Middletown transcript., 1880-02-07
GNlisrllanrous.
WHAT .BLIZZARD" Is.
A Graphic Description by One who Knows
Whereof de Speaks.

COiAGS lu' l. VIC cIUOh hdhOS hl'AA OhS
or two billiards, and here's the affi-
davies to prove it p
He crew off his boots. Three toes
were missing from the right foot, and
the big toe alone remained on the
left. Two fingers were gone from the
left hand, one ear shriveled out Of
shape, and his nose seemed to have no
life in it. He was a rough-looking
old chap, and he was warming his heels
on the steam-pipe in the cabin Of a
ferry boat along with several other
passengers.
"Well, what is a blizzard ?" asked
one Of the crowd as the old man pull
ed on his boots.
Whats the weather here to-day p
1.-TWO below"
well, you add FIVE or six degrees
of cold to it, take off your clothes and
walk around for three hours, and
you'll have slight comparison. A
blizzard hain't 'zactly a two.edged
sword nor bullet, but it lives next
door to 'em. You'd better twice over
be cotched in tornado. I'd take the
chance of outrunning a prairie fire
quicker'n livin' through a Jinuary
blizzard.
"Teil US about 'em."
"The fust one ever seed" said the
old man as he held up the stumps of
his missing fingers, "war down in Ne
braska, close to the west line. | had
rancho and was well fixed The
livin' room for me and three herders
was about twenty feet squar'
with big stove in the middle. On
the 4th day of January, 1859, there
wasn't fake Of snow on the ground,
and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon it
was warm enough to go in my shirt
sleeves. Half an hour before the sun
went down the sky was clear and blue.
| stood lookin off at herd Of horses.
feelin' as if / wanted to go bar'fu
when all to once shiver climbed over
me. It was as II iUE.Water iIai been
poured down my back. Thar was a
moanin', roarin' sound away TO the
westward, another shiver, and next
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 come boomin
along before a gale blowing eighty
miles an hour?'
"Well p said some one as the old
man paused.
"Wall, there she was. That biz
zard was born in the Rockies. She'd
whirled round aud round, gettin'
every mint, lifted herself out
of some awful canyon, tore along the
crags and peaks, and finally tumbled
down on the level and started east
ward, mad as grizzly and powerful
as million runaway horses Them
three herders weren't half mile
away, and all mounted, but yet only
one reached the cabin. The other two
we're struck as dumb and numb as if
hit with cannon balls, and they weren't
out of their saddles mint before they
v ere covered with six inches of snow"
"Must have been cold y
"Cold! Mebbe it wasn't! I didn't
have no thermometer to look at, but
didn't want one. Our jug Of whisky
froze solid and split the jug in ten
minits. Frost settled on the taller
candle within an inch Of the light.
Ever, board in the ranch cracked and
with cold. We had a big
stove, but the fuel was mostly under
a shed fifty feet away. | thought to
go after load, but as | opened the
door [ fell back as if ten thousand
needles had been fired into my face.
That one breath of the blizzard froze
my nose and ear"
"And you were out Of fuel ?"
eyes. in half an hour I burned up
stools, benches, table and all else that
would burn, but after midnight the
fire went out. ThenFI lost my toes
frost-bitten even when | was dancing
over the floor. Ours was tight cab
in, and yet there was a foot of snow
On the floor before daylight. The
awful wind drove it through every
erevice. Did you ever hear the gale
which goes with blizzard ?
Well, you'll face a cannon sooner
than hear it a second time. The wind
screamed louder than a locomotive
whistle. 1t ragged and raved like
giant in chains, and it struck down
very livin' thing it came 10. All at
,nce it would stop BLOWN for half a
mint, and the stiffness would be aw-
ul. TheD I'd hear a sighin' and
afar off, as if poor lost chill
lren were cryin' for home. Then the
sroanin would change to a screech-
he screech to a wild shrek, and the
,ale would whirl round and round
he cabin as if bound to lift it from
he earth in its teeth. That gale |
ynocked over trees hundred years
Id, and rolled rocks weighing a
housand tons down upon the level ?"
''And about your stock p
"When that blizzard struck my
anch had 500 cattle, 1000 sheep, |
md about 200 hosses, all alive and
,ickin'. 1t died away about day
light, and after an hours work we got
,ut Of the cabin and through the snow.
Far as the eye could reach all was a
lead level. Clutches, ravines and dips
lad been filled up with from FIVE to
hirty feet CT snow. Every horse,
heep and steer had gone down in his
racks to die and be coffned in white, /
nd we two, frostbitteu and frozen,
rere fifty miles from any white man.
Don't sneeT at a blizzard! You'd
,etter meet thousand she tigers r
Detroit Free Press.
A young lady who came in last
week to advertise for kitchen help |
aid with sigh and wiring Of her
lainty, gloved hands: "Oh do hope |
veil get one soon. For it does al
,1osf braak b INV boort IN 600 Tnofhor |