The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1872-11-30
THE LATE STORM Ar DULUTH AND


and shipping, and Of the fearful apprehen-
sions awakened among the inhabitants OF
that place, by the gale of week ago last
Wednesday, could arcely be told more
graphically than it has been in the accounts
which have appeared in the Duluth papers,
and in the communication Of Mr. Thomas
Dowse of Duluth, to the St. Paul Press.
And doubtless it is the privilege Of Duluth
to make its own statement of its own disas-
ters, in its own way, through its own expo
nents; but the aohoppers which have gone
to the world through the same media con
cerning the effects Of the same storm at
Superior, it is incumbent on us, for truth
and decency's sake, to squelch. The Du-
luth Tribune of the 18th inst. says:
g We learn that the storm over at Superior was
quite as severe as here"
(Right, Mr.. Tribune! The storm, / e.
the gale, was as severe, out the refuge and
protection afforded by our harbor were
completely
'And that her boasted harbor suffered quite as
much ours in proportion the docks, warehouses
&c, in the two Places
(Wrong, Mr.. Tribune! The "boasted
harbor" didn't suffer at all, in any respect)
We are informed that about onehalf of the Supe-
ror dock, between the main land and Coburns ware
house, torn out p
Wrong, again! No part of the dock
was "torn OUT That dock, as the edi-
tor of the Tribune well knows, between
the main land and Coburn's warehouse is a
mere roadway for the purposes of travel to
and from the warehouse. The top plank
ing, which constituted the road or track,
was nailed to "stringers," extending over
the spaces between some common, untitled,
log cribs. These "stringers" were not
pinned or fastened to the cribs, but were
kept in place simply by their own weight
and that Of the plank track on them, and
were but foot or so above the usual water
level. The northeaster occasioned a rise
in the bay sufficient to ,tloat these stringers
with their superintendent planks, and
when the wind changed to the north, a
part Of this track, about fifty feet in length,
with its attached stringers, was moved just
to the south side of the line of the dock
a displacement that could have been easily
effected, with the water at the stage it then
was, by the power alone of one or two men
pushing against the bottom with poles
and it is probable that q wooden pin as big
rs your thumb, at the end Of each stringer,
might have prevented this awful catastro-
phe But the Tribune goes on:
And not only this, but the large dock and ware
house of Messrs. Willard & Mercer situated in the
Sup ror harbor lust across the bav from that village
have both been entirely Srept aeaH and it, unortUn-
atey any vessels had happened be lying there they
would undoubtedly have been sent ashore and landed
high and dry"
The dock referred to was not injured in
any wise by the storm, nor was it exposed
to any violent sea, and is now standing in
tact. The so-caIIed warehouse by the
dock, was small frail structure sided with
rough boards, anl- was not and could not
be, affected by the sea, but was blown over
by the wind. And had the building stood
in the middle of Minnesota prairie, and
been Frustrated by like wind, the incident
would have had just as much to do with
any question Of the merits of Superior har-
Dor, as the actual casualty in question has.
Mr.. Howenstein who lives on Minnesota
Point, near the dock, informs us that pro
baby the building would have stood
through the gale, as it has through many a
gale before, had it not been that this time
some of the siding was off on the windward
side, so that the wind had access to the
interior If "any vessels had happened to
be lying there, they would have been in
the lee of Minnesota Point, perfectly shell
terel. The Tribune adds:
1.-THE above we consider to be a couple Of rather
good notes the security afforded by the Superior
harbor"
This sufficiently discloses even to stran-
gers, the animus of the Tribune editor.
He is in pursuit Of " good notes'-not of
acknowledgements difficulties. He is an
old offender, whose statements concerning
Superior can scarcely prejudice us with
those who are acquainted with him, and
who therefore know his malign disposition
towards our town, and his habit of grossly
misrepresenting its affairs. l.
THE SUPERIOR ENTRY ~ THE STORM
The old adagc that "misery loves COM
pany'' was never so exemplifed as 1t has
been by the baretaced and groUndless state
... L.. l,,-r ,r,oroto3 from, Dulrltb