Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-01-02


large sheet of paper which is printed
, map of the U. S. A.
The man has grey eyes and a short grey
mustache and goatee. hair brush wouldn't be a
very good Christmas present for him. No. indeed
The man has red pencil and blue pencil
and he is making long, sinuous lines all over the
map of the U. S. A. He is also writing figures
some in red and some in blue on the map.
What is the doing?
He is figuring out whether it is going to be
fair and or colder with snow in Omaha
tomorrow.
Who is the man?
Colonel Lucius A. Welsh in charge of the
United States weather bureau at Omaha genial
gentleman, jovial jokesmith, perennial youth in
spite of we-nigh three score years and ten
Observe please, that said his name is
welsh" If the typesetter were to put &C" In
place of that IS" would deem it nothing less
than calamity, catastrophe a. holocaust The
. colonel is precise and he has saddled by
playful fate with that people are always
getting wrong. They spell it all kinds Of ways
Welsh, WEIGH, Walsh, Walch, Walsch. Lots of
them pronounce it walsh" which is worst of ALL
That is ''lese majestic" nothing less
oh. yes, we almost forgot. In painting our
powerful perspicacious and particularly pleasing
pen picture of the colonel we forgot to put his
pipe in his mouth The colonel without his pipe
Is Neptune without his trident. Pleace add there
fore, one large briar pipe with glowing bowl and
blue incense rising thereform.
Yessir. this is the man who makes the weather
This is he whose daily remarks arc read with
greater interest and commented upon with wider
unanimtty than those of the president and all the
crowned heads of Europe.
Thermometers, barometers, hygrometers ane-
mometers thermometers, anemoscopes these are
his playthings and he gazes unflinching and I'M
afraid into the very eyes of the fierce telether-
moscope For man must associate with these
dread-named instruments every day il he would
wrest from nature, from Boreas and Zephyrus,
from air pressures. wind velocties anC directions.
temperatures and preciptations the secrets of to-
morrow's weather and give it to a anxious world
AS said before, Colonel Welsh is a most genial
man, boon companion, who can tell stories by
the hour, who crack button-bustng Jokes and
coin epigrams and "bon mots" in perfect georgem-
cohan style.
But listen If you're contemplating visit 70
bis office the fourth floor of the federal build
ing, don't, we beg you, don't venture in before
say. the hour of II a. m. Up until that time the
colonel is reading the telegraphic dispatches from
a hundred stations. drawing his isotherm lines on
the map of the U. S. A. and making up the
weather forecast Until he has transferred the
weather from the scales of uncertainty to the solid
shelf of scientific knowledge. disturb him not For
il you do naught shall save you from the walls OF
his wrath poured out upon people who pesticate
around when folks are busy.
After that hour the colonel can be interviewed
with impunity and even with pleasure. His name
often finds its way to the public prints because of
his prominence arbiter of the weather in which
all manner of are interested and because of
his breezy personality.
For twenty-seven years the colonel has
been guiding the weather bureau at Omaha, he
having taken charge here July 2S 1885, when
there weren't any twenty story buildings in Omaha
any automobiles. And he has been ON the Job
sever since.
Prior to that time there few little de-
tails of his life such his BIRTH education and
marriage, which it may be well to glance at
briefly.
He was born in Union county, Ohio Just north
of Columbus, September 80 1S4S ana his family
moved into the neighboring town OF MarysvTe
when he was child His father was pominent in
politics until the time of his death.
Lucius went to grade schools and a private
academy and when he was IL years old the civil
wwar broke out Immediately he got the fever to
enlist and played hockey many a time from school
in order to watch the soldiers drilling.
Being afraid that the could be over before
he became old enough to enlist he ran away when
ne less than Is years old with the Eighty
Sixth Ohio regiment He was a tall. skinny youth
and he was passed in a regular soldier. His
mother as soon as she learned where he was
brought him back home by means of habeas corpus
proceedings. and he chewed the cud OF discomfort
until 1864, when he enlisted in the One Hundred
and Thirty-sixth Ohio regiment. in which he was
lie youngest soldier.
His regiment used along the Potomac to
take the place of the veterans, who sent to
Petersburg and Richmond and Young Welsh found