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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1913)
s TTTE SUNDAY OTfEGONIAiY. PORTXAyp, NOVEMBER 2, 1913. rti. rM . Tl I I .Y&. ,Wf .1 I I WWW 1 a 1 1 1 a I I 1 1 I ( I I s - j KJ qw v ws - tt h eoa v. b r v. -i y a xi. w . v.x r is tis - -f. a b a m TVyO AN'8 most modern Invention Jn 1 N transportation Is the best barom- eter of the weather in existence. It Is the mogul locomotive. Ask any engineer on the road when he steps down from the cab after a long run, and you generally can take your raincoat with you or leave It at home on his mere "say n." His meth ods of forecasting the weather are simple In the extreme. They're the came our forefathers used more than half a century ago, and they hold good In the United States Weather Bureau to certain extent today. if a looomotlve's steam and smoke from its stack trail behind in compact spiral masses an engineer will tell you "we re going to have rain. If they dls ppear almost Immediately they leave the smokestack It's an Indication of a long dry spell ahead. The former Indi cation resembles the cumulus clouds that are almost Invariably forerunners or precipitation. The latter status In oicates the moisture in the steam is evaporating almost immediately it leaves the boiler, and therefore the air is devoid of any Indications of rain. Old Method UtIIixed. Goose-bone prophets In the past were looked upon with a reverence akin to Sawe. The highly specialized United btates Weather Bureau has grown a trifle more deft in its prognostications, but it employs virtually the old-time weather "sharp's" methods, except on & broader scale, abetted by telegraph and telephone. Did you know that: If It grows hotter each day you can rest assured there is going to be a spell of.fln-e weather. A rapid fall of temperature for a few hours Is an Indication & storm or quail la coming. Light morning mists are an Indica tion fine weather is ahead. It's an old saying that "he who would He need only speak of the weather." But it's a malicious saying, for the weather expert Is confronted with a thousand conditions that may pat his calculations all awry. There are only three factors that are fundamental In the duties of the weather forecaster. They are the clouds, the winds and the temperature. And the barometer Is his most useful instrument, for the temperature vir tually Is the sole governing medium. Prediction Fairly Accurate. But it is possible on any given day to announce the weather of the mor- roy, not, it is true, with certainty, but with a very great proballlity; and this probability, if we carefully watch the barometer, the winds and the clouds, may be as high as 90 per cent. The origin of all bad weather, the egg," one might say, from which every torm issues, is a "barometrlo depres sion," which means a more or less wide area of the earth's surface about which he atmospherlo pressure is more fee ble than in the surrounding regions. Around such an area the air moves in circles; It tends to ruBh toward the center of the depression, turning in the direction opposite to the hands of a watch. This la what we call a cyclonic movement, and the region over which the depression Is found is called a cy clonic center. Barometer la Best Key. This depression is characterised by the fact that it does not remain in one place, but travels. So to foretell the weather it is essential to know first if a depression Is to be feared, then, If SINCE Anarew uaraegie esxaoiisnea a fund of Jo. 000. 000 to provide re wards for valorlous deeds In the saving of human life, over 700 per- ons have been honored by the hero fund commission. Heroes and heroines any number of them have swum their way to medals, rescuing fellow creatures from what would have been watery graves. They have gone into burning build ings by scores to drag forth human beings that otherwise would have been victims of the flames. Thrilling rescues by the dozens have been made where trains, moving at a frightful pace, were about to crush out lives, helpless on crossing or trestle. Explosions, cave-Ins, runaways all these have figured time and time again in real life dramas In which the finale has been the bestowal of a Carnegie medal. ... Yet there are Carnegie medal win ners who have gone out of the beaten Itwas at Porters Lake, Pa., that lucv E Ernst, 20 years of age. saved TTnrrv E Schoenhut, aged 16, from -leath from snake bite. Miss Ernst, 'hough having a fever blister on her repeatedly sucked the venom from a rattlesnake bite on Schoenhut's "hp.rter:s La 3 ln the Tr,Mest part , plh8 county, where the bear, the -i r the u i iv -leer. . i i -ri the rattlesnaKe . o,.H voung Schoenhtu. who were Tine' in the vicinity, started out one hrTcbt July to lnsPect a Pheasant's brlgnt ju y through the brush. nest. ow""".J- . ,,,. S:T:l Tw- for a stick. From eaves,here came a shrUl. singing ,ouna- . ti,lnir. a darting through some sinu" ,.Fai,h,.n the air. and &cuv" with the cry: "A rattlers b- nhoulder. me " . . Th. drl's face grew deadly pale as ln b i,. hut she did not lose . . mnn Huwi.w, - U-r presence of mind or her courage, fwithout a word she grabbed the knife which the young man naa aroppea . before he realized what she was ti,- she had cut away his sleeve and had pressed her lips to the two small black dots