, 1881-04-10
TIE BGEAE-UP QF WRITER.

There are SlEus that ElG long, tedious Will
Ter is breaking up. The sun is mounting
higher, warming the air slowly but surely,
taking off tie SNOW, and leaving in its place
/ Il coating of mud which is tolerabie, us 1t
lorclndes the approach Of spring. II ever
there was Z season that closed with universal
gratitude and congratulaiion, it Is the winter
which has been witt! lis so long anu stuck to
us so closely. There is no. "Reminiscences of
it that Is cheerful. It has almost bankrupt
cd the domestic exchcquer with Its demands
for fuel. It has bred new and numerous dis
eases i'll addition to those that are usually
prevalent It has weil-nigll exhausted tile
physical man with It's ongcontinued cold,
storms, ard blizzards. 1t has run
up coal bills, meat bills, and lultr
bills to the highest notch ever reached III the
social thermometer. It has made building
impossible, so that hundreds of new struct-
urcs. will be temporarily abandoned, since
they cannot be finished IN time for the annual
rentals. 1t set TT OIL the 10th Of last No
yenlber and las lasted for five months, or $50
days, of almost lncessant cold, ice, and snow.
Yesterday gave us the first signs Of the break
up, and the warm sun did more in one day to
mud, and give us q glimpse Of terra tir:na
than Carter Harrison has done in the past
six weeks with all the appropriations and his
brigades of slloveiers. The terrible grip
Which has held Lake Michigan III solid bands
Of ice and still holds it, which has paralyzed
every railroad Ill this section Of the country,
and held man and beAst at its mercy, Is at
last relaxing.
The record Of the winter, the world over,
has been horrible one, and whatever may
be tile cause,-whether it is due to Mother
Shipton's prophecies, or to sun spots, Or TO
planetary disturbances, or to the change III
the Signal Service,-its progress has been
sgnalizet by mercilcss disasters. III the
Northwest, railroad travel has been inter
rupted as it never WAS before, and the tele-
graph lines have been prostrated in NIL
directions. The Atlantic has been swept by
terrible gales causing fearful disasters. The
floods since tile middle Of February have
literally been on the rampage. The Signal
Service Monthly Rcrietu shows immense
destruction BY them. The rise OF the Una
tilla and Columbia Rivers in Oregon destroyed
more than half 4 million dollars worth OF
property. Mining towns. In California
were washed away. The overflow Of
Lake Pontchartrain rendered thousands of
people homeless in New Orleans. The rise
of the Ohio entailed immense destruction.
St. Louis, Cincinnati, Toledo, Philadelphia,
and Washington have all suffered from inun-
dations. During the past week the Platte
and Missouri have been sweeping everything
before them, anu the danger is not yet overts4
rs heavy rains are prevailing in those Sec
tions. The Old World has not been spared.
England, France, Germany. and Hungary
have been exposed to unusual foundations. at
the present time the fairest portions Of Spain,
in the valley OF the Guadalquiver, including
Seville, Malaga, and Madrid, are exposed
to fearful ravages by food. and the City of
Szcsedin, In Hungary, which had such
fearful experience last summer. is now in
danger Of another visitation. Contemporaries
ous with the floods, earthquakes have swelled
the lists OF disaster, the most dreadful being
those in the beautiful islands OF Ischia and
Chic, the former destroying 600 and the lat
ter more than 5000 lives. Snow-slides il, our
own Western country and avalanches in the
Alus have swept off hundreds of people.
Every force Of Nature seems to have been
exerted to fatal extremes, as concomitants
Of this dea1ful winter, and have swelled the