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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 1916)
Omaha Sunday PAET THREE EDITORIAL PAGES ONE TO SIX PART THREE MAGAZINE PAGES OXE TO SIX VOL. XLV NO. 29. OMAHA, SUNDAY MOKXINVi, JANUARY 2, 101 (. SIMILE COPY FIVE CENTS. Bee Where Old Boreas Bows and Zephyr us Waits Weatherman Medicine Hat His Crucible for Omaha Welsh, Who and Tampa Mingles Town in Se rvice of the Weather Bureau s EE, gentle reader, any week day morn ing, a man Beated at a desk gazing upon a large sheet of paper on which is printed a map of the U. S. A. The man has grey eyes and a short grey mustache and goatee. A hair brush wouldn't be a very good Christmas present for him. No, Indeed. The man has a red pencil and a blue pencil and he is making long, 6inuous lines all over the map of the U. S. A. He is also writing figures, some In red and some in blue on the map. What is the man doing? He is figuring out whether it is going to be fair and warmer or colder with snow In Omaha tomorrow. Who is the man? Colonel Lucius A. Welsh, in charge of the United States weather bureau at Omaha, genial gentleman, Jovial Jokesmith, perennial youth in epite of well-nigh three score years and ten. Observe please, that we said his name is "Welsh." - If the typesetter were to put a "c" in place of that "s" we would deem it nothing less than a calamity, a catastrophe, a holocaust. The colonel is a precise man and he has saddled by a playful fate with a name that people are always rettinz wronsr. Thno snoii it u Hri- - J - mi Aiuus WUB, Welsh, Welch, Walsh, Walch, Walsch. Lots of them pronounce It "Wallsh," which is worst of all. That Is "lese majeste," nothing less. Oh, yes, we almost forgot. In painting our powerful, perspicacious and particularly pleasing pen picture of the colonel we forgot to put his pipe In his mouth. The colonel without his pipe U Neptune without his trident. Pleace add. there fore, one large briar pipe with glowing bowl and blue incense rising thereform. Yessir, this is the man who makes the weather. This is he whose dally . remarks aro read with greater Interest and commented upon with wider unanimity than those of the president and all the crowned heads of Europe. Thermometers, barometers, hygrometers, ane mometers, pleurometers, anemoscopes, these are his playthings and he gazes unflinching and un afraid into the very eyes of the fierce telether moscope. For a man must associate with these dread-named Instruments every day if he would wrest from nature, from Boreas and Zephyrus. from air pressures, wind velocities and directions, temperatures and precipitations, the secrets of to morrow's weather, and give it to an anxious world. As said before. Colonel Welsh is a most genial man, a boon companion, who can tell stories by the hour, who can crack button-busting Jokes and coin epigrams and "bon mots" in perefct georgem cohan style. , But listen. If you're contemplating a visit to his office on the fourth floor of the federal build ing, don't, we beg you, don't venture in before, say, the hour of 11 a. m. Up until that time the colonel is reading the telegraphic dispatches from a hundred stations, drawing his isotherm lines on the map of the U. S. A., and making up the weather forecast. Until he has transferred the weather from the scales of uncertainty to the solid fchelf of scientific knowledge, disturb him not. For i' you do, naught shall save you from the vials of his wrath poured out upon people who pesticate around when folks are busy. After that hour the colonel can be interviewed with impunity and even with pleasure. His name often finds its way to the public prints because of his prominence as arbiter of the weather in which all manner of men are Interested, and because of his breezy personality. For twenty-seven years now the colonel has been guiding the weather bureau at Omaha, he having taken charge here July 28, 1888, when there weren't any twenty story buildings in Omaha nor any automobiles. And be has been on the Job ever since. Prior to that time there were a few little de tails of his life such as his birth, education and marriage, which it may be well to glance at briefly. He was born in Union county, Ohio, Just north of Columbus, September 30, 1848 and his family moved into the neighboring town of Marysville when he was a child. His father wa3 pominent in politics until the time of his death. Lucius went to grade schools and a private academy and when he was 12 years old the civil wwar broke out Immediately he got the fever to enlist and played hookey many a tlmo from school In order to watch the soldiers drilling. . Being afraid that the war could be over before he became old enough to enlist, he ran away when he was less than 15 years old with th Elirhtv. lixth Ohio regiment. He was a tall, skinny youth and be was passed in as a regular soldier. His mother, as soon as she learned where he was, brought him bark home by means of habeas corpus proceedings, and he chewed the cud of discontent until 1864, when he enlisted in the One Hundred nd Thirty-sixth Ohio regiment, in which he was Le youngest soldier. His regiment was used along the Potomac to take the place of the veterans, who were sent to Petersburg and Richmond and young Welsh found The I'nitod States Weather Hurcau is one of the functions of the general government that touches the people very closely. Its service is to all society, especially to the transportation and agricultural industries, hut is valuable to any enterprise the suc cess of which depends on weather conditions. It is one of the highly specialized hranches of the government, and its opera tions are directed by men of high scientific attainment. Long study, deep research and extensive experimentation, with ab solute records, made by automatic self-recording instruments for every second of the day of climatologieal conditions at tho points of observation, bring to the forecasts of the AVcather Jbueau the most complete knowledge man can possess of tho subject and yet forecasts are not made for a longer period than thirty-six hours, and even with that limitation of time, 7.") per cent of accuracy is considered a good record. Do you wonder, then, that these men of science hoot at the long distance fore casts of astrologers and necromancers, followers of the goose- As- ' " r Uses : : : . ( ' A ' . I i - a v Done ano me coru-uusK ( i r ........... , . , ... . -r ' 'I -:. 