in the arm that showed where ne rattler's fangs had struck. The youth tried to push her away, h.it Miss Ernst stopped further remon- trance by g"'" "V ' . vnew she had a fever blister on her UP and sho knew also tnat lr one who sucks the twin punctures through which the nake sends death, has a r8 1 S this exists, to know from what dlrec tion it Is coming. , Observation of the barometer is the basis of weather study. Let us sup pose, then, that the observer has I gooa barometer, either . mercury or aneroid. The one thing to notice Is whether the barometer is "rising" or "falling"; that is to say, whether Its pointer Is moving from left to right or from right to left. It should be understood that In the course of a rapid fall, announcing bad weather, the pointer of the barometer, starting from "set fair," may at the moment you look at It stand at "fine," although It is in full descent and fore casting bad weather. This being under stood, here are some directions which will help you to make useful. forecasts by reading the barometer. As in every cyclonic movement caused by a depression the air A risfng In the center, the masses of air so raised spill over again at the outer edge of the de pression and there produce a Blight rise in the barometer. So if after a sharp fall a slight rise is seen, this generally announces the arrival of a depression. A considerable and swift fall an nounces the near approach of a depres sion. A. slow and feeble fall forecasts the lasting of the present weather, pro vided the fall is really feeble. A con tinuous, persistent rise Indicates a spell of fine weather. This Is what is called an "anti-cyclone." In Summer it corre sponds to those long successions of hot days which meteorologists wrongly call "heat waves." Clouds and Winds of Value. A too -rapid rise after a clearly de fined fall almost always announces a new depression. A rapid fall of brief duration of a few hours for example announces the arrival of a squall or In times of great heat the formation of a storm. The words "rise" and "fall" are is. plied to clearly marked variations of at least a millimeter and a half or two millimeters; smaller variations of about ne millimeter are merely fluctuations that talr0 place dally, even In .fine weather. Barometrlo observations are supple mented by watching the clouds and winds. When we see cirrus clouds, light fila ments floating in the upper regions of the air. arrive rapidly In a clear sky; if besides the wind that is blowing- at the surface of the earth be blowing in the direction opposite to that from which yie clouds are coming, wt may be certain of the arrival of a depres sion. An eminent forecaster, among his rules had laid it down that "a depres sion always travels toward the region of least resistance." Now a region in which the winds are blowing In oppo site directions offers less resistance to the progress of a storm than a region In which the winds are blowing in the same direction as the storm. The coming of the depression Is made still more certain if the cirrus clouds are followed by cirro-stratus, which look to the eye like a light veil, and above all by cirro-cumulus, those clouds In patches that give the sky a mottled appearance. Then the arrival of bad weather, to last some time, is more than probable. Ctrru Clonda Spell Fine Weather. The sky overcast very quickly with out any cirrus being seen, without a broken tooth or an abrasion of any kind in the mouth or on the lips, it Is as though the snake had thrust its fangs there. But she did not hesitate. Rescuers found the two practically unconscious. For , a week Schoenhut lay silent and still. There had been enough of the venom ln the man's veins to bring him to the portals of death. Through the-little blister on the girl's lips enough poison had en tered to bring her to the door of death, too. For her act Mlsg Ernst received a silver medal. Then there was the medal for John M. Delo, who tried to catch a fellow workman in his fall from an electric light pole, and who was himself in jured as a result. Delo, a 27-year-old electrician, and Roy Tingling, aged 24, lineman, were working together on a Job in Oil City, Pa., when Delo glanced up in time to see his companion, working at the top of a pole, stiffen from a sMock received on the wires,. Delo started to climb the pole ln going to the. rescue? when to his horror he saw Tingling start to fall. The body was coming straight toward him. He could have dodged out of the way, but his only thoughts were of the terrible fall his fellow workman was about to receive. He reached out his arms and Tingling crashed Into them,-, the two being knocked to the ground. The force of Tlngllng's fall had been broken and jhe survived. PelQ survived, too, but iL . J Fig. Ple. I ll fi,,, rr 1 2fo&&U. rise In the wind or a sudden fall In the barometer, means the Immediate ar rival of the depression, and in time of great heat a sudden storm. There also are clouds that announce fine weather. Such are the light morn ing mists that accompany the dew In periods of fine weather. When at such a time we see in the morning very light and very slow cirrus clouds, the fine weather will last. The majestlo cumulus, those beautiful white clouds on the horizon like ranges of moun tains with their summits covered with snow, also