Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1914-03-28

esas1g.s@1 " ny, Ger fanny Hr't
ls.se.ssz.Ij self, glad to know you, siT'
or ANYTHING else you wish.
That's about what YOU would say 70
anyone who stepped up 10 YOU on
the street with a knowing air and de-
livered himself Of the above quota
ton. There would be just chance
that he was kidding if he pulled it
verbally, but if he sent it TO you VIA
wireless-vell, there would be but
one answer. "bughouse,"
At least that would be your nat
ural surmise, and you little know how
wrong you would be. For instance,
the government weather bureau at
Washington receives just such mes
sages every day in the year. And the
weather bureau men know that these
apparently "dippy" messages are
really an important part OF great
and intricate system which Uncle
Sam supports to tell the people OF
the United States what the day Is
going to bring forth in the matter OF
weather.
AS a matter of fact, collie, Dalma-
tian," etc, when translated, signlfes
that the steamer Monterey is saying
that at 700 a. N. on the seventh OF
the month, she is in latitude p de-
gTees % minutes; that the barometer
is 1904, the temperature so; that the
wind is northeast, blowing IA miles
an hour. and that the sky is clear.
Rather an original and unique way
of saying it, is it not?
1t is a mighty slick little Organiza-
ton, this weather bureau of the de-
partment of agriculture. 1t keeps a
small army of experts busy from
seven o'clock in the morning until
midnight every day in the year keep
ing track of just what Old Man
Weather is up to, cataloguing all HE
idiOsyncrasies and doping out what
new Caper he is about to cut up.
No ghost of an atmospheric dis
turbance, no storm wrath or cold
wave apparition can stalk abroad in
any Granny of the states, nowadays
without beirg instantly pOunced upon
by the nearest bureau, and its would
be secret maneuvers spread broad
cast to other stations that they may
expect its coming and set in motion
their machinery for doping out the
! exact time of it's appearance. 1t was
/ only comparatively recently that the
efficiency of the weather bureau was
enhanced by an arrangement between
! ~ Of ic
steamship lines TO send semi-dailN
weather reports from vessels at sea
beyond a distance of IS miles from
port.
Many people have an idea that Their,
is something mysterious and occul
about the work of the weather bureau
in forecastir & the coming of storms
frosts and Hoods. Not a few thinl
that the observers must neces
sarily get tleir data by reading tn,
planets, the stars and the moon. A
a matter of ;act the forecaster Of tn,
bureau foretells the coming of disturb
ances in a businesslike way, very SINH
lar to that in which a man who ha
ordered a shipment of goods woUl,
estimate the date of its arrival.
Suppose a business man had OF
dered a carload Of pineapples from
the Hawaiian islands. He would know
the average time it would take tn
steamer to make the trip to the Pa
cific port, the average time for Ut
loading and loading into refrigerato
cars, and the average number of day
to be allowed these cars for their tri
across the continent to New Yorl
His estimate. however. would he sui
ject to error. because the 'steamshi
might be delayed by fog, or the car
might meet with an accident.
Storms; like pineapples, as a rul
do not originate in the United States
They come to us some from the Phi
ippines, Japan, Siberia, Alaska, Cana
da or the Gulf of Mexico The weatr
er bureau gets cable, telegraphic O
wireless notice of a foreign storm
Station after station, or vessel afte
vessel reports the storms arrival /
its neighAorhood, so that Che genera
direction and rate of progress can b
determined very early. In fact. tn