The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1880-02-18
prairie fire quicker'n livin' through a
January blizzard" ~. AA''-% 4.
ktFTt,1f -, olo1,,e L.. y

pralrie 1re qulcker'n Twin through
Jinuary blizzard" AAs,-% a
Tell us about 'em."
"The fust one I ever!witnessed,
said the old man as he held up the
stumps-ot his missing fingers, wal
down TON ebraska close to the west
line. / had a ranch and was well
fixed. The livin' room for me and
three herders was about twenty feet
squai', withla big stove in the mid
die. On the 4th of January, 1853,
there wasn't flake of snow on the
ground, and at o'clock in the after
noon it was warm enough TO 90 in
my shirt sleeves. Half an hour be-
fore the sun went down the sky was
clear and blue. | stood looking off
at the herd of horses, feelin' as
though wanted to go bar'fut, when
all to once shiver climed over me.
1t was as if ice-water had been
poured down my back. Thar was a
moanin' roarin' sound away to the
westward, another SILVER, and in a
mint it was dark and the blizzard
had come. Quicker than / can tell
you the sky turned black, night set
in, and mountains of snow came
booming along before a gale blowing
mighty miles an hour" r
"Well "said some one as the old
man paused. ,s. ma .,sq.
"Wall, there she was The biz
zard was born in the Rockies. She'd
whirled round and round, gettin'
stronger and stronger every mint,
lifted herself out Of some awful can
yon, tore along the crags and peaks,
and finally tumbled down on the
level and started eastward, mad as a
grizzly and as powerful as a million
runaway horses. Them three herd.
ers weren't half mile away, and all
mounted, but yet only one reached
the cabin. The other two were
struck as dumb and numb as if hit
with cannon balls, and they weren't
out of their saddles mint before
they were covered with SIX inches of
srow."
"Must have been cold"
"Coldl Mebbe it wasn't 1
didn't have no thermometer to look
at, but | didn't want one. Our jug
of whisky troze solid and split the
Jug in ten minutes. Every board
IN the ranch popped and cracked
with cold. Il We had a big stove, but
the fuel was mostly under big she'd
fifty feet away. l thought to go
after. a load, but as / opened the
door fell back .asssf .ten thousand
Printers, Publishers, and the 1rauo -sss-
needles hau teen gftntlI MY tbs.
That one breath of the blizzard tioze
my nose and ear" '
"And you were out of fuel ?"
ayes, in half an hour, I burned up
stools, benches, table and all else that
would burn, but after midnight the
fire went out. Then lost my toes
FROST bitten even when was dane
ing over the floor. Ours was tight
cabin, and yet there was a foot OF
snow on the floor before daylight.
The awful wind drove it through
every crevice. Did you ever hear
the gale which goes with the biz
gard? Well, you'll face a cannon
sooner than hear it a second time. 1t
ragged and raved like giant in chains,
and it struck down every living thing
it came to. All at once it would
stop blowing for a half mint, and
the stiffness would be awful. Then
I'd hear sighin' and a groanin' afai
, off. as if poor, lost children were cry,
in for home. Then the groanln
would change to a screech-the
screech to wild shrek, and the gale
would whirl round and round the
cabin as if bound to lift it from the
earth in its teeth. That gale knocked
over trees hundred years old, ano
rolled rocks weighing a thousand
tons down upon the level"
"And about your stock? ?"
"When that blizzard struck my
ranch ! had 200 cattle and 2,O0(
sheep, and about 500 horses, all alive
and kickin'. 1t died away about
daylight, and after an hours work
we got out Of the cabin through the
snow. Far as the eye could reacf
all was a dead level. Clutches, ra
vines and dips had been filled VI
with from five to thirty feet OF snow
Every horse, sheep and steer mac
gone down in his tracks 70 die ant
be coffined in white, and we two
trost-bitten and frozen, were nifty
miles from any white man. DON
sheer at a blizzard You'd bette
meet thousand she tigers "