are fine weather clouds. Really there are scarcely any clouds of bad omen, except the rapid cirrus and the cirro-cumulus. Those dark gray and black clouds, those nimbus and cumulonimbus, As they are called, seen In time of rain or storm, do not announce a depression, they accompany it; they are not a prognostication but a manifestation of bad weather. Cirrus clouds, so valuable to the forecaster, may serve also at night when we cannot see them directly. When they pass across the face of the moon they are the cause of the "halo" or "ring," as the case may be. The sight of such a halo around the moon is proof of the presence of cirrus and generally means a. change in the weather. Certain other symptoms may help the sagacity of the weather observer. Look at a train rushing across the country. The steam escapes in white clouds from the looomotlve's smoke- for weeks he lay 111 from a fractured skull. The commission recognized the act with a bronze medal and $500 to reim burse for pecuniary loss sustained on account of injuries. Flghta Boll Wltlt Pocketknlfe. What do you think of fighting off an enraged bull with no other weapon than a pocket knife? Tet that was Just what Clifford V. Graves, a Versailles fKy.) farmer did one morning. Graves was attracted to his barnyard by cries to find Mer ritt L. Brown, a negro neighbor, being trampled and butted on the ground by an angry bull. Graves looked about him for some weapon with which h might combat the animal which was holding a hu man being helpless beneath its fury. Before he would have time to rush back to the house for a gun, it would be too late. The. negro was calling out piteously. Reaching in his pocket Graves found an ordinary pocket knife, and with it, unmindful of the danger that would be transferred to himself, slashed at the angered bull. The animal diverted its wrath towards the interfering Kentuckian. who slashed at the animal, only to be knocked down and severely butted. Frantically, he stabbed, each time bringing forth spurts of blood, but the knife was a weak weapon at best. Graves was beginning to fear that he would not be able to survive the torture much longer. He was up longer able, to uaj&a use ol tie 1 --zm&m .-JW PJf ttA tri stack, but It may issue in several dif ferent ways. If It forms a long, flocky streak, recalling the appearance of the cumulus clouds upon the horizon, it hows that the vaper Is condensing easily in air that Is therefore humid, and thla humidity Is always favorable to rain. If. on the contrary, the puffs of vapor dissipate In the air almost im mediately on issuing from the smoke stack this means that the condensed drops are evaporating rapidly, so the dry air does not present a condition favorable to rain. It is, therefore, a sign that permits us to hope, for fine weather. No one of these directions knife. He saw everything turning black. At the critical moment Graves' huge dog dashed on the scene, attacking the bull with such ferocity that it was chased away. Both men were saved, but Graves suffered from a fractured rib and bruises all over his body. For his heroism the Kentuckian re ceived a bronze medal and $700 to be applied to liquidation of his debts. Insane Woman Battles In tne Air. Sticking his fingers and toes of his shoes into the meshes of a wire , lattice screen, inclosing the porches of a hos pital, Thomas W. Moran climbed a dis tance of 42 feet and carried on a strug gle with an insane woman ln order to save her from a fatal fall. The Incident occurred ln Pittsburgh. Pa. Moran, a contractor, 42 years of age, was going home from work one evening when he saw a woman trying to make her escape from one of the top story windows. Moran realized that he must act quickly, and, fearing that the woman would come 'dashing to the ground any. Instant, he climbed on the wire Inclosing the hospital porches, determined to make a rescue. The man reaohed the woman as she stood on a two-inch ledge of the screen, 42 feet above the ground. Throwing bis arm about bee waist, be got bebiad a Fig. 4 Clover Raises Its Leaves taken alone will give certainty, but taken in connection with information her to keep her from falling, hold ing her there for 20 minutes, during which time she struggled desperately to free herself. Feeling himself grow ing weaker and weaker from the struggle, Moran began shouting for help. Help came when firemen dropped a noosed rope from the roof. Moran fast ened the rope about the woman and she was hoisted and taken into the building. The rope was aaln lowered and Moran tied it about himself and was let down to the ground. The hero received a bronze medal and $1000 toward liquidating a mortgage on his property. In Front of Running Train. For an act of heroism, rivaling as a spectacle the climax of a melodrama and the feature of a circus, Leo Harold Nokes, of Sao City, Iowa, has been given a bronze medal. Nokes, a high school student, 20 years of age, saved a little girl from being run over by atraln, by crossing the track on a bicycle, ln the face of the fast approaching locomotive and carry ing the child out of danger Just In time. The young man had ridden his wheel, on which he was an expert, to the de pot on an errand and was awaiting the arrival of the train. Just as it drew near the crQsalog. at the south, aad oi i r - V ' J r - fife iro furnished by the barometer, the wind and the clouds, they supply us with data upon which to base valuable forecasts. v Observation of certain- plants and animals will also help us to foretell the weather. Clover lowers Its leaves It will be fine; it raises its leaves, rain is coming. Fennel stands erect when it is going to be cold, sags down when It will be hot. Wild strawberries fold their leaves before a heavy storm. Morning glories and sorrel close be fore rain; lettuce opens. V-.