The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1873-05-15
The Great Snow Storm !!
THE HURRICANE IN NEBRASKA.
aoss oFEsFE AND PROPERTY.
THRILLING ACCOUNT OF THEsToRM.

OMAHA, NEB, April 2l-Those who
judge of the climate of this section of
country by It's position on the map would
be surprised to feel the keen dry wind
which rises on these high plains iu mo-
ment and furnishes taste of the pole
with tropical surroundings But this
wind of the plains is q matter of course,
and people are prepared for it. Not so
such a visitation as that OF Sunday, Mon
day and Tuesday, the 18th, 1lth aud
| 10Th A storm of snow which is un
paralleled in well authenticated local his
tory, coming after particularly we'll
developed spring and almost on the hires
hold OF speedy summer, is an event for
which no preparation can be made and
no satisfactory reason provided. For
forty odd hours a wind blew strongly and
steadily, frequently with velocity Of
seventy miles an hour 1t sufficcd to
carry houses bodily from their fuunda-
tons, 10 Overturn walls of solid stone to
blow cars from the track and land them
beyond the ditches which drain the
emhaGkmeats on either side. The snow
fell IN sheets and masses, actually bridg-
ing over considerable rivers, and making
at nooDday an Egyptian darkuess-a
darkness which could be felt. The rail
read cuttings we're blocked up with masses
Of snow and ice, aud so penetrating was
the wind and so fne the drift at times
that passengers within the cars, the doors
and windows being locked, were covered
with Z snowy powder that forced its way
in through the wood work and round the
window casiugs so rapidly that the panels
inside seemed to be smoking 10 4 shoulder
ing confdgrati0n.
The snow lall did not present less
remarkable aspect in the matter Of in
teusiiy. 1t not only swallowed up and
destroyed all land marks, but drew before
the places where they had been so thick
a veil that the keenest eye could not have
distinguished them at rod distance =
ut Scandinavia the night was 40 darker
than the day. For the two days that the
storm ragged the storm bound residents
could pot see the hitchng posts or garden
fences which were only twelve feet from
the windows. Strong men who were
visiting or had gore TO the postoffice,
failed to distinguish the way home, and
found them, till lis fury was assuaged,
thus adding intolerably to the anguish o!
their families, who feared them buried
under the mountainous drifts Residents
round the public square could nor, be
tween the binding drifts aud the violent
wind, reach the cistern in its midst,
though the distance was less than twenty
rods, and SO we're forced to melt snow for
water.
At Hastings people were forced to take
refuge in their cellars and burrow there
like rats for the snow drifted in through
the walls of the houses and formed piles
round every article of furniture At
Grand Island, when the chimueys became
cboked with snow so that fire were impos-
sible, whole families went to bed in their
clothing and remained there for two or
three days, without fuel, food or water
At Gibbon twenty-five men, most of whom
had gone thither to open lodge of Odd
Fellows, were coOped up in small house
from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday
Doon, unable even to open the door At
Lone Tree man named Burton, who had
gone to the wood shed to bring ia some
fuel for his family, found it impossible
to return, aud had to remain there from
Monday morning till Tuesday night. Al
! Bclievillc German named Koch is said
to have eroped his way from his house to
TIE yard for wood but to have been over
powered by the snow and wind and never
to have returned. His wife, rendered
desperate by bis absence, at last yentured
ooG r. L. l. =!
fortunately, brought up at the stable,
where she remained from Tuesday morn.
ing till the same night, her two children,
oBe three and the other nine, beiug left
10 the house all alone.
The brute creation suffered terribly
Those that were corralled or out on the
plains were suHocated by the snow those
that were n stables went mad with famine
aud thirst Even the wild birds, to whom
the storm is a parent aud playmate, were
overpowered. At Wood river praire hens
were found under the snow so bcuumbed
that they could neither hy nor run, aud
giving no tokens of life when men took
them up and handled them, save by the
pulsation Of their scared hearts and the
upward plaDcc Of their inquiring eyes
, At Grand Island they were picked up bj
dozens, dead, little Jumps of ice and
touzIed feathers. At Stevenson The
residents found birds that had broker
their necks aud wings against the houses
, aud barns in the blind terror Of thei
: airlless flight, flung by The hurrican,
+ ike stones from a sling. At Lone Tree
5 almost every hog in blockade caitl,
train was lost The weakest were troddei
under foot and ren by the stronger. Man,
more were sufocated
The loss of stock on The plains mus
: be immense probably half of TIT
!. unsbeltcred cattle have been saffocate,
G or drowned Some herds stampeded il
6 the panic caused by the first gale lhei