28 July 1899: "The tradition is too well founded to be doubted..."

On this day in 1899, the Weekly Banner noted the start of the dog days of summer:

RAIN TODAY MEANS RAIN FOR 40 DAYS.

This is the First of the Celebrated "Dog Days."

     According to superstition, if it rains today we will have rain for forty days.

     "Dog Days" begin today. This is a critical period of the year for it means abundant showers or excessive drought. 

     Farmers who are anxious to secure good rains should start early with their prayers today. The tradition is too well founded to be doubted and this, the all-important first of the dog days should not be passed by unnoticed.

-- Weekly Banner, 28 July 1899, p. 1, col. 1.

"Dog days of summer" have a long history. The ancient Egyptians associated the heat of mid-summer with Sirius, the dog star, rising with the sun, and believed it foretold the annual flooding of the Nile. The Romans believed the bright star Sirius combined its heat with the sun to cause the hottest part of summer, calling this period "caniculares dies," the "days of the dog." 


At the time, the "dog days" fell from early July into the middle of August. Due to a phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes, the date when Sirius rises with the sun moves later over time. Eventually, it will no longer rise during the heat of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.


Though there was no newspaper surviving from July 29th, later that summer, Athens had quite a few harsh storms, including one near the end of the dog days that included crop-destroying hail, flooded streets, and even a woman, Mrs. Mary Echols of John Street, killed by lightning in her own home.




Learn More: 

• Weekly Banner, Aug. 1898 - Oct. 1899 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Old Farmer's Almanac Book of Garden Wisdom by Cynthia Van Hazinga in the general collection.
• Hogs on Ice and Other Curious Expressions by Charles Earl Funk in the Reference collection.
• Partly Sunny: A Weather Junkie's Guide to Outsmarting the Weather by Alan Fields in the general collection.
• Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, 2nd edition, by William and Mary Morris in the Reference collection.
• Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton in the children's collection.
• Loose Cannons and Red Herrings: A Book of Lost Metaphors by Robert Claiborne in the general collection.
• Night Has a Thousand Eyes: A Naked-Eye Guide to the Sky, Its Science, and Lore by Arthur Upgren in the general collection.
• Ask an Astronomer web page, by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University.

15 December 1885: Robert Toombs Oak Is Not Struck by Lightning

On this day in 1885, General Robert Toombs died at the age of 75, at his home in Washington, Georgia, after years of declining health.  Despite long-woven tales to the contrary, the oak tree outside the Chapel at UGA where Toombs supposedly gave a great speech after his expulsion in 1828, was not struck by lightning.

Augustus Longstreet Hull recounted the myth in his 1894 book, A Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia, and explained that neither the speech nor the lightning strike actually happened:

        A story of Robert Toombs has swung round the circle of the papers of late years, which represents him expelled from college for gambling, standing beneath the old oak in front in front of the chapel at commencement, pouring forth such burning words of eloquence that the chapel is deserted and the speakers left to declaim empty benches. And from this circumstance, the old tree has ever since been known as the "Toombs Oak." It has even been said that on the day of Mr. Toombs' death, the old oak was struck by lightning and destroyed.

        There is not the semblance of truth in the story. It was a fabrication of Henry W. Grady, who, in an admiring sketch of the great Georgian, wrote charmingly of his overwhelming eloquence and pointed it with a story drawn from his own vivid imagination.

In 1985, 100 years after Robert Toombs died, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution to have an historical marker placed on the University of Georgia campus, commemorating General Toombs and the "legend" of Toombs Oak. The marker is located between the Chapel and Demosthenian Hall on North Campus.




Learn More: 

• The Toombs Oak, the Tree That Owned Itself, and Other Chapters of Georgia by E. Merton Coulter in the Heritage collection.
• Robert Toombs by Pleasant A. Stovall in the Heritage collection.
• College Life in the Old South by E. Merton Coulter in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Walking Tour of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage and general collections.
• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• Robert Toombs of Georgia by William Y. Thompson in the Heritage collection.
• A Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• The Life of Henry Grady, Including His Writings and Speeches by Joel Chandler Harris in the biography collection.
• Robert Toombs Oak State Historical Marker page on the GeorgiaInfo site via GALILEO.