Evening star., 1916-06-04
BY JAMES B. MORROW.

a MONG yellow roads. dug through
IN green banks. wild with tangled
~ grasses. vines and flowers at
x q the northernmost rim of Wash
ington. just over the Maryland boundary.
lives Cleveland Able in a bungalow
shaded by trees.
In his workroom are books. type
writer and little brown dog-a friendly
little brown dog. Also there are brown
chickens in the garden-round. comfort
able and glossy brown chickens-seem-
ingly with no fear in their hearts Of the
guillotine.
Thus In the lengthening shadows of his
life. amid the songs of birds and the
restful silence of the country. the days
come and go for Cleveland Able. But
even so. the world Of science is not for
eetful or ungrateful and honors from
learned societies follow him and cheer
him in his retirement Great universities,
among them Harvard and Glasgow, have
voted him caps and gowns and every
cyclopedia Of American biography gives
room in its pages for record of his
achievements.
Years ago Cleveland Able was known
m over America as "Old Probabilities"
The first public forecast Of the weather
ever made In this country was hung up in
the rooms Of the chamber Of commerce in
Cincinnati Cleveland Able was the au-
thor Of the forecast and it was written
out bs his own hand. 1t would be clear.
or stormy. what not, 'Teusday.' he
predicted and set down, with a humili-
ating transpostion Of the two big vOWels
in the first syllable.
- bad spell Of weather by Old Proba-
biIi,ies" observed Mr.. Davis. an or,ho-
graphic pork packer. on reading the bull
letin- Thus the name was coined and
started on its travels. Afterward II was
shortened in American fashion. to "Old
Probs.~ and is now loosely applied TO
government forecasters as a class, hu-
nnorousiy. critically or in praise.
Predicting the approaching state Of the
weather became national function
through the experiments and efforts Of
Cleveland Able An astronomer. he sud-
denly found himself a famous meteor
ologist at home and abroad. The weather
bureau costs the taxpayers consid-
erably more than million dollars year.
Its chief value 10 the people IS in its
warnings Of storms. cold waves. frosts.
heavy SHOWS and foods
Prof Abbe, therefore though he is
e1iled among cardinals, wild canartes.
blackbirds. brown chickens and his so
cable little dog. is visible, To those who
know what he has donej in the fore
casts that are printed every day In large
and small newspapers throughout the
land He is read In the hurricanes that
sweep northward from the West Indies
and in the twisting winds that are forged
in the southwest. And this is the simple
story he told me. he sat very erect on
the edge OF a chair In his library:
We lived, during my childhood. in
Brooklyn. ] used TO hear my uncle say
that IL would rain in the morning A
farmer, talking to my father, declared
that a bad storm was brewing because
the milky way had spread itself across
the sky from east to west-as II always
does in certain seasons, but the fact was
unknown to me then.
81 wondered. too. why Chinese tree
bloonned In our garden every spring. Why
] asked myself. didn't IL bloom in the
autumn? My mother who Colgate
and belonged 10 the family OF perfumers
and soapmakers. once called me TO the
window and pointed out great meteor in
the heavens. The next day ! heard that
some terrible event was pending. a war
or q deadly pestilence.
MY mind took hold of such things as
have mentioned and ! began to think a
great deal about the mysteries of nature.
II mir old