Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1882-04-21

One of the worst fahrications imagin-
able found editorial space in the Detroit
Post and Tribune of April 4th last. Un-
der the heading of "a Dakota Blizzard'
it said:
"On Sunday, March %, one of the pc
riodical storms called "blizzards" marched
over Dakota with Its usual result. Spc-
cial dispatches from st. Paul say ''the
blizzard extended FIRM southern Dakota
to Manitoba and it adds ''the facts are
generally concealed" This is true of all
the frightful boreal waves that sweep
over that region. The facts are concealed
~ far as it is possible to conceal them.
The owners of mines and lands, Who are
concerned that emigration shall not be
deferred by unfavorable reports of the
climate, control the telegraphs, and mod
ify the truth so that in the diluted form
in which it reaches those inclined to To-
cate in that region it will not frighten
them away. This much of the facts of
the late blizzard has leaked Out:''
Here it enumerated five deaths from eX-
posurc gathered from the many reports of
the storm that were received at st. Paul
from all parts of our very extensive terri
tory. Included in the five reports was
the information that several isolated fam
lilies had narrow escapes and that fifteen
land explorers who started from Aberdeen
and Watertown had been missing for a
few days. The article then continues:
"The st. Paul dispatch leaves no room
to doubt that the blizzard occasioned in
tense suffering through all the region over
which it swept, and that if the facts are
ever made public it will be learned that
many scores of persons were frozen to
death.
II this was an extraordinary event it
would attract no more attention than any
other sudden and appalling calamity
But 1t is not an extraordinary occurrence.
1t is thing to be looked for. 1t is an af-
fair of common occurrence, proving that
Dakota lies in the immediate track of the
great polar storms. And this fact ought
10 lie widely known. Many people in
Michigan have or have had the Dakota
fever Beautifully illustrated maps anC
pamphlets give glowing pictures OF the
soil of tt at region and its fertility, while
they cxaggerate the salubrlty of its sum
mer climate. But they are all deathly 81
lent about its nearness to the storm cen
ter and about the freezing blasts which
cut down human life almost instantane
ously. These books and pamphlets have
been widely distributed aud many have
been lllred by them from as delightful
q climate as can be found III the world u
region where any hour of any day the.
may be frozen to death by one of Dakota
familiar bllzzards.'
Such prepostcrous statements as thes
show clearly that the writer is either
fool or knave lnsnuations like th
above never will-nevcr can-be believed
by men of common sense. These lmagin
ings of n fevered brain are too glaringl
false to have any effect whatever The
are merely the winnings of discourage
ment and an effort to deter Michigan peo
Die from seeking the inexhaustible whea
raising prairies of North Dakota. ''Man
scores of persons frozen to DEATH "a
affair of common occurrence. P" .'Freezin
blasts cut down life almost instantaneous
w." ''Any hour of any day people ma
i,c frozen to death by one of Dakota's fa
miliar billiards. The many former rer
resentatives of Michigan, now residcn,
of Dakota, will, individually and collet
tivsly, acknowledge that such assertion
are rldiculous]y untrue, that Dakota wiz
ters gre generally more pleasant and mol