Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-03-05
LIFE IN A COLD COUNTRY.
a Woman's Letter from Manitoba



writing from near Winnipeg says:
''In such thinly settled country it
is naturally very difficult to get any
sort of female help. I have to make
even the bread and the butter, and
prepare everything that is eaten. IF
drive twelve miles with linen, and
again the distance to fetch it home, I
can, by dint of great persuasion and
pretty speeches, occasionally induce
a baf breed woman to wash it. She
charges me 81 a dozen, and sends it
back clean, certainly, but neither
ironed nor even folded. OF course,
on the prairie we are our own land
lords, and live rent free on our own
homestead. Taxes don't amount to
much, and food is no great expense,
as game of all sorts abounds. Fish,
too, is easy to get, as we are not far
from Lake Manitoba, and in Winter
we can buy frozen fish from the In
dams at triflIng cost. Prairie chick
ems, wild duck, partridge, snipe and
plover are very plentiful, and may be
had for the shooting. When | say
that believe there is hardly a fenced
farm between us and the North Pole,
it's plain that poaching is an unknown
crime. Animals of most sorts are in
the neighborhood. We can sit at
night by the fire and hear pack of
prairie wolves go by in full cry across
the snow. Timber wolves are scarce !;
black bears are scarcer still, though
more than one has been tracked and
shot within a mile of our house. All
the country between us and Winni-
peg is fiat and not at all picturesque,
though by going as far west as Bran
don you come to rolling prairie. In
early Summer the ground is carpeted
with the loveliest of flowers. We
are fortunate in having land that is
nicely timbered 1t not only gives
us a pleasanter prospect than the
dreadful monotony of a treeless flat,
but it also supplies us with firing.
''And this brings me to speak about
my experience of the climate of Mani
toba. The virations of temperature
are very great. [ have seen the ther-
mometer stand at 125 degrees inside
a tent in Summer, and at 58 degrees
below zero, or 80 degrees below freez-
ing point, outside the house in Win
ter. Such Artic cold would be unen
durable if the air were not SO wonder
fully dry and clear-and often very
still-that it does not seem half so
cold as it really IL. Then the changes
of weather are not generally very
sudden. The Eeat and cold are very
regular, and IN mid seasons the ther-
mometer does not fluctuate much.
Perhaps a few homely details may
best serve TO illustrate what Winter
in Manitoba means. The snow out
side our house is from six to ten feet
deep from November to April. Moe
casins, made by Indians of moose
skin, are used instead of shoes to
cover the feet, which are first cased
in several pairs of stockings. We
were forced to melt snow for all the
water we used last Winter. The cold
is so intense that, when melted snow
water is poured from the boiler into a
pail, aud taken at once across TO the
stable, the ice on it frequently has to
be broken with stick before the cat
tie can drink. It is rather a common
sight to see people partly frozen. The
part affected turns as white as mar
bic, and loses all feeling. Unless you
see yourself in a glass, or are told OF
it, you are not conscious of being
frozen. In this plight it is best not
to 90 near fire, as sudden thawing
is very painful. People generally
try friction, rubbing themselves with
snow or, better still, with paratfin oil.
Occasionally, when one is frozen, if
an extremity, will snap off. Last
year a man living about thirty miles
from us was told that his ear was
frozen, he put up His hand to feel, and
the ear dropped off in his hand.
Limbs sometimes have to be amputa-
ted from severe frost bites Ny kit
tens ears froze and broke off last
Winter, and a nelghbor's pony lost It's
ears In the same way.
81 was surprised when first found
the mustard frozen in nay mustard pot,
which stood foot from the kitchen
stovepipe and two feet above the stove
where there was blazing fire all day
and every day through the Winter
! Yet the mustard froze between every
meal Bread froze if left for half an
hour in a room without fire. Such
stories must sound almost incredible
except to those who, like myself, have
W1UuSSSSS luS 1dCLS, bIlOuS1. c1 COuIS 30,
only in the most severe weather
Winter is. of course. not equally
severe throughout. Part of my de
scription applies only to its colder
half. But to woman the most try
ing part of Winter in Manitoba Is
not its severity-for you live in :
warm house-but its length. Snow
lay on the ground last season for siz
months and half, and the grea1
lakes were frozen for the same period,
Holding Baer by Proxy.
A Pennsylvania newspaper CORES
pondent divulges the method by which
practical joker recently contrived tt
transfer the grip of live bear from
himself to friend. In spite Of the
fact that this V gracious narrative ha.
not come in sight for many years, W,
have always elung to the belief tha
it was hardly enough to survive tn.
frosts of the nineteenth century. Gu