A Day of Intense Heat

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 13, 1872

A Day of Intense Heat.

THE people of New York suffered terribly from the excessive heat which prevailed there on June 25. The telegraph reports that no less than two hundred persons were sunstruck, the attacks proving fatal in sixty cases. The evening papers speak feelingly on the subject. The Post says:

The heat to-day in all parts of the city is overpowering. Men and beasts are equally affected by it. The sunny sides of the streets are deserted, and the crowds on the shady sides appear deprived of energy, and struggle slowly along, each man with a pocket handkerchief in one hand and an umbrella in the other. The horses, especially those on the street car lines, have a hard time of it. It is no uncommon sight to see a poor beast stagger and fall dying to the ground, with out hanging tongue and protruding eyeballs, notwithstanding the precautions taken for their relief.

The pavements this afternoon were so hot that it was almost painful to walk upon them, while the railings in the City Hall Park were far too warm to be touched with the unprotected hand. The sparrows seemed to enjoy the heat well enough, and were busily engaged in battling.

The Commercial remarks:

“When will this end?” is the agonizing interrogation of the suffering inhabitants of this great city. Last night was a fitting climax to a dreadful day, in which no less than thirty-five persons were reported as prostrated by the heat. There was scarcely a breath of air stirring, and the gasping multitudes sat upon the house-tops after sunset in vain endeavors to keep cool. The poor horses dropped off by the score.”

The rush for “out of town” yesterday was something enormous, and the different avenues leading to the ferries were packed with a long line of carriages, trunk-bestrapped, and in some cases brimming over with an excited company of little ones, wild for the country or the seaside.

Down town to-day there is an enervation that borders on despair. Relief is found in a rush to soda fountains, that gives little rest to the weary dispenser, but makes the proprietor smile with joy. In spite of the raise made by the ice companies, there is apparently no diminution in the quantity used. Fans are at a premium, and penny cups of ice cream disappear with amazing rapidity before the panting newsboy, while it is not an unfrequent thing to see laboring men dashing themselves over with water from the street fountains. One lady went into a restaurant this morning, and taking off her slippers, coolly filled them with ice-water, re-inserted her feet, and went on her way rejoicing.

The N. Y. Observer says:

The thirty days preceding the 19th of July, 1872, will probably be remembered as the most protracted “heated term” of the present age. The oldest and youngest inhabitants agree in testifying that nothing like it has occurred in their time, and we certainly hope will not hereafter. In New York and vicinity, all the usual remedies for heat have failed. Patience was the only alleviator. In the country it was only a little less severe than in the city. In other cities the same state of things prevailed. The same reports came to us from over the sea. Our correspondents complain of the heat everywhere. In London and Paris it was intolerable. The heated citizens fled by thousands to the sea-side. It appears that the heat was exceptionally great in India. At Allahabad it has reached 115 degrees in the shade, and at Hyderabad 116 degrees. At the latter place it caused the death of an officer, four men, and twelve children, among the 16th Lancers. In and around Poona, in the Deccan, the wells are dried up, the cattle are dying, and people are thankful if they can obtain a jar of water by no greater trouble than that of walking a number of miles for it. The Bombay Gazette says that prospects would be very gloomy were not the monsoon at hand.

We have reason to be thankful that no epidemic has added its horrors to the sufferings attending such extraordinary heat, and that it is now over.