Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-01-08
WINTER IN MINNESOTA.

Careful preparations for the cold season
begin about the first of November. Every
tolerably we'll built house is provided with
a duplicate set of windows, which lie in the
cellar from April to November and are then
hung outside the regular windows, so as to
leave few inches of air space between.
An aperture in the sash closed by a slat is
provided for ventilating purposes, or, better
still, one of the panes is made to open on
hinges Storm doors are hung, and the
weather-strip man does thriving business.
All cracks and crannies through which the
searching north wind might find it's way
are stopped up. Great quantities OF coal
are put into the cellars. Pennsylvania an
thracite is the favorite domestic fuel, and
as it costs from nine to ten dollars a ton and
YOU burn twice as much Of it as you would
in Philadelphia or New York the expense
of warming house is formidable item in
the domestic budget. Ohio block coal is
burned in CRATES, and also the inferior btu
minOus coal from Iowa, and considerable
hard wood is used, but for the furnace and
the big self-feeding stove there is nothing
like anthracite. Stoves, by the way, are OF
enormous size, reaching up nearly to the
ceilings. Everything points to a severe
struggle with the frost. Human ingenuity
gets the better of the struggle, however,
and it is possible to live herewith as much
comfort during the cold season as in any
city in the East. Indeed, ] have found
that the places where one suffers most in the
winter arerin latitudes like that Of South
Carolina, where no reasonable preparations
are made for winter.
The reader NAV ask, "What do the peo-
pie out on the bleak prairies in the little
claim shanties do to make existence toler-
able?" The common protection against the
piercing winds is the tarred building paper,
which, in well-constructed houses, is nailed
upon the studding inside OF the weather.
the outside with this paper fastened on in
long sheets by narrow cleats of wood nailed
over the Joints. A building so encased has
an ugly look, but it is blizzard-proof. The
| thin board walls, however, are poor de-
fence against the still cold, and many set
tiers surround their dwellings with thick
embankments of turf reaching up to the
caves and embrasured for the windows and
doors. a house so prepared is almost as
warm as cellar. Barns are frequently pro-
tected in the same way on the northern side,
or a big straw-stack is thrown up as a wind,
break. In eastern Dakota good deal OF
anthracite is burned dear as it is, and it
costs about SIS ton. Hard wood, hauled
on the railroad from the Minnesota forests,
is worth from Sc to $S per cord.
1t is common mistake in the East to
suppose that this is peculiarly a snowy
country. The snowfall here is not nearly
as great as in Pennsylvania, and the further
you go west the lighter it is The railroads
are never obstructed by storms OF moist
snow that packs as it falls. All they have
to contend with is the dry snow driven by
the wind into the cuts. Every cut, even If
only two feet deep, must be protected by
snow-fence on the northern side. The snow
is so dry that it gets no hold on the ground
and is swired about at the sport of wind
like dust. People never carry umbrellas
here when it SHOWS, for the fine, hard, white
paticles do not even damage the ladies'
bonnets.-,S. Paul Letter to Philadelphia
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