Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-02-24
Some Marvellous Cold Weather Yarns
Told Around Bar.r0Om Stove.

Some Marvellous Cold Weather Yarns
Told Around Bar.room Stove.
H1THERE's quite a litle snap IN the
atmosphere to- day, but when II cali to
mind q piece ofweather we had in 1859
this seems like a good day for picnic, -
said Sheriff Warren Ridgway, coming
into the. Chrissman House bar-room,
where a number of the boys were gath
cred around the stove. discussing the
weather.. 1t was one of the recent cold
days, and the Thermometer On the front
porch registered twenty below.
ass Isnever knew until the next spring
how low the mercury did get that year, !"
continued the Sheriff 1--WE had Their
mometer big enough to keep account of
the weather for the whole State. Itwas
three feet long, and had bulb at the
bottom as big as turnip. We didn't
bother with degrees on that thermome-
ter. We always said it was so many
inches below or so many inches above
zero. The thermometer hung on an
apple tree in the garden at ourIOld place
on the sLackawack. In the spring of
1859 was spading up the garden.
Under this apple tree I struck vein of
quicksilver. thought I'd uncovered a
mine of the stuff, and says to myself,
This ends the lumber business
calls the old gentleman out and told him
I'd struck quicksilver mine, and that
when the company was formed to work
it T would take nothing less than Treas
urer of it. He didn't say anything, but
he looked at the quicksilver l had in my
hand, then at me, and then at the Their
mometer that hung on the tree. looked
at that, too. The bulb was bursted.
Then understood the situation. The
mercury had settled foot and a half
below zero on the thermometer. That
wasn't as low as the weather called for,
so it pushed the bottom out of the bulb,
went down three feet to the ground, and
dropped six inches under the surface
before it reached the level of the temp
erature. Don't go up along the Lacka-
wack and talk about the thermometer
being twenty degrees below zero, for
there are people up there yet w no re-
member our big thermometer and the
winter the mercury went five feet below
zero, and they'll laugh at YOU"
give always said that these little
thermometers we have nowadays ain t
no ACCOUNT said Billy Watson.
ssWhat chance has weather got on a
thermometer six or eight inches long,
anyhowi"
at don't have no chance at an" said
Peacock Brink. "Down t. my house,
where there amt no th'mometer to
bother with the weather, Ill bate it's
fifteen degrees colder'n tits up here"
Do you remember the winter that
Red. Drake was chased by a deer in the
Valley woods, and had a narrow escape
from death, all owing to the cold
weather." asked Pete Quick. "Cold as
it was, Red. was hunting. He shot a
big deer, and the deer got mad and took
after him. Red. dropped his gun and
made for tree. It was SO cold that the
breath from the deer's nostrils froze as
it shot out in streams of fog, and before
the deer reached Red. two pieces of ice,
fifteen inches long and two inches and a
quarter thick, stuck from the animals
snout like the tines of a pitchfork. Just
as Red. reached the foot of the tree the
deer caught him. One of the pieces of
ice went on one side of Drake and one
on the other. The tree was just big
enough to fit in between the ends of the
two prongs of ice and hold the deer
fast. There they were. Red. couldn't
move nor the deer couldn't move. The
deer's breath kept on freezing, and Red.
looked back over his shoulder and saw
ice forming all around him. He ex-
pected to be frozen to death. By and
BY, when the circle of ice had grown so
tight around him that it was hard for
him to breathe, he saw that the deer's
nose was being rapidly closed by the
forming ice. Here was his only hope.
If he could hold out until the breathing
of the deer was shut off he might es-
cape, for then the deer would die, and
in falling break the icy bonds. When
the ice had closed around Red. so that
he could only get breath about six
teenth of an inch in length, kerplunk
dropped the deer to the ground, dead
from suffocation, and Red. was free. On
any other day the wound that Red. gave
the deer would have killed it at once.
The ball went clean through the animal !;
but the holes froze up instantly on each
side, and the deer was a sound as ever. p"
81 guess none o. you fellers ever
herd o. the winter O. 1716, or you'd
keep leetle mum on the cold weather
question, ''said the Old Settler, who had
come down from Wayne County for a
little visit. give know'd some snortin'
Olu WlutcIS Al my oiuiOs buo my Siuh
fathers experience in the winter of 10
ruther beats anything o. mine.
FMy gran father were a great hunter
an Injin killer. He fit in the revolution,
all long the Del'war Valley. The win
ter o. '76 was terrible cold. Ev'rything
in these parts was friz up tighter'n a
snare drum. On one o. the coolest days
my gran struck the track o. some
Injins on the hills jest above here. He
follered 'em, an killed couple on 'em
an then started back over the ridge fur
his cabin. My gran father lived to be a
hundred year old, an to his dyin' day
he stuck to it that what I'm goin' to tell
you were ez true ez preachin', an ]
b,lieve it. He started back fur his cabin
over the ridge. He hadn't gone fur
when he shot wolf. He hadn't much
more'n fired his ole fint-lock when he
heerd a yell off to the left, an lookin'
that way see q big painter comm for
him. Painters was picnic for the old
man, an he rammed down big charge
| o. powder an reached fur his bullet