Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1883-01-20
A BITTER DAY.
The Frost King Sets up His Throne
in Eureka.

The Frost King Sets up His Throne
in Eureka.
Yesterday was a most remarkable day
for Eureka. 1t was bitterly cold. The
messenger Of Wells, Fargo & Co. had re-
ported that the morning before Thursday
morning) it was % degrees below zero at
Palisade, but thinking that he was only in
jest the SENTINEL raised him 90 degrees,
and put down the temperature at that in
teresting place on the frozen Humboldt at
s degrees below zero. We have found
since that he was in earnest, and that his
report was strictly correct. Jack Frost
must have taken palisade in en- route
hither, for the blizzard struck Eureka yes
terday morning, just at what hour we can
not say, but at 10 O'Clock A. NJ. the ther-
mometer, which is a pretty fair instrument,
hung up within the threshold of the SENTI-
NELs front door against the brick wall,
registered 8 degrees below zero. At
III A. NJ. the mercury had sunk to 10 de-
grees below zero; at II NJ. to 104; at l p.
NJ. to 1O4: at 2 P. NJ. to -; at 3 P. NJ. to
1873; at 4 P. NJ. to 16; at P. NJ. to 10; at 6
P. NJ. to 20 degrees, and at Z P. N. to 10.
From 6 o'clock, as is usual in these re-
gions, the cold diminished fer several
hours, as will be shown by an hourly regis
ter given below, when it began to stitfen
up and transform the warm air from
human lungs into ~icicles. During
the day the streets were nearly de-
serted, given up to the ice monarch
and his frigid paraphernalia. Indoors,
which in the many frame houses of Eu-
reka was but q degree or two less frigid
than on the outside, everybody was hug
ging the genial stove and shivering at the
thought of having to leave tho warm
corner. Some persons woke up in the
morning with strange sensations. The
SENTINEL carrier, Louis Book, who went
to bed late and tagged out, after trudging
through the snow until 4 O'Clock in the
morning, woke up about noon and thought
he was sick. He found cut what the mat
ter WAS when he orawied from under his
blankets and stood for & momen on the
uucarpeted floor OF his cabin. Teamsters
and those having to drive out on the hills
in delivery wagons had their ears and
noses frosted. One old whisky bum, VINO
had sworn off New Years Day, and had
held on, undertook to walk too far in his
sniyefing condition. His still blooming
nose, which had lost its vitality, got IS
white as snow on the tip, and he beosng
d~emoralzed, He broke down unI,er the dis.
ttess and thawed out q big drink
OF gin, which sent the blood
Back into his snoot, causing such
exquisite pain in this extremity
that he regretted he had not stood firm
in his determination to reform and allow
his nose to continue icy cold. One man
had his big toe 30 badly frozen that it will
have to be amputated. Our reporter, for
the fear Of some similar casualty, was sui.
h~oiently selfish toward his great patron,
the public, to stay within the sanctum and
wait until the weather should abate, in
order 70 hunt up the details OF the biz
card more definitely. Several ladies,
devotees to the frigid sport Of the Rink,
went down in the morning to skate. They
had to be carted home and thawed out.
Still, the little rudy checked school boys
could be geen on the streets during recess
defying the rigors Of temperature and
wondering what was the matter with their
elders who were trembling with cold.
The extraordinary visitation from the
chilling spirits of the Arctic zone caused
a good deal of hilarity among those who
did not suffer thereby. There was plenty
Of Joking. Marvellous stories were told by
several old chronics Of how low they had
known mercury to sink. One man said
he had known the thermometer to mark as
low as 156 degrees below zero, and then
burst when the mercury began to expand /!
There are others in Eureka to whom the
eager and nipping air brought no thoughts
Of fun or jollity. The suffering that the
extreme cold brings with it will be en-
dured in silence and nothing be heard
from those whose bones are chilled in
~lreless homes by tho dreadful blizzard.
There is more than one woman and her
children neglected BY tho shiftless
husband and father to whom the
heat of o few chips or the fragments of
an old dry goods box doubtless proved a
yafitable blessing. kilograms were re-
ceived here of unprecedented cold along
tho line of the Central Pacific yesterday
morning. The cold was reported at 33
degrees below zero at Palisade, Sc degrees
at Elko and 60 degrees at Carlin. Al
Humboldt Wells and Halleck Station, the
frigidest places in the State, 1t must have
been even colder still, These dispatches
were sent to Virginia City, and the report
was looked upon as incredible there,
Inquiries were sent back to have the
statement corrected or confirmed. The
original dispatches were resent as correct.
At the places named the observations on
the temperature must, OF course, have
been taken lat Carlin and Elko) by means
Of spirit thermometers, as no such regis
ter can be obtained from the contraction
Of mercury, which freezes at q temperature
considerably higher.
Contrary to expectations the weatl'hi
gauge, or the weather, took a freak, sho~
ing at 0 O'Clock is degrees below zero, q
10. I'm at IL, 1e'si st IL, IL.