On Aug. 4, 1902, the Lawrence Journal editorialized, “The hot winds are making a great bluff at Kansas just now. And the hot wind is a thing you don’t want to laugh at. Like the Irishman’s gun that was fearsome without lock, stock or barrel, the hot wind is dangerous whether it comes in midsummer or in the dead of winter. There is no telling what it can do, or will do. We have been saying, some of us who don’t know much about hot winds, that the crops were safe, sure and secure, and that no old hot wind could touch them. And right when they said it, a hot wind, properly equipped, could have swooped down on Kansas and made stubble fields of the corn patches. The corn is not dead safe from it yet. A hot wind for three days here in this part of the state, at any time this week, would, or could, cut the corn crop down fully one-half. It is not only unsafe, but it is foolish to defy and dare the hot winds. Don’t do it; they are likely to do something to you just any time. Candidly admit the power and the ferocity and the withering qualities of the hot winds, and keep them in a good humor if possible.”