Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-09-29
THE DROuTH OF 1919.
n season when There Was No IsaiM
From June to January.

n season when There Was No Rain
From June to January.
Frankfort Letter TO Louisville Courier Journal.
At Pleasant Hill convorsed with an
intelligent and piou5 Shaker, who held
to the doctrine of final perseverance, in
his undying faith in the goodness OF
God, IN not suffering total failure of
crops to occur. He was young man
in 1919, the year of the Great
Drouth,' when from early summer to
the middle Of January there was no
rain, when the mir was hot and dry,
when the clouds refused to form and
be condensed into showers, when the
dew-point was not seen, when the stag
nant pools of water in the creeks and
branches became so thoroughly car
BOMBED and masmilerous that the cat
tie died, and all vegetation was utterly
parched up and apparently destroyed.
During that terrible drouth the cattle
became afflicted with the "hot-weather
itch,' and thousands died, literally
tearing the skin from their sides and
backs in their frantic efforts to scratch
themselves to relieve the intolerable
itching. Deer and horses died with
black tongue; fowls and birds became
listless and stupeiied, moped in despair,
lost their plumage, and died in utter
misery. Men, women, and children
grew sick with disappointed hopes for
the healing showers, drinking the foul
carbonizcd wafer and eating dusty
food, and many died of dis
ease not known before or
since Maddened with the intolerable
itch and frantic with eating the dry and
deslccated grass, deprived of all nutri-
tive elements by the long drouth, the
cattle, sheep, and horses roamed over
the fields and through the forests,
moaning and bowling, or paving the
earth in impotent rage. Added to
these horrors, the fields and forests
took fire and burned for weeks and
months. The ri, was filled with smoke
and ashes, producing another horror in
the shape Of some form of ophthaimia
that was almost intolerable
Fresh vegetables were soon exhaust
ed, the cattle were too diseased to be
used for losd, water was scarce and UNI
fit TO drink, fires were raging, and the
whole population afflicted with disease
in some shape. This state of things
lasted until Inc middle of January,
when the blessed rain and the really
beautiful snow came and saved the
country from utter humiliation.
The gentle Shaker had feared that
such another dread season was begin
nipg chat the water was again becom-
ing carbonized and impregnated with
deleterious earthly salts and other con-
stituents from dead insects, aphidians,
baatrachians, infusoria, and rotton
mammalia. At this very time the
good Shaker did not know that horses
and cattle were dying in some parts of
Illinois With a disease similar in many
respects to that he described in SO
graphic manner and starting under
circumstances so similar.
! felt really alarmed at his vivid des-
criptions of the "hot-weather itch"
from a personal knowledge Of the raw
ages perpertrated upon the human
hand by the bite of n single mosquito.
His description Of the erysipelat-
Gus black tongue was equally distress
ing, and ] shall never forget his terse
and forcible language rs he depicted
these horrors. He ws.s slblimely elo-
queBt without an effort, IN his quiet
way, and if ] could impsri his manner
to the paper on which | write, it would
produce rare reading for the Courier
Journal.
a recent letter from White Noun
tain hotel gays "a pretty waiter-girl
from here is now the wife Of one Of the
first men in this state The gentleman
was first attracted by the pretty face,
and next by her capacity for feeding
him Girls who want husbands should
remember this circumstance; when
they find IA hungry man, set good food
before him, and nine chances out Of
ten he will be lovingly inclined at the
end Of the repast,"
Schemp bought big, savage dog,
tied the beast behind the bar in his
saloon, and gave notice that the first
man who drank without payment
would be bitten. The dog almost killed
the first impecnnious drlnkard on
whom he was let loose, and thereby
ruined instead Of helping the businegs,
for his owner must pay s., 600 damages.
Archbishop Purcell is gradually grow
,,1, ,,.aa,,or nnJ hos yc,u en- tn hold