Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1888-03-02

From the New York World.
''I was driving a bunch of cattle from
Yankton to Deadwood," said the blizzard
expert at an uptown cafe table, sswhen we
saw signs of trouble one afternoon-it was
Just eleven years ago this month-and made
for timber. We were lucky enough to strike
o grove of eottonwoods before night, and
soon had the stock in the center of the grove.
In the couple of hours left before dark we
fell to with cur axes and chopped down all
the trees we could, leaving 'em lie where
they fell and throwing the small branches
to the cattle.
ssWe built roaring fire, but the wind
rose SO high two of US had to stand by
and watch the blaze all the time, while the
other six whacked away at the cotton
blown down by the wind before it was
cut more than half way through, and we
had trouble in getting the timber to fall
in a circle around US and the stock, which
was our object. But by nine O'Clock we
were pretty well hemmed in, and the snow,
which fell SO fast it blinded you ten feet
away from the fire, quickly gathered on
the limbs and dry leaves of our bulwark
and built O big white wall around us,
which grew at last thick enough to shut
out the gale entirely.
ssThere were two big eottonwoods, regu-
lar granddaddies, in the middle of the cor
raj. The snow gathered SO thick them
that they soon covered US like a real roof,
and there we were rooted in and walled in,
with our forty head of cattle, as secure as
if there wasn't blizzard in the whole of
Dakota. And we didn't have to wait long
either, for before morning the storm had
turned into a regular blizzard, the famous
one of ZIG that froze SO many frontiersmen
and so much stock to death.
'sBefore we rolled into our blankets by
| the fire it was eleven O'Clock, and the
wind, which had blown at first from the east
| shifted around to the northwest and began to
roar like a thousand stamp mills. Each
| time it shifted it banked our barricade deep
er and higher with snow, and by midnight
i we couldn't see over it. The cattle were
| huddled together under the tree right next
| to us. They chewed away at tie cottonwood
az contented as you please. Their warm
| breath made distinct cloud that seemed to
| hang around in the two big trees over the
corral as if it we're too solid to be blown
| away. At this time the wind seemed tt
have been absolutely walled out from US; W.
could hear it high overhead, but we didn'
feel 50 much an eddy. I must confess
that it gave me some alarm to see the whit
barricades all around us growing to be as tai
as the tree-tops apparently.
| CHOW long we slept I never knew. Mos
billiards. last three days and are worse on tn
| second. When we woke up the stock wa
| standing there as content as ever, chewln
away at the cottonwoods and quite warm am
comfortable. The air all around US wa
warm and still, and the big bed of Goals t.
which the fire had burned down gave out
cheerful glow that was suggestive of dressing
| gowns and slippers. There wasn't spec
of snow visible on the trees or ground
Overhead, resting on the tops of the cotton
woods and curving down to the tops of tn
barricades we had built and the storm ha
strengthened, was conical roof of solid ic
| that shut us in as completely from the storm
| that waged outside as if we were in ston
castle. The heat of the fire and exhalation
from the closely punched steers had sur
| rounded us with warm atmosphere, whicl
| melted the ice in the air as fast as it cam
over our corral, fusing it into continuou
ceiling, which gradually grew thicker ant
heavier, and must have fallen in on US had
not had the trees in the center and our bul
| warks around the sides to rest on.
| ''Well, there we were as snug as bugs il
rugs, and after the novelty of the thing ha'
worn off we had a good time I can tell you
We killed beef, made common stock of on
pocket TASKS and were as happy as kings il
our ice palace. One of the rippingest game
of poker I ever sat into WAS by that very fir
in our frost tent. The drip was disagreea
BILE, for the inside heat kept up continue
melting from the roof, but the storm repairet
damages outside as fast, if not a good dea
faster.
''When the thaw did come we came nea
being drowned of course, but I think l ex
| press the sentiments of the entire part,
when say we parted with feeling of genu
inc regret from our wonderful corral. Tha
was the worst blizzard known in the Yves
since 56 we heard along our way to Dead
| wood But We didn't feel any of it."