The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1873-05-08
HEBRASKA'S GREAT APRIL SNOW
.a STORM.
= .-g''. -. +. =, :
How It Struck Dakota.
GRAPHIC ACCOUNT.


Ihe storm came on as suddenly as
Inc great hurrlcsre Of January. The
ky grew pale, then d,rker ed to an
sainous yellowlsh gray. The rain
grew colder, then turned to elect, then
70 SHOW, which fell lightly till noon.
Then tho wind strengthened and shift
ed by one o'clock it was blowing half
q gale from the northwest; half an
hour later it was hurricane, blowing
from the north.
As the wind grew stronger the air
became black with snow. I say black
Tor 90 o,her word will ad-
"quately express the impression left BY
that storm. The heavens were still
dome arched upon the reeling ring of
.be horizon, but the canopy was no
longer Of steely blue silver. 1t was
SKY Of tea.lead, bounded, when one
caugkt glimpse of it, by livld ring.
ln the midst was an unnatural smear Of
Debulous, white light. That was the
sun. The snow no longer fell in fakes.
The little needles, which at first had
been driven tiDgling against the face,
and tinkIing against the glass, had CIV
en- place to large, bIotchy fakes, which
were not too heavy to be driven furi-
ousiy before tie wind. But these, 10
turn, had yielded to such gigantic
splashes of soow as may fall in the
realm Of Rrobdlngnag. There were ir-
regular wreaths, patches aud aggresa-
tions of snow, which could be fairly
likened to nothing SO much a, an at
mosphere full of white bats and cotton
wool. The prevailing impression was
that of mass of snow tumbled from
the clouds upon the earth, not in cubic
blocks, but in sheets of vast lineal area.
it was this snow fall which really
blackened the air and covered the
ground knee deep with the speed of
thought.
These great winding sheets Of snow
we're taken by the wind, which was
blowiog at the lowest estimate seventy
miles an hour, sometimes attaining
velocity of one hundred miles.
At midday it was dark as Egypt.
The few people who we're caught out of
doors groped and guessed their difficult
way. The man who held cut his hand
c,u'd not see it at the length cf his
own arm. Buildings we're invisible
till one ran against them and looking
up saw a prayer shadow ir the gray
storm. The sun was towerless to dis
perse or ,ghten this Cimmerlan gloom,
nut at times he threw slcky light up
on the storm, which had most weird
effect.
Within the houses, after one o'clock,
candles aud lamps bad to be lit to OBJ
tain light. People gathered around the
tables aud stoves, giving Que az idea OF
nothing so much as Of group of pas
epgers during storm 10 a steamers
cabin below the " .ter line.
One only CONSOLATION and mitigation
there was in the stlm. The snowfall
aud wind were not aite;.dtd d by the in
tense cold which, had marked the
storm OF January 8lh. Had it not
been so We should probably have had
to chronicle death roll wherein the
nan es were written by hundreds.
Those thirtJ- tx hours Of storm, Of
sunless day, star'es> Light, nothing but
driving SLOW aud bowling wind, were
as long as ages. Those who had at
fist realized the danger of the hurri-
cane, whose horses we're stabbed and
who had secured private quarters, could
form no idea of what their comrades en-
dured. The total loss of horses will
probably foot up to 100 head. But for
the good fortune by witch General
Custar obtained large store wherein
he stabbed 800 horses, his oopmand
would have been entirely disnouoted.
The men suffered as severely. Tho
tents we're all blown down and torn,
SO they we're without shelter, and food
they had none. 1t seemed lmpossibl,
to stay in the camp in that hurricane ;
to leave the camp was certain Death
Some of the men did not realize this,
and undertook to reach the city, trust
ing to the wind to guide then, igno-
rant that the xind had shifted treach.
erously and now blew from the north.
What became OF these men, or how
many Of them there we're who thus sur
rendered their one chance of life, it is
as yet impossible to say. The muster
roll shows that many are missing.
OF the extent of the storm in this
thinly settled "elshborhood and its ef-
fects in so far as loss of lite is concern.
ed it will be impossible to say for weeks.
All agree that such storm was never
before seen on the Missouri. General
Custar's long experience Oh the plains
fails to record hurricane Of such VIC.
lence The railroad to Sioux City has
been blocked up by impossible drifts,
10 which the two trains that left here
and Sioux City 90 Sunday night are
still prisoued. Telegraphic conmuni-
cation even has been suspended.
RELATIVE LONGEVITY OF THE
SEXES.