriah, snow today
looks fine and clear, don't it? But last
night my left elbow had rheumatic in
it, and this morning my bones ache,
and my right toe tint is sore, sc I
know we'll have an easterly wind and
rain this evening. If it had been my
left toe now, Why
Peter held up both hands.
''That'll do" he says. II amt asking