The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1873-05-15

members were scattered. over the plains
some tumbled into ravines aud broke
their necks or legs, being killed outright
or disabled to linger till they died OF
hunger or sufocation others blundcred
into rivers and we're drowned others
roamcd about till they were exhausted
and lay down painting and sobbing. to be
covered ten ieet deep by snow before
they died for lack of air.
Among the fatal accidents recorded,
the most terrible was one which occurred
at BellcviIle, in Republic county, $50
miles west Of Atchison. A prairie fire
swept over the country on Saturday. the
day preceding the storm, destroying many
buildings and a great deal of grain
Among the dwellings barnt was that of a
Mr. Crane. He was bsent at Atchison,
but his wife aud four children were in
the house. They escaped with their
lives and the clothes they wore and took
refuge with neighbor named Burnett.
Next day, from a sea of fire the land was
a desert of snow The two families
sought refuge in the cellar, fearing lest
the house should be carried away The
storm drove in the solid stone gable as
man might drive in the side o! paste
board box with his fist The structure
tumbIed into the cellar. Mrs. Burnett
being very badly crushed Ga Monday
morning her husband veutured out for
assistance Ere he returned the floors,
bending beneath the incumbent weight
of tons Of snow, fell in as a dead fall trap
tumblcs on the prey, Mrs. Burnett aud
her three children were killed instantly !;
so were Mrs. Crane aud two of her little
ones Two others of the four survived,
though terribly mapgied, but one died a
few minutes after he had been extricated.
OF the ten inmates only one little girl
survived. The child said, amid her sobs,
I'VE were all crying together, and then
the house tumbled so (clapping her little
hands), and that was all"
At BelIevllc several other buildings
were wrecked by the storm, though no
other lives were lost At Gibbon a snow
drift forty feet high is the cenotaph which
marks where house once was inhabited
by a newly married couple, till the wind
in q moment made ruin of the house and
corpscs Of the bride and groom. At Scau-
dinavia -four mill, SO by 40, was moved
bodily about four feet from its foundation
and tilted all askew 1t looks like a stiff
hat Knocked all aslant by violent contact
with beam. Near by a stone stable was
blown down, the roof being carried across
the yard aud flung upon carriage house.
At Grand Island the wind blew in the
/ g
and lifted off the roof as if by the
explosion of barrel Of gunpowder,
though not pane Of glass ia the sides of
the house was cracked.
Among the many cases of death report
ed some are OF a peculiarly narrowing or
extraordinary character At Cawker four
bodies were found, one in front CT house,
and so near the fence that the gate, when
opened, smote against his corpse. At
Lone Tree servant in tavern went into
the yard for wood, CROPPED his way into
the road, and died. Those who went out
to seek in lull Of the storm stumbled
over a body within forty yards of the
house. 1t was not that Of the boy they
sought, but of trapper, whose woodcralt
had not availed to guide him few steps
further to safety. At Hastings farmer
named Marshall went to feed his cattle
The barn was about 200 feet from the
house, directly in the rear, but the snow
was over the fences, and he wandered to
one side and was sufocatcd. At Grand
Island two men were lost in Il drift about
thirty feet apart.
At Red Cloud Mrs Bent and her child
tried TO grope their way to the next house,
the wind and the snow having rendered
their own untenabe. Five days after the
two bodies were found in the road less
than fifty yards from the refuge they
sought. The child had given way first,
and the mother died beside it. Near
Tebama they found an unknown man,
with dog keeping watch over the dead
body. At Grafton Mr. Keeer, his wife
and child tried to reach ucighbor' s
house They struggled Ont was only
half mile-the fecblcr ones tired and
sat down to rest, ''it felt so warm" Only
a minute, they said a childless widower
strove desperately through the drifts and
reached the house, leaving all who bore
bis name buried in the highway. st
Chapman 8 a woman is said to have left
her two children in the house while she
went for wood, and never to have re
turned. The children only know that
she ''wcnt oct there" aud they waited
and cried so long and SO hard
The New Law of Pennsylvania.