The Irish standard., 1886-09-25
SIN low I'm AUGUST.
Interesting "Reminiscences Of q
Year Without a Summer. y
Ten Inches Of Snow in June, 1s18-Plant
ing Crops with sfittens On-sad
Fate of Farmer Who Was
Lost In a Snow-Storm.
[Honesdale lPa.lLet1er.l

4. Lost In a Snow-Storm.
4 lHonesdale Pa) Letter.l
81 worked all day in my grain field witt
heavy coat on, yesterday, and day be
fore the Thermometer was standing at for
ty-six degrees" said one of the oldest resi-
recently, land that is the most practical
and vivid reminder have ever had of the
/! year without summer, when it was q
common thing to see the farmers, every
day, from June till September, wearing
not only heavy coats. but overcoats and
| mittens as we'll, as they went about their
| work. That was in 1916, and was twelve
years old, and so have lively recoilec.
! tion of the remarkable summer: lived in
! Vermont then, where the season was at It's
worst, as in New York State and Pennsyi-
vania only three inches of snow fell during
The month of June, while in Vermont we
had ten inches Snow fell several times
during that month, and ice came daily.
zone of tho severest snow-storns within
my recollection fell in Vermont OH the 18th
of that June; that was the day we got the
| ten inches, and it was ton good solid
inches on the level. have good reason
to- remember that day. My father had
some sheep in back pasture; to reach
which we had to go through a. piece of
woods for nearly a mile. The snow began
falling on the 18th about eleven o'slock in
the forenoon, and my father started after
dinner to fix up some sort of a shelter for
+! the sheep in the pasture. No one.had any
! idea, cold and eccentric as the season was
/ fn i,f,
any thing at that time of year. Lnemem-
ber father, as he went out of the. door,
turning to my mother and saying ina joe
ular way:
sseIf I'm not back in an hour. mother,
call the neighbors and start them after
me. June is a bad month to get buried in
the SHOW, especially when it gets to be so
near the Fourth OF July
''The snow increased in fury; and by
night it had drifJed SO that the roads were
almost impossible, but even than. and
when it grew dark, none Of the family felt
uneasy about father. The weather had
grown intensely cold When night set in,
however, and there were still no signs of
fathers return, mother sent me.ho alarm
the neighbors and tell them that we be-
leved father had been lost in: the snow.
In spite OF The severity of the night all the
neighbors that could be reached turned
out and searched the woods all night. but
no sign Of the missing man conlGsbe found.
The search was kept up all the next day
andthe next night without finding any
trace Of him, except that he had reached
the pasture and built 8. shelter of bous,hs
i'll one corner Of the lot, undas which the
sheep were huddled. On the forenoon Of
the third day they found father half buried
in the snow mile from the pasture, in al
most the opposite direction from home.
He was dead. He had evidently become
lost in the binding storm, and had wan
dered about until he succunbed to fatigue
and exposure. 1t seems, most improba-
BILE thing that person over fell 7ictim
to snow storm in tho month of June in
this latitude but have sorrowful knowl-
edge of one instance where it was only too
true. -
"The wind during June, July and Au~
gust of 1916 was almost continually in the
north, and it blew fercely and cold. Farm
ers put in their crops, and shivered under
their wraps while doing SO. There was
but little use in planting. Nothing grew,
to speak Of. There was very little rain
during the entire summer. The great piles
of frewood that always accumulated dur
ing the summer months at the farmhouse
back doors, in readiness for winter, didn't
accumulate in 1916. They were needed for
current use.
81 remember thas an old farmer named
Shay was the only man that had any corn
to gather in our neighborhood that year.
He saved his crop III Il funny way, and that
was by building immense bonfires around
his field, which he kept burning all night
and on the co!dest days He and hired
help took turns in patrolling the field at
night, and keeping the fires we'll supplied
with pine knots, which were an abundant
material in those days. This novel expe-
dent on the part Of Farmer Shay kept
his corn-deld warm and free Of pests, and
he had the only crop of corn in that part
of the State.
"July was colder than June, and August
was still colder. Ice formed quarter Of
an inch thick in July, but in August, in
Vermont. water was frozen TO the depth of
nearly an inch. On the 3Oth of August
there was a severe snow storm. August
was as cheerless and dreary as November
sometimes is. There was not green thing
to be seen any where, The first two weeks
in September brought the first real warm
weather we had experienced since May.
'The general opinion had been formed
that the cause OF the cold weather was O.
sudden and rapid cooling Of the sun, and
many believed that the end of all things
was not far off. The appearance Of the
warm spell in September destroyed that
fear fora time, but on the 10th the cold
weather returned, and the people were
once moro thrown back to the old belief.
An old man named James Gooding killed
all his stock, and then hanged himself,
after vainly trying to induce his wife to
make way with herself also, to escape a
gradual and terrible death by freezing and
starvation, which he believed was to be the
common doom. Cold weather increased
from the middle of September until winter,
and it may be said that the year 1s16-in
Vermont, at least-had no summer or au-
tum. There wasn't grain enough raised
for seed the next year, and those who were
lucky enough to have more Of the crop of
1915 on hand than they wanted for their
own use had no difficulty in selling it for
five dollars and more q bushel.
&c All tha corn reised in Vermont in 1871;