A Severe Rain Storm

New York, 1895

MUCH DAMAGE DONE TO BUILDINGS AND THE HIGHWAYS.

The So-Called Shelton Avenue Improvement Makes a Lake Under Mr. Downing's Residence — Railroad Trains Delayed for Hours by Land Slides.

Saturday's storm did much damage in the town of Jamaica by flooding cellars and washing away the road beds in many places. The roadways were ankle deep in water, and small lakes formed in low places. As usual with any heavy rainfall of late, the cellar under the residence of Charles Downing, corner of Clinton and Shelton avenues, in this village, was flooded to the depth of four feet, and the rear of the yard was also filled with water. A force of men were engaged all day Saturday freeing Mr. Downing's cellar from water.

The cellar and yard of the dwelling occupied by Mrs. Ditmars Johnson, on the corner of Clinton and Shelton avenues, were badly flooded. The water ran down Shelton avenue to Flushing avenue during the storm like a small river.

The volume was so great that for a time the new sewer on Church street was unable to carry it off, and the sidewalks on Ray and Church streets were submerged. Large ponds of water formed on Herriman avenue near Hillside avenue, the water in some places being from three to four feet in depth.

Hillside avenue near the railroad bridge at Hayestown was so flooded that it was impassable. The storm cesspools built by the highway commissioners were useless.

At Richmond Hill the cellars of a number of residences were flooded, and many of the highways were impassable.

At Springfield many of the roadways were damaged by washouts. During the gale which accompanied the rainfall the portable building in election district No. 14, Springfield, was blown down and wrecked.

Several washouts and land slides were reported on the Long Island railroad and trains were delayed.

At Smithtown the track of the Port Jefferson branch road was covered with dirt by a land slide to the depth of from two to five feet, delaying the first train from Huntington two hours.

The Rockaway road from Dooley's, at Springfield, across the meadows was impassable, the tide rising over it the greater part of the day.

At Hollis the roadways were flooded and numbers of people who started to take the early morning trains went home again. Woodhull avenue, which runs in front of the railroad depot, was filled with water, as were the low places on the Hempstead road to a depth of from three to four feet.

At Arverne-by-the-Sea when the residents awoke they found their back yards flooded. Streets and avenues were covered by the high tide. Breakers chased across the surface, while the waters almost reached the top of the Rockaway Beach trestle. Fishing stations suffered and small craft of all descriptions were floated from their moorings and badly damaged.

The storm flooded a great many places in Woodhaven. Among them were Mrs. Payne's dwelling. Sweeney's saloon floor was two foot under water. The Italian quarter on Ocean avenue was completely under water, the water entering at the front door and going out through the back door. Several children sleeping in the basement had a narrow escape from being drowned.

The Chester Park station of the rapid transit division was entirely under water early Saturday morning, and it was impossible for passengers to get on or off the cars there for some time. There is a deep hollow there, and the water was at least eight feet deep.

The South Side supply store on the old south road at Aqueduct was completely flooded. There was six feet of water in the cellar, and a quantity of feed, flour and pork was destroyed. The cow and chicken houses were also under water. The cow was rescued, but the chickens were drowned. There is talk of sueing the railroad for stopping up a pipe that was put in at this place to carry off the water.

The macadamized roads in and around Woodhaven suffered severely from the heavy rain storm. Several places on the Broadway and South plank road, also on Grafton avenue, were washed out, and will need considerable repairing before they are in proper condition.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.

A Use for Grasshoppers

Editorial observations, 1910

A Colorado farmer has gathered 125 bushels of grasshoppers, which he intends to dry, so that they may be used for chicken feed next winter. Since a use has been found for grasshoppers we may expect future crops of them to be failures.

A new comet has been discovered. There ought to be a stop put to this. If the former one brought about all the trouble which has been going on the earth since, we can spare any more of these heavenly mischief makers for some time to come. And those who are looking for trouble and read their answer in the stars should be legally enjoined, at least until the world has had time to catch its breath.

Look over your small change carefully; there are several counterfeit five-dollar bills in circulation.

Owing to the fact that their wives are away for the summer a good many men are almost forgetting how to button waists up the back.

