When the Hartford Courant editorialized in 1897 that "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it," the writer must have just returned from a visit to Missouri in August.

The recent spells of hot, humid weather have taken their toll. Hundreds of deaths have been attributed to the heat wave, particularly in the Chicago area. Now a system of hurricanes is marching across the Atlantic Ocean. Each of the storms seem to be connected like a giant water train.

In the Midwest, it is heat and the natural wetness of the air that cause their own special blend of misery. Schools are concerned about students and staff who must endure the furnace blast of buildings that aren't air conditioned. Businesses whose work is outdoors are concerned about employees whose stamina is sapped by the heat.

Curiously, almost everyone noticed last week when the weather took a change for the better. Even though the temperatures stayed high, the humidity fell off sharply. Who would have thought a 93-degree day could be so comfortable?

That's the way it is with the weather. Sage Missourians have long known that the miserable dog days exist just so the crispness of the first hints of autumn will be properly appreciated. And the bite of a winter storm is nothing more than Nature's way of heightening our appreciation for the first golden forsythia blossoms of spring.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it this way:

All sorts of things and weather

Must be taken together,

To make up a year

And a Sphere.