The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1910-04-13
TAlec F or
q Winter
Evening
Ole South Shore Weather
Bureau
From the "OId Home House"
by JOSEPH c. LINCOLN
Copyright. 1907, BY 4. 5. B.rns. O Co.

the youngsters do in school
''but,7 we says, will it work? Will
anybody pay for itY'
Work. says Peter T., with his fin
gers in the armholes of the double
breasted danger signal that he called
vest and with his cigar tilted up till
you'd think 'twould set his hat brim
afire. Work. 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-
ceded or followed by rain, snow or
clearing. Wind, north to south, vary
ing east and west No, stree! This
is today's weather for Cape Cod served
right off the griddle on hot plate and
cooked by the chef at that. You don't
realize what a regular dime museum
wonder that Teller isl 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
our 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 three 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 character? What I'm after is
an odd stick, Teller with pigeons in
his loft, not a lunatic, but jest queer
genius little queerer than you and the
cap'n here"
After awhile we got his drift, and
happened to think of Beriah and his
chum, Eben Cobb. They lived in a
little shanty over 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 cat can smell
fish, and he hardly ever made mis-
take. Prided himself on it, you under
stand, and you couldn't have hired him
to foretel 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 Il snumw and II swan to manv'
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 a flood. And after three
or four Of such experiences round
comes Peter busting with new no
ton. What he cal'lated to do was to
start weather prophesying bureau
all on his own hook, with Beriah for
prophet and him for manager and gen
eral advertiser and Jonadab and 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 prices for the real thing in
weather predictions. His idee was to
send Beriah's predictions by telegraph
to agents in every Cape town each
morning, and the agents was to hand
'em to subscribers. First week free
trial; after that so much per prophecy.
And it worked-oh, land, yes, it
worked! Brown rugged up little
shanty on the bluff in front OF the
Old Home and filed it full of barome-
tiers and thermometers and chronome-
tiers and charts and put Beriah and
Eben inside to look wise and make
b'lieve do something. That was the
Office of the 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 telescope at
the sky or scribbling rubbish on paper.
And Beriah was right most every
time. don't know why, but I'll never
forget the first time Peter asked him
how he done it.
WAL" drawls Beriah, nov 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 j'int is sore, SO
know Wen have an easterly wind and
rain this evening. If it had been my
left toe now, Why
Peter held up both hands.
'sThatll do he says. Il amt asking
any more questions. Only If the
bOarderS or outsiders ask Won how Won