1; -i o i ' it V " : r: :,! Jt :. "v,v . r 'r : f ' . - -yt. . ':: -v- 'y . X. ' - I - - -fv,v ' .7 In aw i2SrX.V- V ( - 4" u 'V' :'U Wt Mr -1 -X 1 U X ' V" ' ' ' ' J4k? ' A t( V -n nT--T-i.iiT-T-'----f"fiiir..ri).il.iii.(iT.irii'rMifiiiiilili.) ninmi --r -numn r-' 'M yT iSfc, - : ' V V'l't liul u,.i..M.ii.i,i.riMnrn wiimwkii mill ih'ii il., i,i.ii ,ir.i, u,,,jiW,,mw,.,,ii.Mii...Iw. mC '' V 1 JUw w-'y .- . wwwy.;l yw-.". fl ' l-w-l.nW",''r" n.l iwwiwwniMiiwawwiw.'-t'"ryi--'.)r''"t '-"" . v 4 "if 1 fc I S 1 v ITl tTr . .... Mill III HI I 111 II ' " 4 Ifucwy " l : z I, . - - ;rg; ' " " most of his duties In the capacity of orderly and messenger. He is inclined to look not very ser iously on his military service. Sometimes he cocks a reminiscent and mournful eye, takes his pipe out of his mouth and remarks with deep and con fidential seriousness: "D'you know, sometimes I wish I had let the South win the war." After the war be had a bad case of the wander-, lust and used to disappear from home for months at a time. He finally became employed by a com mission firm la Indianapolis and later with a larger firm in New York City, There, in 1873 he became acquainted with C. R. Estabrook, then in charge of the United States s!gnal office, which developed into the weather bureau. Estabrook persuaded him that It was a good service to belong to. So he took the examina tions, passed and was ordered to Washington and that same year was assigned to Milwaukee as as sistant July S, 1875, he took charge of the sta tion In Pittsburgh, Pa. Early in 1876 he was taken with rheumatism which kept him in bed for six months and on crutches five months 1 aiger. This was the only sickness he had in his life. In January, 1877, while still walking with a cane, he took charge of the station at Springfield. Mass. Two years later he took charge of the sta tion at Esoanaba, Mich. Then he opened a station in Champaign, 111., and in 1883 he went to Shreve port. La. After a year there ne was assigned ic St. Louis, where he remained until 1885. Then te took charge of the stat'on af Leavenworth, Kan.. and went from there to open a station In Kansas City. Thence he came to Omaha and took charge of the station here, where he has been now more than twenty-seven years. And the colonel declares, warmly, enthusias tically and forcefully, that in all bis dally searching examinations of the map of the well-known United States he hasn't found any better place to live than Omaha. "No, sir," says the colonel, "Omaha looks good to me and It has looked good to me ever since I landed here." At this point the colonel is apt to go off into a meteorological raphsody over the beauty and comfort and loveliness of the Omaha climate, which we will omit. You've probably seen the colonel coming down to the office from bis home at the Merriam, Twenty-fifth and Dodge streets, a tall, ruddy faced man, who swings along with a vigorous stride. Or you've seen him go south on Sixteenth street to Farnani about noon and hop lightly on a West Farnani car. People istop him on the streets for some Joke about the weather or to put a ser ious question as to what It's likely to be. Yes, sixty-seven, thut's his age though he doesn't look it by about a score of years. He's the friskiest kid for his years you ever saw. But he won't give away the secret. "Most men Just let themselves get old," he bays. "I'm Dot old and I'm not going to get the foolish idea that Just because I happened to be born Elxty-seven years ago I ought to be starting to use a cane. No, blr." Regular habits are one of bis conserving vir tues. "The neighbors set their clocks by the time I leave the house and get back," he declares. "I eat twenty-one square meals a week," he further deposes and says, "and I take after both my mother and my father the one ate fast and the other ate a long while." He has no bad habits except smoking and be says he has been at that continuously since he was 10 years old. But be is even resolved to cut this cut. "After I'm a hundred years old," he says, I'm Kolng to quit smoking for fear it might shorten my life." About thirty-five years ago he persuaded Miss Katherine Wlnegar to marry him and they have three children, all grown up, and they're the most wonderful children ever born. The colonel never gets" tired talking about them and their accom plishments. Mr. Welsh was quite an athlete In his younger days, later considerate of a billiard sharp and still later an enthusiastic base ball fan. He'i think ing of taking up golf now. About that middle initial of his, "A." What does it stand for? Nobody knows. It is a deep, dark, dank secret. The colonel won't tell what it stands for. "That doesn't mean anything." ha says. You can print It, Alciblades, Artaxeries Agulnaldo or. anything you want. The terrible secret is locked in the colonel's buzzum. Maybe It's Algernon! The colonel wants it known that the Omaha office is second to none in equipment and adminis tration, that it is in charge of good, capable men, that it is here for the benefit of the people and that he and his staff are always at the command of the people for any Information, they caa, glva regarding the weather,