ON THE WEATHER 



abomination under any circumstances, and 

 any one who wears them certainly has no 

 license to blame the rain. Yet people who 

 care more to be comfortable than to be 

 stylish sometimes suffer from inclemencies 

 of weather because they do not provide 

 themselves with proper clothing. Perhaps 

 they try to wear the same underclothing 

 the year round, or they go about carelessly 

 without overshoes. I saw a man once on 

 his first voyage across the Atlantic. He 

 went without any overcoat or blanket, 

 because it was July. He didn't know any 

 better, and he suffered for it, but even he 

 could not help saying that we had glorious 

 weather on the promenade deck. 



But what shall we say of those people 

 who, wishing to make talk and having 

 nothing within themselves to draw on, make 

 capital of the weather and call it "nawsty"? 

 Their crime is worse than ordinary slander, 

 because the defamation falls on a great 

 and noble object. In fact, it is worse than 

 lese-majeste, as the sky is higher than any 

 earthly potentate. It is noteworthy, too, 

 that the weather critics are chiefly the people 

 who stay most indoors and really know the 

 least about the weather. 



73 



