Nevada County picayune., 1886-02-03


 What sight! Magnihcont-splen- did--and yet-terrible' lneyer saw any ything like it. The very air seemed frozen. The clouds were thick and heavy, and hung 10" on the horizon. The air had grey ish, murky appearance. The gale was now blowing steadily-tiFty miles or more an hour. The air was filed with something that gilt tered and hissed and moaned aud howled d0letully in the wind. It was not snow. It was colder than snow. It was not siret. It was colder than sleet. It was not sheets of ice. It was colder than mere ice. It was glittering, bristliug, spangled spears of f"3St, and wherever it fell on your iiands or face 1t seemed 10 sink right into your flesh without melting.
 This blizzard lasted four days. Six hours after 1t set in all business and ttayel by ordinary means was suspended, and nearly all railway trains abandoned,
 The change back to tolerable weather was almost as sudden as the arrival of the blizzard. On the first promising day l went on; from Olathe to the Shawnee Re serve, and became the guest ot a well-to do farmer whom l had en- gagged to drive me over the Re serve. At breakfast next morning he remarked that he "did not like the weather signs" As he passed out of the house after brea fast to harness his span of blooded Mis-. souri bays. his little daughter handed him an apple, which he dropped into his pocket. Twenty or thirty minutes later heard him enter an adjoining room, in which his wife was attending to her household duties. She exclaimed; "Why John, why did you put the team back in the barn?'
 Because l don't want to be re- sponsible for no Government ten derfoots death. ''
 What do you mean, John? l don't understand you.'
 ''NNall, the simpleton wants to pitch right out this morning. He says he can stand il if l can. l hate to back out from sich ban, ter, especially from a tenderfoot, l but dog my cats if l don't intend 60 do it. Lookee! Thars the worst kind of a blizzard right on us. Just as got lnGersoIi and Dorsey (his hOrses) harnessed l see the pesky thing a-comin' across the orchard, and I'll be hanged if ] didn't think l would freeze before could unhitch them horses and and run lem back in the barn. Just lookee. Confound my cor ner lots if 1t wouldn't freeze an Es- kemo! No. That fsller may be one of them rascals that's never been turned out for aught know but I'll be switched if l want his blood on my hands. l never want to be responsible for nobody freez in to death, no matter if he aint nc count. Just look at this apple l Nell give me as started out. lts froze hard as rock, right here in my pocket. No, Susie, 7 Gm 90 in' iR and tell thdt Washington Citg gump Ire got oa Gge'' and can't gc tcih him tO.day."
 We abandoned our programme for that day, and the next week
 Half an hour later the blizzard had complete possession of the whole State of Kansas. sojourn ed with us d week, and was pro. nounced by the Kansas City, Dodge City, and Topeka papers the sever est one ever known. The loss of livestock occaSioned by it, as we'll as the loss of human life, is estimated by the papers to be greater than the losses of any whole winter in tue history of Kan sas
 In few days 1 will have to take a trip to the much,talked,of of Oklo. homa country, some two hundred miles or more west of here, to meet q band of Shawnees who are inter. es'ed in the matter 1 am now iu- vestigating' l will have to make a part ot the trip by rail, part by the mail hack, and part by pri- vate conveyance. l will hardly find either comfort or pleasure in