Spring suits, gauze undergarments, celluloid collars, and sun umbrellas were luxuries which no man who had to walk the streets of this city yesterday could deny the benefits of. The temperature and the humidity went hand in hand on a skylarking expedition. Poor humanity, defenseless under the partnership, simply had to sweat and swear.

It was the first real hot day of the year. At 8 o'clock in the morning the mercury stood at 68 degrees. At the same hour the humidity-registering instruments showed 92 per cent. As 100 per cent is the limit of moisture in the air, it can readily be conceived that it was a very "muggy" morning.

When the sun was fairly up, the temperature started on its upward career, the humidity running a good second. Before noon the mercury registered 80 degrees. The humidity then was 95 degrees.

At 3 o'clock the Signal Service thermometer on the top of the Equitable Building registered 86 degrees. Thermometers down on the street ranged from 85 degrees to 89 degrees, and it is down on the streets and not on the roof of the Equitable building that most men have to move around.

Whether the record of the Signal Service thermometer be taken, however, or the record of the thermometers on the streets, it may be officially stated that there is on record only one hotter June day than was yesterday. In 1879, June 1, the mercury went up to 89 degrees, but the humidity was nothing like so dense as it was yesterday, and there was, therefore, much less suffering. The 1st of June seems to be booked as a hot day; for June 1, 1877, and June 1, 1880, the mercury crawled up to 85 degrees, as it did yesterday. According to the record, therefore, yesterday was at least the second hottest June day which official figures speak of.

Toward evening the mercury began gradually to fall back toward the morning temperature, and black clouds banking in the western skies gave promise of thunderstorms which would relieve the humid air.

New York was not alone in oppressive atmospheric conditions. Through the Northern States and lake regions it was generally very warm, and the humidity was excessive.

In most of the large cities the mercury was about as high as here. West of and through the Mississippi Valley it was raining hard, and heavy showers prevailed in the Southern States.

The New York Times June 2, 1892 Page: 9