The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1883-02-15
THE WINTER OF 1888.

est ever known in the West, tie area OF
severe cold extending from the North
: Pole to Texas and from Lake Erie to
the Rocky Mountains. At points in
Northern Dakota the spirit tlernome-
ters have indicated GO degrees below ze-
ro. AS far south as Central Illinois it
has been as cold as at Worthington,
Minnesota, viz: 80 degrees below. In
Central Iowa and Illinois the snowfall
exceeds that in OUTlIWEsTERN MIN
NEsOTA by nearly a foot. Several of
the Iowa railroads have been blockaded
for several days alta time, and in South.
eastern Dakota there are many towns
that have been cut off from the outside
world and without any mail for weeks.
The loss of stock and sheep in Dakota,
Nebraska, Kansas and Texas will be
considerable and there has been loss Of
life in many places.
SOUTHWESTERN MINNEsOTA has suf.
fered no loss whatever nor have the pc.
ople Of Mobiles county suffered any loss
or Inconvenience from blockaded rail
raids or delayed mails. The B. G.. r..
& n. Railway running south from Wor-
thington through Central Iowa has
been blOckaded with snow in Iowa, but
the G. st. y. NJ. & O. Railway, running
the whole length of the State of Min
nesota, has kept open, not having been
blocknded altogether more than 10
storms or LliZz,rds endangering the
life of man or beast in Southwestern
Minnesota during the winter, nor have
the people suffered from the cold, lack
of fuel, clothing or provisions, or from
any cause whatever, reports published
in Eastern newspapers to the contrary
Notwithstanding.
THOs. II. PARSONS.
The above statement has been issued
in the form of a circular by Real Estate
Dealer Parsons to send to his CORES
pondents. One OF them writes that he
has read Of hard blZz.r'ls up north
this winter and has some doubts about
coming. The facts are that there has
been no blizzard in Minnesota this win
ter as hard aS the one which visited
Kansas, an account OF which was given
hy Il Kansas farmer in letter publish
ed in Our last wet ks issue. The mcr
curry has not gone low Is or 10 below
zero during any storm is winter,
while the Kansas man reports - below
during their three days storm. While
railroads have been b|rcEntltd in Iowa
and even in Michigan for days teceth
er, the St Paul (. Sioux City road
through Nrrthirgtnn has kept open
nearly al the time as our last weeks
report showed. That is, on two Occa-
siOnS passenger trains were suspended
for two or three days, and once or twice
they were d. layeu IL few hours. Janu
a'y was an exceedingly cold month,
the average being zero, rs reported by
our meteorological correspondent, Mr..
Maxwell, and yet we have lot heard Of
a single he! !d of stock perishing in No.
bles cOunty so far. nor Il single case OF
suffering among the people from lack
of fuel. One OF two cases have been
reported where parties suffered from
being caught ont and exposed for Il
long time to the cold. Moreover, the
winter has been ''distre ssing healthy"
as the doctors say, no small pox, scar
let fever, diphtleria, or any disease
whatever prevailing. We have heard
of one or two isolated cases Of diphtheria
in the county, but the sick roll and the
death roll have been exceptionally
small.
The Eastern and Southern papers are
making the usual winter noise about
''terrible storms' in the Northwest,
but all the storms in all the West will
not equal one storm along the coast in
loss of life and property, nor equal half
the loss by floods in Ohio, Pennsylva-
mia, Indiana and elsewhere.
OUR FREE COLUMN.
We give considerable space in this is
sue Of the ADVANCE to cOmmunica
tions for our Free Opinion" depart
ment.
J. II. Maxwell has an encouraging
word to the farmers, based on the eX-
perience Of Illinois prairie settlers.
"Westside' contributes a readable
article on Theological Myths, coming
forward with Il new suggestion, that it
the story Of the fall of man is true, it
was deliberately intended by the Crea-
tor, for the woman. according to Mos
es, was an afterthought and must have
been made on purpose to break up the
harmony.
''L II. 50 contributes some verses
and quotations about the church of
Rome, which might be offset by some
lines Oh Protestant prosecutions, New
England witch burning and the more
willy but equally cruel wickedness OF
the Anthony Comstock gang in our
own day.
''W.' makes II brief reply to the able
article on Spirit,lalism published in
our issue of the lst, from the pen Of a
prominent lawyer. "W." Of course
begs the whole question, as his class
are taught to do. They assume first
that their theology is the correct view
Of Christ's gospel, and that every other
view must be hurtful. "W,' calls. his
view of religion "a bridge which has
carried hundreds of millions Of souls to
Paradise" while he never heard of
Spirirualism doing so. He simply as
sumes that the hundreds of millions OF
believers have gone to Paradise, while
lie denies that anyone can come back
to report as to which place he went to,
He and all his class deny that anyone
has been back to report, yet they all
assume that believers in theology 60 tc
Ilo.