The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-02-25
Some Marvellous Cold Weather Yarns
Told Around Q Bar.room Stove.

Some Marvellous Cold Weather Yarn
Told Around . Bar-roem Stove.
"THERE's quite HA4ie snap il u
atmosphere to-day, but whenA1 call q
mind piece of weather we had in 1855
this seems like good day for picnic, .
said Sheriff Warren .RidgwaY.. coming
into the Chrisshah House bar-room,
where number of the boyt were gath.
cred around the stove, discussing the
weather. It was one of the recent cold
days, and the thermometer on the front
porch registered twenty below. 20 on
81 never knew until the next spring
how low the mercury did get that year, 81
continued the Sheriff. - IS Wshad q ther.
mometer big enough TO keep account Of
the Weather for the whole Ssate.S twas
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 sosmaHy inches above
zero. The thermometer hung on an
apple tree in the garden at our old place
on the Lackawack. In the spring of
1859 l 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 a quicksilver mine, and that
when the company was formed to work
it would take nothing less than Treas
eurer of it. He didn't say anything. but
he looked at the quicksilver. IS 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 I understood the situation. The
mercury had settled foot and . half
below zero on the thermometer. That
wasn't as low as the weather called for,
80 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 90 up along the Lacka-
wack and talk about the thermometer
being twenty degrees below zere, for
there are people up there yet who re-
member our big thermometer and the
winter the mercury went five feet below
zero, and they'll laugh at you"
"I've always said that these little
thermometers we have nowadays amt
no account" said Billy Watson.
~sWhat chance has weather got on q
thermometer six or eight inches long,
anyhow"
cit don't have no chance at all, - said
Peacock Brink SHOWN IT, my house,
where there amt no th'mometer to
bother with the weather, I'll bate it's
fifteen degrees colder'n it's up here
DO you remember the winter that
Red Drake was chased by deer in the
Valley woods, and had q narrow escape
from death, all owing to the cold
weather." asked Pete Quick. "Cold as
it was, Red. was hunting. He shot
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 . 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 moves The
-decr'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.
4 If he could hold vout until the breathing
of the deer was shut off he might es-
cape, for then the deef would die, and
in falling break the icy bonds. When
the ice had closed around Red. SO that
he could only get a breath about q six
-teenth of an inch in length, kerplunk
dropped the deer to the ground, dead
from suffocation, and Red. was Free On
auy other day the wound that Red. gave
the deer would have killed it at once.
Tue ball went clean through the animal !;
but the holes froze up instantly on each
side, and the deer was sound as ever, =
81 guess none o. you fellers ever
heerd O. the winter o., l776,. or you'd
keep sleetle mum on the cold weather
question: said the Old Settler, who had
come down from Wayne County for a
little visit. live, knowd some snortin'
old winters in my time, but my gram
fathers experience in the winter of rs
'ruther beats anything o. mine.
MY gran father were a great hunter
an Injin killer. He fit in the revolution,
ali long the Del'war Valley. The win
ter o &c was terrible cold. Ev'rything
in these parts was friz up tighter'n a
snare drum. On one o. the coolest days
my gran father struck the track o. some
Iniins on the hills jest above here. He
follered 'em, an killed q couple on 'em
an then started back over the ridge fur
his cabin. My granfather lived to be q
bundled 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
Il -