Cincinnati surgeons are to amputate a citizen's six-inch nose. To use a Pittsburgh word, the gentleman really is "nobby."

No picnic can claim to have been destroyed by rainy weather this season.

Had Corner in Graves

1905

The Melbourne Women's hospital discovered lately that a local undertakers' ring had bought up nearly all the vacant plots in the general cemetery, and, having put up its prices for funerals at another cemetery, which has only been opened a short time. In order to divert trade to its own ground, it was retailing its corner in graves at a handsome profit.


A Grimly Suggestive Group

The minister and the doctor were riding down town in a Lexington avenue car, and had arrived at Madison square when their friend the undertaker joined them.

After riding with him two blocks the minister and doctor put the undertaker off the car, saying their appearance in trio looked too suggestive and would cause talk among their friends.


Dachshund Found His Mistress

Three years ago Mrs. A. M. McKee of Plainfield, N. J., made a visit at Glens Falls, N. Y., and on her return left her dog, a dachshund, with her Glens Falls friends. The other day the dog appeared at the old home in Plainfield and finding that his mistress had moved, searched the city until he located her present residence.


Freak of Nature in Kentucky

A peculiar freak of nature has shown up in the bluegrass. Wells that have been dry for weeks, springs that have long since ceased to flow, have burst forth, and some of the small creeks that were dry as a powder keg are now living, running streams — all this without rain. — Grayson Bugle-Herald.

Wet and Dry Moons

1910

There is an old superstition, which dies hard, that the position of the horns of the new moon tells what the weather will be; if the horns of the crescent are on the same level, it will hold water, and hence it is a dry moon; but if it is tipped up, then the water will run out, and it is a wet moon.

One thing has helped keep this belief alive; the moon is "dry" in the part of the spring that is usually fair, while it is "wet" during the season of autumn rains.

If this were a sure sign of the weather we could have our predictions years in advance, for an astronomer can predict the exact position of the moon at any time in the future.

The cause for the different positions of the crescent is simple: The moon is south of the sun in the autumn and north of it in spring. The crescent is found by the light of the sun falling on the moon, and the horns are naturally in a line perpendicular to the direction of the sun from the moon.

That is all there is to it.

Harvesting the Sun

1896

When we sit in front of a coal fire and enjoy its generous warmth, do we realize that the heat and light of the burning coal are really sunshine that has been stored up for ages? Such is the fact. Centuries ago the sun shone on the earth, the plants and trees grew, fell, and grew again; they were covered by geologic deposits, and acted upon by great heat and pressure, until in the course of years and ages these broad layers of organic matter were transformed into coal. The coal thus represents the work done by the sunshine years ago, and when it is burned the imprisoned solar energy is loosened again.

Our system of power production depends upon this presence of energy. But coal is a wasteful source of energy. Even the best engines do not utilize over 10 per cent of the calculated energy of the heat of coal. And, besides this it is an inconvenient thing in many ways; it has to be mined, freighted and stored. Can we not find some more economical way of using the sun's energy?

During the last few years the great progress in electrical science has enabled man to utilize the solar heat in a thriftier way. During its day's work the sun draws up a large amount of water from the oceans and damp earth. By the action of its rays plant life flourishes, and plants draw from the ground and evaporate into the air large amounts of water. Thus an oak tree of average size, with seven hundred thousand leaves, lifts from the earth into the air about one hundred and twenty-three tons of water during the five months it displays its foliage. This evaporated water, sooner or later, falls as rain, and by the action of gravity begins to flow downward. Thus the great rivers are fed. Round and round incessantly goes the water lifted by the tireless sun to fall when deserted by him, and again to fall and run seaward as long as it may exist upon this earth.


Peculiar to the Locality

Some interesting discoveries have recently been made about animal life on the Hawaiian Islands. It appears that all the land and fresh water shells are peculiar to the locality. Nor is that all. Fifty-seven out of the seventy-eight species of birds, and seven hundred out of the one thousand species of insects do not exist in any other portion of the globe.

