day before, with a
severe frost during the night, precisely the conditions to support the
jitney-driver's story.

"Many accidents are alleged to have been due to fog. The weather expert
is called upon to testify to the degree of visibility permitted by
atmospheric conditions. One man who was accused of murder and who
undoubtedly would have been convicted, was positively identified by the
wife of the murdered man, the woman declaring that she saw him at a
certain hour of the evening passing in front of the house. The Weather
Records showed conclusively that, at that hour, owing to the excessive
cloudiness of the atmosphere, it would have been impossible for the
woman to identify the suspect, even at half the distance.

"Wind records are often very important. In April, 1902, a severe storm
moved over the middle western states, and, at one place in Indiana, it
developed such velocity as to start in motion an empty box car standing
on a railway siding. It was carried on to the main track, the derailing
switch not being turned, and ran for two miles before the wind, the
grade being slightly up-hill. It finally collided with a passenger train
and several persons were killed. The railroad company produced the
weather records to show that a storm of such violence was outside the
common run of events, seeking thereby to lessen the amounts awarded for
damages.

"This direction of the wind often is called into requisition. A suit
for many thousand dollars was brought by the owners of some property in
Chicago, against a railroad company, the property-owners alleging that a
fire which had destroyed some of the buildings had originated from
sparks from a locomotive. The Weather Bureau records, however, showed
that there was a brisk wind blowing directly from the property to the
railroad. Of course, all damages incurred in storms of unusual severity,
such as the St. Louis tornado or the Galveston Flood, would be ignored
in a court of law, as they would come under the head of unavoidable
happenings of 'the act of Providence,' a well-known legal phrase. In all
matters connected with events in which the weather is a possible factor,
the Weather Bureau observer has a place and a part, and the United
States Supreme Court, as long as thirty-five years ago, ruled that
weather records were competent evidence."

"I reckon yo' is wrong, Mr. Lindstrom," said the sheriff, turning to the
brother of the wounded man. "Ef the weather records goes