Daily globe., 1881-03-07
IN EXTRAORDINARY WINTER.

Men whose circumstances or habits limit
their observation of passing events to their
immediate surroundings may imagine that the
severe and stormy winter now passing away
has been popularity of the region they in
habit. People of the new settlements on the
prairies Of Minnesota and Dakota, who were,
many of them, poorly prepared for the long.
rigorous winter, attended with deep snow and
frequent wind storms, and whose experience
has not been long in the country, may connect
this winter with their new place of residence.
and be unwisely discouraged thereby. As a
matter OF fact, it has been an extraordinary
winter over all the continent Deep SHOWS
and fierce winds have prevailed over the Can
adas and the Northern States and Territories,
from the Atlantic to the Rocky
Mountains, and wherever there are
poor people or weak, new settlements,
there has been more or less suffering, exag-
gerated in publicity, however, by individual
and family experiences being attributed to all
the occupants of isolated regions
In well establishd settlements of Minnesota
and Dakota, even those which date back only
two or three years, there may have been hard
ships usual to such periods of storm and cold,
but there has been reported not one well au-
thenticated case of great suffering. The heav-
lest losses in all this northern region have
occurred on the plains and in the valleys of
Montana, where deep SHOWS rarely occur, and
where herders resort of winters with their
cattle and sheep. Thousands of cattle, and
many thousands of sheep have perished in
Montana from cold and starvation, and the
extraordinary character of the winter there
may be inferred from the fact that in the vii
lagos and cities, where hay is rarely in demand,
it is now worth forty to fifty dollars per ton.
But it is not only in these northern regions
that the winter has been severe. The plains of
Nebraska and Kansas and the fields of Missouri
have been covered with deep SHOWS and the in.
habitants have suffered from extreme cold and
freezing winds. The dispersion of the Oklaha-
ma emigrants, from the borders of the Indian
Territory, by the inclemency of the early win
ter, is familiar to newspaper readers; and rail
road men are aware that the roads of Nebraska
and Kansas have been as much obstructed by
winter storms as any other, while the roads
which have been least obstructed are those of
L
the Middle, Eastern and New England States
the winter has been more severe than in Min
nesota. The recent storm and blockade in
Illinois and Wisconsin snrpasses ANYTHING
ever known in Minnesota. The ravines and
valleys of the Rocky Mountains are full of
snow and west of the mountains, from the Gulf
of California TO the Cascade Range, the season
has been full of cold storms. In the Southern
States, snow and mud, frosts and foods have
in quick succession throughout the
whole season. In Florida early in the winter
The oranges were frozen solid on the trees. snd
Minnesotians who have gone South to escane
the rigors of our winter have been glad TO
come home to enjoy the winter comforts ot
warm houses and good fires. In Europe and
in Central America also the winter has like
wise been of unusual severity. In the
West India island of Antigua (only seventeen
degrees north of the equator,) last month the
coffee plantations and standing cane were all
killed by heavy frost, which formed the first
Ice ever seen, so formed, by the inhabitants.
In short, severe as has been the winter from
winch the New Northwest is now emerging.
IL mas not been exc. .ptional and of this re. |
gion only, but has prevailed throughout all |
'he temperate zone. In short time If will
nave passed away and we shall have all the 6e-
lghts OF Northern spring, without the mud
md dangerous floods which will atfiict the re-
gions south of US,