Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1873-01-30

BY Mr Young: Petition of citizens
of Mecklenburg county for liquor law
similar to the 'sAdair Law" of Ohio.
.1ssz~a..za-=.-4n.-.=.-.-n--.
TIE TERRIBLE Stern III MINNESOTA.
DRIED LIVES LosT-DE1FFs HIGHER
THAN noUsEs-BABIEs FROZEN STARK
AT THEIR MOTHERS BREASTS.
Correspondence New York Herald
W1NoNA, MINI, January While
your eastern world on the verge of the
Gulf stream has been lifing the hands
of despair and voice Of protest over a
snowfall which made locomotion on foot
unpleasant and by horse cars impossible
for day OF two, and while the whole
country has been thrilling with horror
at the increma,ion Of a few hapless
workwomen in q timber box, up here,
on the shadeless and shelterless praries,
'sthere hath been wrought a deed OF
dreadful note" Human suffering which
parallels that endured by the fated
Franklin has been of hourly occurrence;
and lives have been taken as free as in
battle, but with attendant circumstances
infinitely more tragic than wait on the
parting of the soul which is rent from
the nangled flesh by shot or steel
Up to that fatal Tuesday, at whose
mention many a heart shall ache in
Minnesota for years to come, there had
been winter weather of the usual sort
clear, cold, with occasional storms OF
snow, some Of which had seriously
blockaded the railroads and induced
considerable suffering from scarcity OF
fuel. The epizooty had for some time
laid an embargo on travel. Our great
northwestern country must not be con
sidered to be like Canada, land OF
hills and valleys, thickly clad with
pine forests. A great lakeland, OF
considerable altitude, lying open to the
winds, that sweep down from the North
ern Sea at intervals. Icy as the breath
of death, with an occasional tree, a
semi-occasional club of trees, or still
rarer belt of forest along 9 a water course
and an atmosphere dry and rare-such
is the Northwest. 1t is largely settled
by immigrants from Scandinavia, poor
and thrifty folk; whose wooden houses
stand singly OF in little .hamlets, mark
ing the prairie at every few miles. The
country is fertile, and in summer smiles
as the garden Of the Lord but in
winter it presents bleak face Of snow
to a cloudless blue sky.
Tuesday the 18th was a lovely and
mild day. The sun was bright and the
all balmy. Every pulse of the country
was astir under the genial Influence, and
the wild swans that changed overhead
once or twice from their meres must
have seen the prairie roads alive with
teams. The farmers were all out at the
nearest settlement. They were getting
short Of fuel; there was but a handful
of -four at the bottom of the barrel, not
a scrap Of meat was left. But the
SHOWS had ceased, their shaggy little
horses were well again, so every farmer
hitched his team for the town. In the
little cottages Of wood were women
and children the schoolhouses were
full of dwellers, when the blow fell.
Nature would seem to have arrogated
to herself all the savage attributes
which had marked her first children
there, their careful and patient watch
for an easy opportunity, and their
sudden and relentless onslaught.
At Winebago City there were sixty
teams assembled; scores were at New
Ulm All along from Albert Lea and
Blue Earth, by Window, Mankato,
clear up to Breckenridge, Belle Prairie
and Duluth, the people were scattered,
delivered into the hands of the storm.
Between - and o'clock on Tuesday
the sky turned livid, the sun became
merely dull brazen ring, the south
wind choppedround rapidly and became
cold, and in very few minutes was lad
Ell with fine frozen snow drift that stung
like shower of needles. So utterly
unprepared were the people for the
change in the weather, and SO sudden
ly did it it come upon them, that one
man at Winnebago City describes it as
''if man clapped his hands-so, and
the snow came in our faces. Knowing
what this hurricane BODIED, men leaped
into their sleighs, and with voice and
lash urged their cover horses out into
the storm Then the work Of death be-
gan. For more than fifty hours, till
late on Thursday, the freezing wind and
falling snow continued. 1t was not a
steady fall Of snow, but.
A ROWLING HURRICANE,
The wind sometimes attaining speed
Of twenty eight, thirty, or thirty two
miles. The snow came in fitful tiurl'ies,
with wild screech and a singing
whiz The thermometer fell steadily
till; at Champlain, it registered fifty
four degrees below zero. At other
places the mercury or spirit marked
from eight to forty-two< degrees below
Some of tie farmers who set out soon
found that if they valued life they must
tttrif' back. They were enveloped in
sheets Of snow that blinded them The
wind came so fercely that they were
fain' to stop and turn round till NOM
antary hill came. The poad-Why. the