Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-06-27
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED
PRESS
OUR SUN AND OUR DUST.


The Journal receives now and then
a communication from healthseeker
in which the climate of Albuquerque
is criticized severely, There is com
plant of the summer heat of the
days, also of the dust storms which
occur at rare intervals. It must be ad-
mitted. No one finds fault with the
nights, always cool and refreshing.
The Journal is just in receipt OF
one of these walls regarding heat ana
dust. What are the facts? The high
est temperature recorded this year
was ninety-three. But on each of the
nights following the thermometer
went down to siXty-seven. This writer
was in New York City during the last
DAYS of May when the mercury, ac-
eompanied with dreadful humidity,
registered ninety eight. During the
same period temperature was above
one hundred, all over the east away
from the ocean and the lakes. And
the nights seemed to be as hot as the
days. Refreshing sleep was impossl-
bic. Here the humidity is very slight,
and sound sleep after ten O'Clock
comes naturally.
AS TO dust storms. we have mad
three in thirty days. each of only
few hours duration. While they last
they are not pleasant, but they clear
the atmosphere like thunder storm
But it would be well for those who
complain of the sun and the dust to
take a few hours off and learn from
some book on natural philosophy
something of the functions of sunshine
and dust. :.....
We have come to associate sun
brown of the human body with health.
In order that the sun may not burn
and scorch the delicate tissues be-
meath the skin. the cells of the body
throw out a protective colorin& mat
ter, scientists tell US. First there
comes the yellow lipochrome borrow
ed from the fat of the body, then the
black which issues from suprarenai
capsules situated above the kidneys.
These capsules, stimulated by the sun
to supply the coloring matter, invigor-
ate the whole body. This explains
why sun baths are so good tonic,
widely used today in many cases of
skin disease, of tuberculosis and gen.
eral weakness.
The touch of the sun brings new
life and color to the cells of the hu-
man body, as it does to those of the
leaf and the plant, and every summer
bears witness to the tonic and life
renewing power of sunshine.
Also we may put in a good word
for the dust. 1t plays an essential
part in the economy of nature. To
it we owe the formation of dew, fog,
hail. rain and snow. Some solid
must offer itself as a center about
which the moisture in the air can
collect and shape itself into rain
drops or snow flakes. What We know
for at the heart of each rain drop OF
snow flake is also dust crystal.
The dust is thus the cradle OF the
evening clouds and the mother of the
morning dew. The dust not only
cradles the clouds. but it paints them
far more swiftly than any artist
can To the dust suspended invisibly
in the air we owe the long twilight
and the vivid colors of the sunset.
Each little dust particle is a magic
finger which picks the ray of light to
pieces and spreads the reds and yell
lows which We see in the west in the
evenings glow.
That the sunshine is bit uncom-
Portable these afternoons. when one is
out in it for long, may readily be
admitted But it is health giving,
and the night brings rest and COM
fort. The dust, which becomes Of
fensive. only at rare intervals, is part
of the wonderful climate We have and
inseparable from it. ...