-L..i ! jkl mm yi;-fi:an nr mm mmm of the depot platform, he saw children approaching on their way from school, njaaag tbem a little boy and his Wife vsfe.tij S:3 1 4 Swallows and martins fly high In fine weather; when they skim the ground look out for rain. Before a storm chickens roll in the dust, peacocks squawk, ducks plunge Into their water, pigeons hesitate to return to their cote, rats and mice get ex cited, flies become more obnoxious, bees seek their hives, spiders do not spin, worms stretch themselves, frog3 croak and toads leave their holes. Pinnacle Rock Xear The Dalles. Many curious works of nature dot the landscape along the Columbia River. Among them none Is more at tractive or Inspiring than Pinnacle Rock, near The Dalles. It rises ab ruptly from a rocky base Implanted firmly in the rugged shores of the Co lumbia, which has carved a path for it. self through the backbone of the Cas cades. This Pinnacle Rock, like others of its kind, has withstood the ravages of the elements and stands like a lone senti nel guarding the great Columbia basin and keeping time for the waters as they pass on their way to the ocean. Its sides are rough and Jagged where .the winds and rains have worn away the softer substances that compose it. Small crevasses are left between the edges of hard material that hold It to gether, and these crevasses, not Infre quently, are filled with shifting sands and again are emptied by the winds. $5000 Pearl In Oyster. , New Tork Tribune. When George Rogovoy, a Russian tourist, sat down at a table in a Chestnut-street restaurant he did not know that before he arose he would throw away a pearl supposedly worth $2000 and retain one valued at $5000. Rogovoy and his wife began their dinner with oysters, and the former was eating his third bivalve when he bit Into a hard substance. He sup posed it was part of the shell, and threw It on the floor. On eating the sixth oyster Rogovoy's teeth came in contact with another hard substance, which he took from his mouth and examined critically. Believing that he had found a gem he took the object to a Jeweler, who pronounced It a pear-shaped pearl of perfect contour, and placed the value at $5000. younger sister. The boy crossed the track In safety, but the girl hesitated until the train was close and then started across, but appeared to be dazed. It was evident to Nokes, looking on at a distance, that the child would not escape the locomotive unless helped. In stantly he mounted his wheel and rode swiftly toward the crossing. The crowd at the depot platform yelled a warning, believing that Nokes must have lost his head. Then the bi cycle rider, with the engine close upon him, was seen to ride directly on to the track and without losing speed lean over and catch the -child and pull It on with him to a place of safety, the cow catcher of the engine barely miss ing the wheel. Evidently Andrew Carnegie knew what he was talking about when, at the time of establishing the $5,000,000 fund, he made the remark: "We live in a herolo age!" JVevr Conditions ln China. J. O. P. Bland ln the Atlantic The ever-insistent problems of popu lation and food-supply have of recent years been complicated by new condi tions arising directly from the changes which have taken place in China's en vironment, as the result of the Impact of the West. For instance, the work of missionary and educational bodies, and the Introduction of certain meas ures of public health and sanitation spreading from the treaty ports, are tending to produce a diminution of the death-rate, which, under normal condi tions Ln the interior, necessarily ap proximate to the birth-rate, and Is computed at something like 55 per thousand. In other words, the effect of the introduction of Western ideas is to Increase the pressure of population on the visible means of subsistence, precisely as it Is doing ln India. At the same time, the great natural outlet for the surplus millions which the Chi nese government has been lately seek ing to develop, by means of railways and assisted colonization, in the thinly populated regions of Manchuria and Mongolia, is now being closed by the territorial encroachments of Russia and Japan. Thus, while pur medical and other missions are teaching the Chi nese, on humanitarian principles, ideas which tend to increase the mass press ure of population, the policies of the World Powers, dictated by Instincts either of self-preservation or of earth hunger, are steadily confining this non-aggressive race within narrower limits. As Old as the Hills. Boston Transcript. Miss Elderlelgh So you remarked to Katherine that I looked as old as the hills. Now don't deny It; I heard you. Jack Spott Oh er-but you misun derstand. I was merely comparing your age with that of the Hill young ladles I am acquainted, with twins, you know.