Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1896 — SUNSHINE IS DEADLY [ARTICLE]

SUNSHINE IS DEADLY

v* ! ’ ‘ - HUNDREDS ARE LAID LOW IN !. VARIOUS PLACES. » , Suffering in the Cities Is ttye Worst Ever Experienced —ln One Day Seventy-two Die in New York and a Score Perish in Chicago. _ r—> Slain by the Hot Snn. The whole of t'he United States has passed through its most remarkable meteorological experience for years. Excessive heat has combined with humidity to make the lot of man and beast almost unendurable. All records for eight years have been broken. In New York and Brooklyn Sunday seventy-two people were killed outright; in Chicago, 19; in St. Louis Saturday, 25; in Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburg, Detroit and other towns, lesser numbers, though the heat was intense. In addition to these, there Were thousands of prostrations, many of Which will terminate fatally. * The, suffering among the very poor of the cities hh's been,terrible. The following table shows Sunday's record: New York and Brooklyn .. ... ...... 72 Philadelphia 25 Baltimore : .* .19 Chicago r I<S Small Illinois towns 9 Cincinnati 3 Small towns in Indiana "3 Small towns in Ohio. 3 Boston 2 St. Louis 2 Pittsburg 1 Cleveland 2 Louisvilie 1_ San Antonio .-.. . .. 1 Sioux City J. 1 Vforst Since 1892. New York city lias ndt had such a succession of hot days and such lists of prostrations by the heat sipce 1892. In July of {hat year.hhe official thermometer registered'on tflfc 25th, 94; 26tb, ,96%; ,27th, 92t/4; 28th, 94; 29th, 95!4, and fell pn the 80th to 04. The humidity was high os well as the and the published list of prostrations' and fati*fc*gunstrokes rose to thirty-one deaths and ninety-two prostrations in New York; and Brooklyn on the 2Sth, and sixty-fifh deaths and 133 prostrations on the 29th. The feverish efforts of those who live in narrow and airless rooms to get sleep caused more than the usual number of persons to roil from roofs and fall from the balconiesjof fi re escapes. "

The hottest-day of the present protracted spell of fierce heat, and the most unbearable of all this summer, fell upon Philadelphia beginning at midnight Saturday, and bringing death to twenty-four persons and prostrations to an unusually large number. Men and women dropped exhausted in the streets and si few died there before help could reach them. Otheprxvere found dead hr -their beds, and still others succumbed while upder treatment in the wards of the various hospitals. Philadelphia has felt nothing like the present spell si life July, 1592, when for sevenkdays humanity sweltered and sickened under a temperature that fluctuated between Off aqd 102 degrees. Unabated heat dealt death to Chicagoans Sunday. Prostrations despite the quiet of the day, were reported ii" every quarter of the city. Two hours of lake breeze in thc~moming grappled with the rising temperature and choked it down until the afternoon, when it arose to 93, the nhnyiniiiin fur the day. Had it not been for this the prostrations earlier in the day must have been much greater. At midnight nineteen deaths from heat had been reported to the health department. The police cared for 01 cases of prostration, 17 of them resulting fatally. Most of the eases were reported in the afternoon. The police ambulances were taxed to their utmost to respond to the unusual number of calls which were made upon them, and the attendants at the hospitals had their hands full preparing ice compresses and other remedies necessary In earing for their patients. The deaths due to sunstroke reported to the health department for tquf days are as follows: Thursday® ....... 4 Sunday ........19 Friday 5 „rSaturday 8 Total for 4 days.3o For the entire corresponding week last year bat one fatal case of sunstroke was reported. The high death rate last week is charged by officials of the health department directly to the terrific heat and the high degree of humidity_in the atmosphere. It is much greater than last year s reed'd and confirms the belief of the department that for years Chicago has not suffered so greatly from the heat. The records for last week and the correspondiug week in 1895 are compared as follows: 1890. Deaths. Sunday. Aug. 2... 28 Monday, Aug. 3. 100 Tuesday. Aug. 4., v . * 01 Wednesday, Aug. 3 '. 85 Thursday, Aug. 0 103 Friday, Aug, 7.- 109 Saturday, Aug. 8 85 Sunday, Xug. 9 81 Total 058 1895. Deaths. Friday, Aug. 2 *.. 04 Saturday. Aug. o ............ 80 Sunday, Aug,-4 e.. 37 Monday, Aug. 5. 107 Tuesday, Aug. 0 77 Wednesday, Aug. 7....- til Thursday, Aug. 8 00 Friday, Aug. 9. ,104 Total 399 At St. Ixqiis, for a fortnight each day has broken its record. Saturday the offi'eial thermometer recorded a continuous temperature of 99 degrees dilring nearly five hours. Qa Friday the record was nearly as high. Sunday the thermometer reached 90 degrees at 10 o'clock and attained its maximum of 98 degrees soon after 3 o’clock, remaining practically stationary until after 5 o'clock. At 7 o’clock in the evening the mercury had fallen to 93 degrees. There were forty-eight cases of prostration from heat Saturday, with eight deaths. Sunday, when no labor or manufacturing was in progress, there were eighteen prostrations and two deaths from the heat. The high temperature is leaving its mark upon the city’s morftility record. The normal rate is abotlt 200 deaths a week. Last week 273 burial certificates were signed. Had Sunday lieon a day of labor in Boston there would have been a long list of fatalities to record. It was, with one exception, the hottest day of the summer so far. and the beat was made more intensely uncomfortable by the fact that the humidity was very great. The hospitals Sunday night reported only two deaths,- The number of prostrations was very large. , ~ , In Cincinnati, the heat has caused many deaths, 'but there have been only two fatalities directly from sunstroke- The temt>erature bus !>oen in .the 90's for a week. The weather bureau reported the maximum tenq>eratiire 94.1 at 3 p. m.,91 at 6fll. m. nnd 95 at Jib p. m. At Omaha, the. heat has bfen almost Insufferable. A few prostrations have been reported, and physicians report many cases of partial sunstroke. One fatality occurred ‘Sunday. Senator \\ oleoft of Colorado will sup-' port McKWis/.