The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-03-26
BILLIARDS. IN DAKOTA.
rERRoRs OF THE WESTERN PRAlRlEs.
A Horrible Picture Of the Storms Which
Prevail During the Winter In tho
Far west-why the People
Conceal the Facts.


stances attending the freezing to death of
u family, and there is on the part of every.
body manifest disposition to say as little
as possible about such occurrences. Near
ly every man woman and child in Dakota
is a landowner, aud all, therefore, have
personal interest in keeping up the grand
delusion that, while it may be colder in this
latitude than 1t is further south, "You
don't feel it." Men bury their frozen
wives, children and other relatives and
strangers with many self-comforting OBJ
servations on the mysterious dspensations
of Providence, and boom their town all
the harder the next day. Every little col.
lection Of wooden huts calling itself city
boasts one OF more daily papers, but these
!, ponderous organs Of real estate agent and
tax collector find no room to give more
r, than mere mention Of occurrences which
y elsewhere In this country would possess a
startling interest. II a man or woman
and child disappear, the news paper Is
good enough to chronicle the fact, and to
express the fear that they may have per.
ished in the storm. In the Spring, when
skeletons begin to peep out from the di.
minishing snowbanks, the discovery Of the
remains is usually dismissed in three lines,
as probably lost in one of last winters
billiards." To dilate upon any of these
little incidents Of life in the frozen North.
west would be rank treason. II newspa.
pers in other parts Of the country wish to
learn the facts, they MUST send their own
men after them, for no resident can sec
more than mere "natural death" not :.
In any such occurrence. Sometimes an en-
thusiastic railroad telegrapher, impressed
with and surprised at the fact that with the
mercury forty-fve degrees below zero he is
still alive, telegraphs the information
abroad, but denials are promptly sent out
from forty different points. II a statement
gets on the wires that family has been
t$Ozen to death, stage lost, or a mail car.
rier buried in the SHOWS, somebody will
deny it from point 800 miles away, where
nothing is known about 1t. 1t is a fact,
nevertheless, that dozens Of people have
been lost in the storms here during the
past winter, and the winter has not been
unusually severe, either.
A snowfall which Ia some localities
would scarcely make good sleighing, be-
somes in this region foe to human life Of
almost inconceivable fury. The flakes are
always small and dry, and borne along by
winds OF such power as to make locomo-
tion almost impossible; they cut the flesh
like razors. The blizzard comes up sud-
denly, like tornado, wrapping the earth
in semi.darkness, and yet giving every.
hing the appearance Of whiteness OBJ
lects dozen yards away are shut out from
view, and the wayfarer is blinded and
Itifed by the whizzing clouds which en-
Velop him. In thirty minutes from the be-
ginning of one of these storms II is hard to
,ell whether there is one foot or Eve feet of
NOV, and whether, In fact, the greater
part Is on tho ground or in the air. When
blizzard once attacks a section IL grows
colder very rapidly, and added TO the ter
rors Of people who may be caught in 1t on
Ihe open prairie, Is the extreme probability
that they will freeze to death. As nothing
san prevent man from losing his way In
lblizzard, so nothing in the shape of cloth.
ing can prevent his freezing 10 death II he
cannot hnd shelter from the cold which
follows. II is very difficult TO tell just
when It stops showing. The wind keeps
The air filed with icy particles long after
The clouds have passed away, and so fu-
riously is the light snow driven by the gale
hat even then the vision is almost as cir
sumscribed as before.
A stranger experiencing this stage Of a
blizzard would protest he never saw IL
NOW so fast, but in the momentary lulls Of
The wind he would see the cloudless sky
and know that the binding blast was but
the afterclap Of the great storm. There
will be drifts ten feet high packed so hard
that human foot will sink into them but
o. few iches. Then there will be acres Of
wind-swept earth as destitute OF snow as
In midsummer. To live In these Billiards
Is almost an impossibility. No horse can
be made 10 face the blast, and only men
who have long been accustomed to the
North can breathe In them. THERE'S some
thing suffocating about the wind. The nos
trils and tongue seemready 10 CONCEAL and
the eyes ache far back in their sockets.
Ten feet away may yawn chasm, yet the
driving SHOWS will hide Il from view.
There Is a ringing, roaring noise. such as
Is sometimes family heard under telegraph
wires on clear cold night. At times the
roar Of the storm will resemble nothing 50
much as escaping steam, like thousand
locomotives blowing at once. When this
dies out for an instant the ringing noise
will rise and fall, sometimes shrek and
sometimes hum.
One OF the saddest OF this winters storm
tragedies was that which resulted in the
death Of the Nelson family, who lived at
sanborn. They had not been in the Terri
tory long, and they knew comparatively
little about the herceness Of the billiards.
They were poor and had made but scant
provision for the winter, Running out Of
fuel, they had been burning straw, and as
the consumption OF this article was enor.
nous during the severe weather It was
found almost impossible TO keep enough Of
iton hand TO last more than a few hours.
When the last great blizzard swept over
the country, the Nelson's found themselves
with only little straw near at hand, and
their necessities very great. The nearest
stack was only half mile from the house,
but they feared 10 brave the storm in an
effort TO reach II.
: Hoping that the tempest would soon
spend It's force, they economical the fuel
they had at hand as bestthey could. Doling
out the straw sparIngly, they managed TO
keep their hovel tolerably warm, and TO