Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-07-01

THE PREVAILING HIGH TEMPERATURE
BY MRS. Y


which continued cool to the advent
of June, then old Sol concluded to DO
a stunt that would be worth remembering as
to a record hot time. TO my dear country
home readers, to whom / am fondly at
tached and who have been saying amen to
my scribbings in The Semj-Weekly and later
Tri-Weekly Journal, for nearly quarter Of
century, | am writing these lines in a big
Atlanta hospital, where | am staying awhile
because of prolonged pain in my right ear.
If my article is brief (and not very communi-
cative) remember l am waiting for the good
doctors to decide on what is best to do, for
this troublesome ear--hoping 1 may be priv
ileged to go home in the near future with
less of suffering on my part, as now prevails
Gods preserving mercies have been so
great, during a whole lifetime, l am trying
to be truly grateful and also as patient as
the circumstances will admit.
| have been trying to remember some OF
the hot old summer times" and I recall a
spell of torrid temperatures in 1876, when
the Philadelphia Centennial exposition was
on and in full BLAST so to speak. Congress
was in session late as August. Demo-
cratic politicians fighting to elect Sam J.
Tilden, and the Republicans to elect Ruther-
ford B. Hayes.
1t was the first time after the Civil war
that Confederate southerners had a chance
to travel generally, for railroad rates were
made attractively low and the show at Phila-
delphia was worth while" But the mer-
curry got up to sizzling heat. Newspaper re-
porters made daily jokes of the tourist gangs
that crowded Washington City,, as we'll as
Philadelphia. They said Of the southerners
that they bought linen buster and palm
leaf fan as their equipment for the journey"
Sunstrokes were painfully common in the
northern states, and our little family had to
get out in Washington City suburb to with
stand the excessive heat of the hot capital
The lowlands of the Potomac river were COW
cred with marsh weeds and green scum.
Where the beautiful Potomac park appears
at this time, with the magnificent Lincoln
memorial, there were Shiny marshes and va
rious small fishing craft in evidence.
AT night the people who expected to sleep
at all must have southern exposure to their
sleeping quarters, otherwise there was moth
ing doing as to nightly repose. The southern
exposure meant land breeze which came
along the river route from the neghborhood
of Hampton Roads and Portsmouth and Nor
folk; and (before window screens were in
vented) the atmosphere was filled with small
insects that were sleepless.
I remember torrid spell during the rush
of the Chicago exposition, in August 1898.
l had rooms at the Palmer House, and my
son was with me for a two weeks visit to the
Worlds fair. The heat accumulated until it
was risk to walk in the purlieus of Jackson
Park, in the middle of the day.
AS usually happens the hot spell broke up
in a violent thunderstorm and the folks
ourselves included, arose from our beds,
dressed, and each floor of the big hotel
they gathered in big reception halls to watch
the end of the storm, where thunder roared
and lightning bazed necessarily for hours
was told next day that the three hundred
hotel laundry girls spent the most of the
night on their knees, not being sure but the
wicked city, which called itself the White
City, would not get what was coming to it
at that time.
This was a memorable Friday night, and
the succeeding Sunday afternoon had a SIM
liar exhibition of electricity, with something
like tornado accompaniment My son, then
a youth in his teens decided after Sunday
dinner over, to ride in the big exposition
steamer, which could carry five thousand
passengers at one time, and Lake Michigan
was as quiet as lake when he started on
the excursion trip to the Fair grounds. But
the elements were then at work with torrid
heat, and the steamship did not go to Jack
son Park, but the winds and the waves drove
it far out. 1t was an anxious afternoon to
me, when my son did no come in at supper
time, nor at bedtime either The storm in
the city was fearful to experience, and news
was circulated that a number had drowned
in the wrathful lake, which now dashing
it's big waves on the Lake Shore.
When the Georgia boy reached the hotel,
dripping wet, from the steamship that put
life-preservers on the drenched passengers,
and floundered into it's accustomed berth,
and was glad to do it once more, there were
two glad people whose hearts had been