Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1882-04-07
The Blizzard of Siberia.

King Burran, distant relative OF
| Western Blizzard, is the great ogre OF
Siberian travelling. He is apparently
delighted when he comes down and
finds the earth all covered with the
| light frozen particles of snow, all ready
to be blown and drifted about hither
and thither wherever his wild fancy
wishes. He revels in delight at the
mischief he is enabled to accomplish
unchecked and unbidden. Calling his
! ly of the Burrans, he begins his work
First, he Just blows the snow particles
leisurely over the wide plains, as if he
would like to level off the. entire coun-
try to Il dead monotony. So he blows
| it over the post-roads until it has
reached the level of the surrounding
plain, fondly imagining in his stupid
mind that the sledgc and caravan
drivers will lose their way and get stuck
fast in the drifts. But his game has
been anticipated, and dead brushwood
has been planted all along the route,
which the drift cannot cover, and the
yemschik can see where to steer his
sledge quite rs wei as if it were
in summer time. "But | know
n place. he thinks to himself,
! "whcre the foolish human beings
have not taken any precautions.
There is the road through the woods
yonder; this | will block up with heavy
drift, so that the dull-headed yemschik
will have to make detour of four or
five miles in order to get on the road
again This done King Burran hurries
along full of glee to the next village.
Here is post station, he thinks to him
self, and the traveller must pass through
the streets in order to get a change of
horses. 81 will make it warm for him"
he soliloquizes, and then proceeds TO
carry all the snow he can gather up
from the plains and to pile it in huge
mountains along the village streets and
against the peasants houses. ~ will
make it difficult" he says, "not only
for the traveller to proceed, but / will
give the poverty stricken peasant some
! thing better to do than to go out and
render our friend in the sledge any as
sistance." So, having filled the streets,
he proceeds to fill the farm-yard level
with the housetops. "Ah, there are the
good mans cattle shivering under the
board fence. Forty degrees of Reaumur
is certainly too much for them. | will
! give them n nice white covering where
with they may keep themselves waIm.''
and then he proceeds TO bury up the
poor mans cattle so that they have to be
dug out in the morning, some dead and
some alive. This done, he goes on his
way rejoicing, piling up few more
drifts on the route from his wanton ex-
uberance of spirits, and then he disap-
pears northward again. This seems 10
be the spirit in which the storm king
does his Siberian work, and woe to the
unfortunate traveller who follows close
upon the monarch's heels. AS you pass
along these Siberian post-roads you can.
not help thinking that old Burran is in
the habit of playing practical jokes upon
peasants, yemschiks and travellers, sc
uniform is his method of procedure
Many villages through which we passed
during the last two days of our journey
from Orenburg TO Omsk were literally
made level with the surrounding plains
the farm-yards being filled with tn,
snow that could not be piled into the
village streets or up against and owe
the one-storied Lighthouses of the place
We were fortunate, however, in coming
day or two after the visit of the olt
giant, and only once had our driver t,
make long detour to avoid the drift
in short stretch of forest road; ant
only once did he catch us in his wilt
game of snow-drift, and | may llattel
myself that we escaped with only {
minimum of delay y-Siberiam Cor, ~
! Y, Herald