The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-10-17
U. s. too SWIFT FOR
THIS GERMAN WRITER
Says Yankee Land Is an Inferno
Where CLOUD Scrapers"
Glow With Heat.

BERLIN. Oct 16.--America Is q
hideous nightmare OF heat. an inferno
cooked white-hot by giant waves OF
unspeakable torridity.
Henry +. Urban says so In an ar
ticie. American Hot Waves" In the
German magazine Die woche. Urban
. spent few minutes in America once,
so he knows.
Everything In the land OF Yankees
IL colossal and abnormal, says he
the ''cloudscrapers," giant Fairgrounds
like Coney Island, giant charitable In
stitutions, giant wheat crops. giant
catastrophles. giant virtues and giant
vices. Is II any wonder. then. that
there are giant heat waves?
Nobody who has not experienced
this awful heat can form the slight
est conception wha1 they are like.
These waves come suddenly, any time
from April TO October. They orig.
mate in the orient, cross the Pacific
and then sweep over the American
continent. TX.
The largest cities are the greatest
sufferers. New York and Chicago are
veritable bells. The heat SO ener-
Yates that men and women often fall
asleep in the midst OF their work. II
is not uncommon to see rows OF clerks
in an Office with their pens in hand.
sound asleep. II seems painful to
pick up the pen which had dropped to
the floor from the tired workers hand
and a terrible task to walk even one
block.
The most trifing thing will turn a
sane man into raving maniac. His
nerves are unstrung. His entire body
aches when the slightest thing hap
pens to annoy him. The most gentle,
the most lovable of men Is trans
formed in one minute into crouch,
The treeless streets are changed
into whitening, shiyering hell. The
asphalt pavement melts and emits
dreadful. unbearable odors; the stone
and brick walls OF the houses are
aglow with heat. impossible to touch
for fear OF having ones hands burned.
To the odor of the melting asphalt
Is added the stencil OF the open gar
bage cans whose contents are occa-
sionally dumped into open wagons.
In restaurants the heat Is slightly
tempered by masses OF electric fans
which are dangerous because they
bring on neuralgia and neuritis, the
combination of the heat and rams
ruins ones appetite. for the hot steam
ing food and brings on nausea. tI.t
But the victim must drink and drink
something cold, so he rushes about
the streets like a mailman to, quencn
the awful, burning thirst. He con-
sumes glass after glass of whisky ana
icewater, or icewater without the
whisky, or many glasses OF lemonade
stuffed with icebergs.
Most men and women spend their
days at soda fountains. In their shirt
sleeves and collarless-4 There they
enter upon q soda water drunk. In
a few days the victim. OF this soda
water, habit has a ruined stomach.
He may also have contracted chronic
catarrh or something worse. 81 .ss
The American home is no protec-
tion. Rooms are small, ceilings low
and there are no balconies, no gar
dens. Often the people IND reiiet IN
damp. musty cellars. 49,.
During q visit in New YORK .ne
writer was caught In one OF those not
waves. He wandered about MS room
In his underciothes. which were giueo
to his body. Every hour during tne
% he took a cold plunge. That KEEP.
him alive. Hundreds OF thousands OF
New Workers pass their who're sum
mers thus. sr