The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1881-02-17
Church Keno.


our commercial tourists, nre nice Chris
tian gentlemen, there is occasionally one
that is as full Of the old Nick Ms an egg
at this time Of year is full Of malaria.
There was one Of them stopped at .
country town . few nights ago where
there was church fair. He is 4 blonde.
good-natured looking, serious talking
chap, aud having stopped at that town
every month for dozen years, every
body knows him. He always chips in
towards collection, . wake or \ rooster
fight, and the town swears by him. H.
attended the fair, and a jolly little sister
Of the church, . married lady, took him
hy the hand and led him through greer
fields, where the girls sold him ten cen,
chances in saw dust dolls, and beside
still waters, where : girl sold him sweet.
ened water with q sour stomach, for LEM
onade, from Rebecca's well. The sister
finally stood beside him while the deacon
was reading off numbers. They were
drawing 4. quilt, and a. the numbers
were drawn all were anxious TO know
who drew it. Finally, after several
numbers were drawn II was announced
by the deacon that number fifteen drew
the quilt, aud the little sister turnes to
the travelling man and said, my, that is
my number. I have drasn it. What
shall / do?" '.Hold mp your ticket aud
shout keno" said he. The little dea-
coness did not stop to think that there
might be guile lurking in the travelling
man, but being full Of JOY At drawing .he
quilt, aud ice cream because the travel
ing man bought it, she rushed into the
crowd towards the deacon, holding he:
number, and shouted 30 they could hear
it al over the house, Keno" If .
bank had burst in the building there
couldnf have been % much astonisL
ment. The deacon turned pale ant
looked ct the poor little sister as though
she had fallen from grace, and all tbs
church people looked sadly 1t her, while
the worldly minded people snickered.
The little woman saw that she had got
her foot into something, and she blnslei
and backed cut, and asked the travelling
man what keno meant. He said he didn't
know exactly, but he had always seen
people, when they won anything at that
game, yell keno" She isn't exactly
clear yet what keno 10, but she says she
has sworn of on taking advice from p:ous
looking travelling men. They call hen
little keno.-Peck's Sun.
Cold Winters.
There seem to be no such winters now
as there were seventy or eighty years
ago. owing, no doubt, to the cutting
down in this country Of the native for
ests, tho planting and growth Of the
towns and cities, and the general de-
velopment of the land. During the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
there were il the Old World some win
ters bitterly memorable. In Britain. in
1864. the Thames was frozen 10 the
depth Of sixty-one inches, and nearly oil
the birds in the United Kingdom per-
ished. In 1892 the cold was 80 intense
in Southern Europe, especially in Aus
trim, that wolves were driven by hunger
into Vienna, where they attacked beasts
OF burden and even human beings.
Three years later many persons were
frozen 10 death in various parts OF Ger-
many. The Cold Winter, % it was
called for distinction, occurred in 1903
when all the rivers and lakes in Europe
were compactly frozen, and even the
sea several miles from shore, and ths
earth itself from seven to eight fee
deep. Birds and beasts fell dead, ani
thousands 81 men, women and children
perished in their houses. In Southern
France nearly all the vineyards wer,
destroyed. The Adriatic was frozen
and much Of the Mediterranean in til,
neighborhood Of Genoa aud Leghorn
and the lemon and orange groves wer,
blighted in many parts Of Italy. Dur
ing l7l6 persons crossed the strait
from Copenhagen to the Province Q
Senia (Lnden) on the ice, and horses AM
wagons likewise. Snow lay ten fee
deep in Spain and Portugal dnrin,
l74O. the Zuy.ler Zec was covered wit
| ice thick enough to bear multitude .
people, and four years after snow meas
ured ON level twenty-three feet j
Portugal. In It'll the Elbe was froze
to the bottom, and in l776 the Danub
showed ice below Vienna eight to te
feet thick. .-NeW York 1iMcs.