New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-02-19
SEVERE WINTERS IN EUROPE.

Massachusetts Ploughma,s.
SEVERE WINTERS IN EUROPE.
What passes in England and Cont
mental Europe for ga severe winter
would be regarded in the Northern
States and Canada as comparatively
mild and open season. "FOrty-six
degrees of frost,'' as the London papers
shiveringly putt when recalling the
hard winter of 1860, lose much of their
Importance when translated into our
"14 below Zero" and, since the in
vention of the thermometer, it is
doubtful if the mercury has gone in
England below 20 deg. Memorable
severe winters there have been in Eu-
rope, not q few of which have had
interest in history. In 401 the Black
Sea is said to have been frozen over for
twenty days, AID between October, 763,
and February, 764, such a frost pre-
vailed at Constantinople that the seas
are spoken of as frozen for hundred
miles from shore. It is certain that
two centuries before, in $50, Zabergan,
King of the Huns, crossed the Danube
on the ice, and, routing the troops of
Justinian, spread over Thrace to the
very walls of Constantinople, this being
the first incursion of the Bulgarians,
who are next week to choose Prince
and regain their autonomy. In 1922 ice
covered the Hellespont. In 1894 the
Cattegat was frozen over; in 1928 the
Baltic was passable to travellers for SIX
weeks; again in 14O2 it was frozen from
Pomerania to Denmark, and TWEEN
ty-four winters later its surface
would bear rider. from the Lubbock to
the shore of Prussia. In 1860 horsemen
rode from Denmark to Sweden, and in
1913 sledges drawn by oxen travelled on
the sea from Rostock to Denmark. In
1868 Charles X. with his army, horse
and foot, and his artillery trains and
baggage, crossed the Little Belt from
Holstein to Denmark, to lay siege to
Copenhagen. The German chronicles
contain as many records of severe sea-
sons. In 1883 the large fowls of the air
sought shelter in the towns of Germa-
many; in 1863 and again in 1914 wine
merchants in Flanders cut their wines
champagne frappe with vengeance,
only champagne was still thing
corked up and wired in the bottle of
the future-with hatchets and sold them
in Jumps. In 1865 the lazy Scheldt
was frozen so hard that it sustained the
weight of loaded wagons; again, in
1891, it and the Rhine were frozen over;
in the great cold of 1922 the Zuyder
Zee was ce-bound, and in 1851 the win
ter brought the wolves into the streets
OF Vienna, where they attacked horses
and even men.
The cold seasons Of modern Eno]and
have been most carefully noted. with
an abundance of interesting details.
On Midsummer Day, 1885, it is said
that the frost DESTROYED all the fruits of
the, earth: in lO76-7.after the period
Of forty-one years that the writer in the
SGardeney,,s Chrouscle has been figuring
out there we're dreadful frosts from
November. to A bril-. and in l4O7 all tie
small birds nIerished. The Thames was
frozen from London Bridge 70 Graves
end, from Nov. ri, 1894, till Feb. 10.
1435. and in 1515-after the long cycle
of eighty wears had been fulfif1ed-it
was again crossed by vehicles between
Lambeth and Westminster. In 1864
and 1907 the river was the scene If
boniires and diversions. elaborately de-
scribed on later occasions by writer's
whose passages ere as familiar to En-
glish readers of this day as the stories
of the Great Plague and Great Fire.
Some Shakespearean commentators
think thew have found in this unwonted
sight of fire uDon ice the Source of tho
Inspiration of some of the Bard Of Avon's
images. and would usc this as cvidcnce
Ia settle Tho ,latc of tho con,nos;t;on 1T
O .,,.r ,rho u,;,+o, oes1coa \
r;t,l,, o,>,j .Tho foua,t tsaoa ."S % 49,. TO-
Two ooI,s sn,;t ~ Us" $500 w..
NJ tho h6,l;os woro LIZA. tho
Thon,ns vvas novo,aI WITH nc o,,, 80.
:., nis'nos VS. oosoicu WIN ice eieveh
'Ao.eS .a! :; "4M noaily au InC olrus
p p,:s;a,a = ny lrost, ACCORDING 10
t a.c1.l1ehs u'ary' began IN inc oe-
Eneu..Is, ~ .'e ~, ~ uo.. peop!o
Kept :, trades On the Thames as in fair
da;,.. 49,, - - AnT Ta aort coaohes
1"nd R.'Hrht ~; s" ba : 1919: - u.y
.anG. Doatsn. .l:s 1oos ~ snop upon
i ~, 80, ,.e ~. .'le t. 11na Va tne iha.Ies
~ .uG ~,n'et % :1o9 enere was 4 tnree-
,1,c =, ;iose' WIN l heavy snow ana IN
laao .aii was heio ON the thames ana
v .U "eie fo S: Wno, H upon inc ice.
y, oo'olts p''e!' !Iotn westminster 20
S'le, Aen'pIe' anu IRON o'her stalrs 10
al" Ito as III Inc streets' so that 1t
seeAneu w nao . naocnanaiian triumph
Ut o carhlsaI on the water' WINE It was
i 81 ths slnen' on tne lana: ASan'
III t1e famous naru winter OF Lao,
Tha,nes " v,h ,'n 9aat.d 1i4s. lar On tne