St. Paul daily globe., 1888-02-09
GROSSLY EXAGGERATED.
Yankt0n's Board of Trade Nails Numer-
Gus Palsehoods
REGARDING THE BLIZZARD.
The Loss of Human Life Not Over zoo
Reckless Live Stock
Reports.

YANKToN, Dak., Feb. S.-The Yank-
ton board of trade, with the full knowI-
edge of the facts obtained by careful
and thorough inquiry, request the East
ern papers and press associations to
give place to true statement in regard
to the blizzard Of Jan. IL. The story Of
Agent Kinney has been supplemented
by one sent out from Sharon, Pa, both
to the effect that a thousand lives we're
lost and great numbers of stock de-
stroyed.
The storm was phenomenal in sud
denness and severity. Upon warm
day, when it was thawing, with slight
snow fall or rain In places, into an at
mosphere loaded with moisture, came a
severe northwest wind. The moisture
was frozen in its ultimate particles, and
came with the wind-like doubled fog or
wave of dense smoke, and it grew
colder for twelve hours. In southeast
ern Dakota the storm came in the mid
die OF the day, at time when the most
people were abroad.
The day was pleasant and many thou
sands of people were out upon their
farms and upon the prairies upon every
Kind OF business, mostly clad for the
pleasant day. There were probably
$4,000 children in school. OF all these,
so caught by the storm, over an area in
Dakota OF 10000 square miles, not over
l75 lives in all were lost, or at the out
side 200
Reports, rumors and wild Imagination
exaggerated everything, and two men
have added glaring falsehood. Maj.
Kinney saw nothing that he pretended
to or is credited with reporting. He
drove by team from the Indian agency
to Yankton, stopping over a night
OF two on the way. He made
no complaint here of suffering
by himself and wife, and went forward
comfortably in the cars. To no one did
he make his great report till he was out
of the country. His statement that rail-
road passengers suffered from cold and
that children were frozen to death in
passenger cars was pure fabrication.
totally devoid of truth or Semblance of
truth. The other man specifies one death
and reports 500. Both clinch their false
hoods with the reports that the facts
were suppressed. Every local paper
printed all the facts. Minneapolis, st.
Paul, Sioux City and other papers had
agents everywhere that gathered the
details. From Yankton as a news cen
ter all the facts within 100 miles were
reported. Similar activity prevailed at
other centers. There was reduplica-
tiOn of everything. false and true.
In IanktOn county three lives were
lost. These were all in one neighbOr-
hood, where all the people were out and
all lightly clothed. This was the total
loss among thousands of people and
school children who were exposed.
As to live stock the exaggeration is
still worse. OF the 5000 horses, 1000
sheep, 10000 cattle and $4,000 hogs in
the county not over fifty in all were
lost. The herds that were reported in
this county and others to line the road
side with carcasseS are alive and fat.
Some OF these herds have since been
shipped from this place. Similar reck-
less reports were made from other
localities.
The storm was uneXampled. Nothing
Just like it ever occurred before. For
fifteen years nothing comparable with
it has happened. The worst storm in
the Northwest was Dec. 81, 1868, and
Jan. l, 1864, and caused suffering and
death in our army clear down to the
Gulf states. The worst cold of the
storm OF Jan. II was not in Dakota, but
in Wisconsin and Michigan, and storm
surprising it in snow and equaling it in
all other respects has since swept over
INCW o1h ttIlu NcW LuSIallu, dIl area
about equal to that Of Dakota. The
further reckless repetitions about the
Dakota storm should cease.
GEO. r. SCoUGAL,
President Board of Trade.
The foregoing statement is coneurred
in by j. H. Teller, mayor of Yankton;
j. G. McVay, president First National
bank; Newton Edmunds, president
Bank of Yankton; W. FL. II. Beadle,
president Yankton Packing company;
Bowen and Kingsbury, editors Press and
Dakotian, and F. M. Ziebach, receiver
of the United States land office.