Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-01-16
THE INTENSE COLD.


The cold accompanying the snow
which fell last week was the most
intense and the most general exper-
fenced for years in this country. In
the West people and cattle suffered
greatly and many persisted. Trains
we're showed up everywhere and
travel stopped. The snow drifted
and buried everything in its way.
On the Blue Ridge fourteen engines
we're buried on the w. M. r. B.,
and it required great labor to keep
the track cleared. Some passenger
trains remained all night in the
drifts. The mercury ranged from
1O0 to $50 below zero in many places,
and it was dangerous for people to
be out.
HAVANA, January 11.-Advices
from Colon say that twenty-one YES
sells were wrecked, and sixty five
lives lost, during the recent storm
there.
CHICAGO, January 11.-Reports
from the West and Northwest indl-
cate that there is, as yet no abate-
ment of the cold snap. The mercury
stood at fifteen to twenty four de-
grees below zero throughout Illinois
yesterday and last night. Several
cases of fatal freezing are reported.
At Elgin, ILL.,, Irwin Underhill, on his
way home from a party, lost his way
and was frozen stiff yesterday. His
horse was stalled in a snow bank
some distance from him. At Dun
dee, Erwin Baker was found frozen
in farm yard. AT Burlington,
Iowa, John Lang left a barber shop
late Saturday night for home, and
was found dead Sunday morning
not quarter of mile from where
he started. A dispatch from Den
yer says that two men we're frozen
to death near the western Kansas
line, and it is feared that the loss OF
| life in the mountains was consider
able.
The fatalities in the agricultural
portions of Southern Illinois have
been numerous. Two men were
frozen near the little town of Flora,
while driving cattle from a field. An
unknown man was found dead on
the track near Odin. Two cars of
hogs, part of a blockaded freight
train, were found frozen stiff Satur-
day morning. Many trees in the
southern part of the State had bud
ded in the warm weather of the past
month. These will nearly all die,
and the loss will doubtless be large.
The farmers say hocks of dead
prairie chicken and coveys of frozen
quail can be seen on nearly all farms.
They think few wild fowl will sur
vive the blizzard. The snow was
not over three inches deep OH the
level, but the gale drifted it badly.
The thermometer changed from 190
to $50 below zero. The present
storm is the worst one Southern Hi
nois has had for years.
CHARLESTON, S. c., January IL
This is one of the hardest freezes
ever known in South Carolina. The
mercury in the upper part of the
State marks from zero to- 50 below.
This morning Alfred Logan, color
ed man, of Abbevllle, went to get
wood, and returning to the house,
fell dead from the effects of the cold.
Yesterday Robert Stevens, colored,
aged nineteen, was found frozen to
death near his home. The ponds in
the city are frozen over; also, the
rivers and creeks from here to Beau
fort. Steamers arriving to day cut
their way through ice an inch thick.
The cabbage crop of the sea islands
is killed.
WASHINGTON, January 1.-THE
Potomac river between this city and
Alexandria, is covered with ice from
two to four inches thick, and it is
only with extreme difficulty that
the ferryboats plying between the
two cities are able to keep the chan.
mel open. No other boats are run.
ming. AS in various places ice
gorges three feet thick have formed,
it is doubtful whether the usual nav
igation can be resumed. The signal
Office reports that the minimum tenn
perature recorded here was 5.6o
above zero, ana that point was
reached early this morning. At
seven O'Clock this evening the Their.
mometer registered IL degrees
above zero. In the country outside
OF Washington the snow is piled in
drifts, and the roads are almost i'm
passahle.
CUMBERLAND, January TO-
About 4:3O this morning a freight
train on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, with engine 91S, coming
west, struck a snow-drift at Doe
Gulley tunnel, thirtytwo miles east
of Cumberland, jumping the track
and upsetting. The fireman, John
Miller, was scalded severely, and
the engineer, Richard Tangey, was
hurt very seriously, but it is thought
will recover.
Thomas De Lisle, an Iowa farmer,
after being run over by a wagon,
dragged himself a mile, and was
found hanging to a barbed wire
fence and frozen stiff.
Further reports of the storm and
severe cold all over the country
show that they were almost unprece-
denied. In Iowa the railway trains
81 hl1.Clr1aIl -. IL q: 4 :.