The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1880-03-27
If not paid in advance, $1.25.

degrees DeloW zero, ana u don't take long u
freeze man in such wind the cold wen
right to my-bones; it seemed an age acros
that ice. All at once began to get warn
and saw green fields and flowers and sun
shine. saw great fields of corn and wheat
with sun shinin' all over them; then the
horses dashed against something, the sled
stopped and heard voices, and then was
insensble.
"When l came to was lying before the
fire. | didn't know where l was; the last
thing remembered it was summer. But
when saw them all crying and the horses
standing in the house with the harness on,
then knowed.
81 wasn't a praying man, but we all knelt
down and prayed, and them horses held
down their heads and seemed to Join in. !
wasn't rich, but them horses never done no
hard work after that.
"What was strange about II was why
they didn't 60 to the stable instead of the
house. Had they gone to the stable or stop
ped within ten feet of the door I'd never
told you this story. joined the church
next spring and have been a praying man
ever since"
"Have you ever been caught since ?" l
asked.
"No; l studied the weather since that
day and can generally tell when they are
cummin'"
IL
earnest, and my friend told me he was not
given to exaggeration, and that he had no
doubt but what the storm was even worse
than he had made it out.
| was to learn even more than the old
mans story told me, for that afternoon we
had a blizzard.
The wind shpok the house to its founda-
tions; the fine snow came through every
crevice, filling bed, cupboard and closets. l
was bound to go out, and when my friend
found there was no holding me, he tied
clothes line around my body, with the knot
behind and slipped through the door.
1t did not take me long to feel the terror
of the storm. 1t was impossible to see, the
fine needle-like snow filled the eyes the
moment you opened them; and even if you
could have kept them open the snow was so
thick you could not distinguish house a
rod away. had pulled fur cap down far
over my head. 1t was suddenly twitched
off as though done by an unseen hand. The
wind came from all directions, and my cap
was afterwards found driven up under the
caves of the barn, which was west of the
house, and the storm came out of that quar-
ter. was soon glad to get back, and found
that the snow had pierced through to the
skin, and that an entire change of under
clothing was necessary.
Although this storm only lasted about
twenty-four hours, the roads were impossible
for light sleghs for a week.
1t was in this storm that Mr.. Stordock, an
old and well-known settler of Northwestern
Minnesota, was caught.
He attempted to go to a neghbor's house,
but half mile distant, but was caught, got
lost and wandered out ON the prairie. After
the storm ceased travelling man came across
him just as he had found the road his head
ana shoulders were covered with ice, his
nose frozen and broken, both his hands solid
and his legs frozen to the knees. lie press
ed Stordock to get in with him, but he said
he would die at once if he stopped moving.
He started for a house in sight and fell before
reaching it. Fortunately he was seen and
brought in. He is still alive, but both legs
have been amputated, and he will probably
lose both hands.
A responsible gentleman told me that he
was in lawyers Office in quite Il promi-
nent town in the State, and at MONDAY he
started with the lawyer to 60 to his house to
dinner.
1t was so warm they left their overcoats
in the office. While at dinner a storm be. |
gan-high wind accompanied by sleet-they !
lit their segars and concluded to wait till it |
was over. 1t was three days and three nights |
before they left the house-the great blizzard |
of '73 had broken over the country.
In a few hours the thermometer was way
below zero. The house was brick, with |
double windows, built expressly to resist the .
inclemency of the weather, yet the air in |
the room was filled with fine snow and no
one could tell where it came in. From the |
upper rooms the snow had to be carried !
down in baskets. No one left the house un-
less they had a rope around them.
The principal physician was called on'by
a man who lived seven miles in the country, |
soon after the storm began. His wife was
about to be confined and he insisted on the .
doctor going out with him. The doctor, an
old settler, refused and tried to keep the man,
but he left with a curse. As soon as the
storm was over he took two men and they
broke their way to the house. Within 100
yards of the door they found the man and
horse partly buried in the snow and frozen
solid in the house they found wife and
mother with new born babe clasped to her
breast.
She too, had seen bright fields and sun
shine, for a smile was on her rigid face, and
the ico king had dressed her and her babe in
a shroud more beautiful than ever worn by
prince or princess for they Wore both cover
ed with crystalline ice which sparlIled and
scintillated in the morning sun that shonc
through the uncurtained window.
In the same town butcher shop, built of
brick had its door forced open few inches;
the snow filled it to the very roof aud it took
weeks to remove it with pick. One town
in hollow was completely covered.
Three miles from another, on the main
road, five teams and eight men were found
frozen. The front team was standing in the
harness as if aliye and the driver still sat ON
the seat with the reins in his hand and
pipe in his mouth.
l could carry this on for pages and tell of
many wonderful escapes and of frightful
suffering but it is not necessary. | have
merely written this to tellmy Eastern friends
what a blizzard ia like