Quote: everybody talks about the weather (1897) (antedating attrib Charles Dudley Warner 1901, attrib Mark Twain 1915)

[George Thompson]

Two notes on this:

        First, no doubt people have always talked about the weather, but perhaps they did so more in the 19th C, because it had become the object of scientific study.  In the very early 19th C, NYC newspapers were publishing readings from "Fahrenheit's thermometer", and a bet later, from the barometer.  By the 1820s, this data could be a regular feature, every 3 days, or every week, perhaps compiled every month.  In 1832, a newspaper mentioned that a NYer had been taking and recording temperature and pressure since 1826.  So this would have made it possible to say "Isn't it warm -- why, yesterday it was 87!"  "Yes, I've never seen the temperature so high." and so on; in Shakespeare's time, poor man, it would not have been possible to be so precisely informed.

        [newspaper editor were generally in a state of constant bickering with the other editors in town; a response from the N-Y Daily Advertiser to the N-Y Gazette & General Advertiser: we do not want] a newspaper controversy with a man, whose literary and intellectual attainments are such as to enable him to record, from morning to morning, the state of the weather of each preceding day, and in at least half the instances to give a correct account of it.
        N-Y D Advertiser, March 4, 1822, p. 2, cols. 2-3

Second:
The following is from an earnest essay of self-help, a precursor to the limitless shelf of self-help books we benefit from today:
        Conversation Hints for a bashful or shallow man, adapted for the present time.
        Having suffered extremely in my younger days from bashfulness, and what may the called barrenness, at least slowness of thought, I am stirred up to do what in me lies, for the benefit and comfort of all those young persons who are suffering from the same cause.  Nothing can be easier, at just this present moment, than for the most bashful or empty person to sustain a full quarter of an hour's conversation, without a single occurrence of those distressing pauses that have so often driven a young man from company, and sometimes even to suicide.  It is really surprising when one reflects on it, to see how simple a thing it is, when the art is once understood, to get through even a half-hour with tolerable credit for agreeable qualities.  ***  There are, at this present moment, a considerable number of magical words, which . . . will, on being pronounced, procure . . . instant attention. . . .
         . . . I repeat it, there are a few words which, properly used, will relieve him of all difficulty, and make an evening call pass off so agreeably that he will think of himself with the more complacency forever after.  ***  The principal of these are: the weather -- health -- distant friends -- coal -- different kinds, compared, a most copious topic and capable of infinite agreeable digressions -- opera -- influenza -- David's picture -- Kean -- last No. of the New-York Rev. __ North American, &c. &c. -- Cooper's new Novel, &c. &c.: discreetly handled, these, or half of them even, will hold out for a full fifteen or twenty minutes visit.  ***
        I will now proceed to give a few example of easy conversation, such as is proper in any family at the present moment.  I suppose you to enter the room, where the lady of the house is sitting with a sister perhaps, or visitor, and perhaps the husband or brother in the room.
        You enter awkwardly of course -- and with a general look, which means that you have set out on a visit of duty, too long deferred -- yet you doubt whether you shall be well received. . . .  ***  "You have had a cool walk, I fear, Mr. F." asks the lady -- sister or husband.  Now let me most earnestly warn you against an incautious assent, as the truth would suggest, for then the conversation breaks off inevitably.  A little reflection will convince you that this subject thus happily introduced, may be sustained for some time.  I advise a reply like this, and you'll see how the train will catch: "It was cool a little while since, ma'am, but the weather appears to be hanging."  The lady in her heart will thank you for this, and will with renewed spirit, instantly say, "another change, what a strange winter! we have had hardly two days in succession alike -- it is last winter over again.  Take care not to assent, but say something like this: "If I remember right, ma'am -!
 - but i
t is not easy to remember from one year to another -- there is not so much rain this year as last, and rather more cold, I should think."  And having got through a sentence of this length, and which admits disputation, or a variety of replies, you will feel easy, and with reason be proud of your adroitness.  ***
        ***
        I subscribe myself                      A SUFFERER.
        N-Y American, February 22, 1826, p. 2, col. 4

If there is a socio-linguist out there among us who wants some more of this -- though I didn't transcribe even half of the essay, I do have more than I am inflicting upon you-uns right now -- or who wants annotations on what's here -- who's Kean, for instance -- let me know.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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