New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-03-15
HELPING IAND FROM DAKoTA.


New-York City Is not without friends in
her extremity. M. r. Jewell, OF the Chamber
of Commerce of Bismarck, OAK, telegraphs as
follows to Mayor Hewitt: bismarck stands
ready TO give substantial aid TO blizzard suffer-
crs of New-York. Let us know your needs"
Another kind hearted citizen asks II we want
food or clothes, or both. II matters grow
worse no doubt we shall hear Of meetings to
raise money for us in st. Petersburg. cOntribu-
tions will be cabled from Siberia, and II tho
present unpleasantness. which is in one sense
very late unpleasantness should last well
into spring. relief expeditions will DO sent out
from the shores Of Hudson's Bay. All this,
and more, may occur, If New York persists in
having sudden eruptions of a Polar climate.
Dakota is entitled to shy stone ut lis in
friendly way, for New-York and the East gen.
orally have been shyng stones at Dakota for
long time. We have been so much in the
habit Of thinking of that great Territory as the
home of the blizzard and the cold snap, that
wo have not realized that these were the frigid
exceptions that proved the rule Of hcr equally
salubrious and impartial climate New-fork-
crs would probably be surprised to be told that
n large part of the East has a worse climate
than Daol<ta but an official publication recent
" compiled by the Commissioner Of Immlgra-
ton there demonstrates it by the remorselcss
statistics of the Signal Service. He admits that
during the winter months the thermometer
sometimes registers considerable coldness,"
but aside from this he makes no concessions.
The isothcrmal line of 4Oo-50' mean an
nual temperature which scoffers have repre-
scented as running in the most oblging manner
through any region where there is good deal
of land 10 sell, passes through the wheat coun-
tries of Russia, Austria and Franco and, in the
United States, goes westward through Harris
burg Cleveland and Chicago, turns noithward
TO St. Paul, and then passes westward even
north Of the northern boundary line OF Dakota
and Montana. The air is so dry that ii is
claimed it never chills as the damp atmos-
phere of the Atlantic States does. and. taking
the average, the range is not so low as is COM
monty supposed The mean annual tcmpera-
turc in Dakota. derived from observations dur
ing fifteen years, was 41.5a; in Minnesota
during one year it was 3S.1', and in New
Hampshire 1862 In Dakota the mean aver
age for the three winter months during long
period of years was 11.8e. The average tenn
peIature for the six months beginning with
October and ending with March during fifteen
years past, has been 21.69. Much less snow
falls in Dakota, on the average, than in New
York Last winter there was little more than
half as much as in Vermont, and thcrc seems
TO be some disposition to complain that there Is
hardly enough for slcighriding. In 1885
Dakota had so cloudy days to 1853 in this State
1875 clear days to 76 that we enjoyed, and l75
fair DAYS to 1876 for us. The average annual
death-ratc is only one in l66, while the aver
age for the whole United States is nearly three
times as great.
All this being true wo must admit That we
have grossly misconceived the climate OF Da-
kota Our time has come to be humble with
all the business Of this great city paralyzed.
cut off for time from all communication with
the rest of tho country, and threatened with
famine, New-York is in no position to throw
any more stones at Dakota because some hum
dreds of people persisted on the praires in a
storm of the sort which most of us prudently
preferred to watch from inside brownstone
fronts. Ii Dakota will send along her pro-
visions and old clothes, we will accept them.
and moeky put them where they will do tho
most good.