Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-12-29
Contrast between the Weather In Michigan
and Virginia.

The following copied from letter to his
mother eta young man who removed from
this place to Michigan will give our readers
some idea of The difference between the
climate there and here:-
HANCOCK, L. s., MICHIGAN, Dec. 8, 1886.
Dear Mamma:-'I have been thinking Of
sending you long letter for some time, but
it is hard work to write for any length Of
time, but l thought l had better write before
we got frozen in for the winter. We have
already had weather that would make .
Virginian shake until his teeth ratified, but
the people here say that winter has not
come yet 1t showed for about two weeks
without stopping over an hour. Out in the
''bush' the snow is about three feut, and in
town it is SO packed down that We do not
mind it much. The streets and sidewalks
are hard and slippery but we walk about
six inches from tie ground. One of the
French lumbermen who stay here said he
has seen snow six fsel on level, and it
stays from about November 18th to April.
have not seen a wagon for about a month 4:
nething but cutters are used, and there are
hundreds of them. AS soon as winter comes
all wagons are put away, and there is no
fs-ager of their being used again until late
in the Sprir~. The saw-mills are all shut
down and the men ge2a cut to the logging
camps. All the boys wenS Monday to the
'sbush'' for the winter The s'pnsh,'' >
forest you might call it, extends for about
60 miles without a break, and is 80 thick
that you can hardly walk through it, and
anyone that gets lost in it is in bad fix.
There are great many Indians in the
woods, but they are tame. The only thing
they will hurt is whiskey. If you would
see one of these lumbermen you would
think he was certainly crazy. First he has
on Scotch cap, then pair Of thick under
clothes (wooD; he does not wear shoes but
puts on pair Of German socks, which are
about ! inch thick and over these socks he
puts pair of the heaviest rubbers: then he
pulls his socks up; they come nearly to his
hips, and after being bundled up in that
way he puts on shirt called a mackinaw
shirt; he let's this hang outside Of his other
clothes. You can see plenty of them on the
streets. If you would take them and put
them on the streets at home, they would be
Immediately arrested for dressing SO
| strangely. They have to dress warm or they
will freeze. They work out of doors when
it is 90 and 80 degrees below zero. Some
times the weather is SO bad that they can
not go out at all. They are paid $40 a
month and board; they work from till s..
Men are very scarce and are in great de-
mand. Some of the camps could not start
for want Of men. The saw-mill here turn
ed out 8, 500, 900 feet of lumber this season,
and this is called a small mill About 70
mon work there. The men nearly all board
ed in this boarding house, and liked them,
although rough. Boys are out on the lake
skating now, and they have been for two
weeks past. We had very late fall. Last
year long before this time we had snow and
ice. If you were here you would look
around and say that this is level country,
but it is snow on the ice and people walking
about and teams driving around makes it
seem like land. You can see no water af-
ter it once freezes up and people go around
as if there never was lake near here
This is dull place now, since no boats
come up. George got some underclothes
that would make you warm to look at
them.
You will see on the map that this is the
most northernIy point in the U. s. and it is
about as cold here as anywhere. People
speak of going down to Canada. When
was at home it sounded far away to say
way up in Canada. What makes it SO cold
is that the wind blows over such cold
water.