Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-03-06
LIFE IN A COLD COUNTRY.
A Woman's Letter from Manitoba
People Partly Frozen.


Life in Manitoba is not as pleasant
ss~it has been pictured. A woman
writing from near Winnipeg saws: !:
I'm such thinly settled country it
is naturally very difficult to get any
sort of female help. have to make
even the bread and the butter, and
prepare everything that is eaten. If
l drive twelve miles with linen, and
again the distance to fetch It home, I
can, by dlnt of great persuasion and
pretty speeches, occasionally induce
| half breed woman to wash it. She
charges me 81 dozen, and sends it
Back clean, certainly, but neither
lroned nor even folded. OF cearse.
on the prairie we are our own land,
lords, and live rent free ON our own
homestead. Taxes don't amount 10
muck, and food is no great expense.
as game of all sorts ahounds. 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
dians at a trihmg cost Prairie chick
ems, Wild duck, partridge, suipe and
piover are very plentiful, and may be
had for the shooting. When | saw
that believe there is hardly fenced
farm between us and the North Pole.
1t is PLAIN that poaching is an unknown
CRIME. Animals of most sorts are in
the neighborhood. We can sit at
night by the fire and hesr pack OF
prairie wolves so by in fail cry across
The snow. Timber wolves are scarce;
black bears are scarcer still, though
more than one has been tracked and
shot within mile of our house. All
the country between us and Winni
peg is flat 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 pleasanter prospect than the
dreadful mSnotony of treeless fiat,
but it also supplies us with firing.
And this brings me 10 speak about
my experience of the climate OF Mani
toba. The yirationS of temperature
are very great l have seen the thsr.
momcter stand at 125 degrees inside
tent IN Summer, and at 5S degrees
below zero, or 90 degrees below freez.
ing point, outside the house III Win
ter. Such Artic cold would be unen-
durable If the air were not SO wonder.
fully dry and clear-and often very
Sill-that II does not seem half SO
cold as it really is. 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 tluctuate much.
Perhaps few homely details may
best serve 10 illustrate what Winter
in Manitoba means. The snow out
side our house is from six to ten feet
deep from November TO April. Moo
casius, made by Indians of moose
skin, are used instead of shoes 10
cover the feet, which are first cased
in several pairs of stockings. We
We're 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 lnto 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. II is rather 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 glass, or are told Of
it, you are not conscious of being
frozen. In this plight it is best not
to go near fire, as sudden thawing
is very painful. People generally
try friction, rubbing themselves with
snow or, better still, with paratlin oil.
Occasionally, when one is frozen, if
an extremity, will snap of. 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. My kit
tens ears froze and broke off last
Winter, and neIghbors pony lost its
ears in the same way.
II was surprised when FIRST found
the mustard frozen in my 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
witnessed the facts, though, Of course,
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 you live in n
warm house = but its length. Snow
lay on the ground last season for six
months and half, and the great