Shooting Skies For Rain

1910

Uncle Sam Has Lost Faith in Rain-Making Schemes, but Italians Are Still Sanguine

Washington. — Recently when fire was sweeping over the mountains of the west, leaving death and destruction in its wake, the despairing people appealed to the war department to bombard the skies and bring a much-needed rain. For obvious reasons their request was refused. Uncle Sam, a few years ago, spent large sums of money experimenting along this line, sending up bombs and firing cannon at the skies to produce rain by artificial means. It was no use, for clouds refused to "leak" in satisfaction of man's tiny tickling. Since then the government has been without faith in any scheme for rain-making.

It is now held that the reason why rain usually followed the great battles of history is because whenever possible the commanders moved their armies and began battles when the weather was fair. Rain falls on an average of one day in three, so it is no amazing matter that the clouds should spill their contents about the time one of those famous slaughters would be over with.

Of course, the great men of science know that it is useless for man, with his puny implements, to undertake to bring about those stupendous changes in nature necessary to produce the phenomenon of rain. It would be necessary to lower the temperature of a vast area of the heavens, or saturate such a region with moisture to obtain results, and our means of accomplishment are too limited.

Though our government has lost faith in rain-making, however, the Italians seem to be quite confident that in one way, at least, bombarding the clouds is productive of good results. In all the vineyards of that sunny land there may be seen curious funnel-shaped guns pointing to the sky. Hail storms form one of the chief dangers to the grape crop in that country, and the Italians believe that the firing of these guns prevents such destructive visitations by dissipating the clouds which give them birth.

Street Gossip About Town — Kingston, New York, 1916

1916

STREET GOSSIP ABOUT TOWN

We notice quite some change in woman's styles this season, the hair being dressed low and the skirts high.

Our June tip to bridegrooms — If you start now helping the bride to wash the dishes you will have, unknowingly, contracted a life job.

The remarkable power and strength of the human eye is almost unbelievable and to quote but a single instance. The other evening one of the large plate glass fronts in the Arnold saloon on Mill street fell out. The bartender when questioned next day as to how it happened said "Somebody looked at it." As every one knows bartenders are unusually truthful and his statement as to how it happened should be accepted without reservation.

We rise to remark that we hope the present administration has now decreed a closed season on ultimatums.

Did you forget to carry your umbrella with you Wednesday?

For the first in some time we went off to work leaving ours at home, much to our regret.

Constant Reader suggests that as President Wilson has now qualified as an expert in note writing that he be requested to send one to the weather man.

We are hoping, however, that Company M will not have to contend with rainy weather when they go to camp.

Our own weather report — like the present administration's foreign policy, somewhat unsettled.

It is said that North Rondout residents are thinking of applying to the state fish hatchery for a supply of fish to stock the trenches in the streets which have now been filled with a quantity of water on the grounds that as long as the R. P. W. does not fill up the holes in the streets they should be allowed to have some pleasure in sitting on their front porch and throwing a fish line into the deep holes with the prospect of landing a nice trout for dinner.

There Is no foundation to the rumor that the government is thinking of chartering the Skillipot to transport the soldiers to the summer camp.

Residents of Ulster county are still watchfully waiting for work to be started on the concrete piers for the Sleightsburgh bridge.

With the thermometer registering as low as 55 degrees the first night of summer it is still best to use plenty of bed clothing.

An old resident remarked during the rain storm on Wednesday, the first day of summer, that he fails to recollect a rainy season at this time of the year to equal the one we are "enjoying."

The reason why we emphasize the fact that Wednesday was the first day of summer is that no one would guess it from the weather we are having.

Have you joined Company M yet? If not better hurry before the boys leave for camp.

We wonder if the men who shouted loudest for intervention in Mexico were among the first to join the National Guard when the call went out for recruits.

—The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, June 24, 1916, page 2.

Judge Rules the Poor May Steal Umbrellas When Raining

1911

RIGHT TO COP UMBRELLA

That's If a Man is Penniless and Has No Money, Rules Judge

Chicago, May 24. — "A man has a sort of right to steal an umbrella when it's raining and he has no money to purchase one," ruled Judge Heap in Harrison street municipal court.

"Don't let it happen again, though," the judge told the prisoner, Leslie Jearney, who was allowed to go free.

—Indiana Evening Gazette, Indiana, Pennsylvania, May 24, 1911, page 4.