Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-01-17
CoIdi Colbert! COLDEsT,,,

"' unity -Hlne L0ere was no
telling precisely how cold it was, but
It's estimated at AZ or 43. At Pla.
cerville, same night, "A below, by
spirit thermometer. During the cold
weather this winter, the mercury
over there have regis
tered the same as here, except one
or two mornings, when they indi-
Gated two degrees colder than here.
Saturday night was several degrees
below the previous night. At Pla-
cerville the spirit thermometer went
down to fifty, so here it was forty.
eight or forty-nine. Mercury froze
solid, and crawled clean into the
bulbs. When quicksilver crawls in
to its hole it's pretty cold. Colder
and colder is the rule. Sunday night
would have been enough to make an
Eskimo and polar bear (if they'd
been out in it) wish they'd never
been born. Mercury froze solid as
early as nine o'clock in the evening.
and from that time on till sun up
Monday morning the atmosphere
gradually grew colder. At Placer
vile, however, it was just the same
as Saturday night-ffty below. Sun
day night VIM. Hooton set out some
quicksilver, and yesterday morning
after eight o'clock it was frozen solid.
He placed it In the palm of his hand
and walked to the Luna House, dis
tance of a hundred or a hundred and
fifty yards, and when he arrived, the
quicksilver, Notwithstanding the
warmth of his hand, was still frozen.
Despite our cold weather occasional
ly, our climate possesses one redeem
ing feature. The colder the weather
the stiller is the atmosphere. Dur.
ing the extreme cold snap not a
breath of air was stirring. Men who
have lived in the east tell us thai
they do hot suffer so much from colo
here at 40 below as at 10 or Is cas-
of the Rockies. The severe cold thi.
winter is not the rule here. Ten Of
fifteen below is as cold as it gets dur
ing an average winter, and some win
ters it has gone only few below
and three or four below was the
coolest last winter. The weather we
have been having of late is the Sc
verest ever known in this county, ant
another such winter may never be
experienced again during the exis
tence of the present generation
The young kids of this place (thos'
will live far beyond the regulation
age of many when old Father Tim,
converts them into grizzled and bald
headed weather liars, will regale tn,
young generation of future year
with tales of the awful cold weathe
in Boise county way back in The
year 1888, in January, and tell how
the spirit thermometers registered
down to the last degree, SO below
and then the spirits crawled int
their holes to keep warm, and mer
curry froze on a red-ho stove, anC
how the hardy kids of his time playe'
marbles with quicksilver bullets fro
zen as hard as agate, and that on
Sunday night, when it was SO cold a
to actually freeze the nose Oft bras
monkey. the preacher, not to be out
done by any kind of severe weathe
filled his pulpit as usual, with vleS
of preaching new doctrine-tha
hell had frozen over, and hencefort
the wicked would suffer, undyln9
the torments of nine thousand, min
hundred and ninety-nine degrees be
low the earthly freeze-to-death point
but that the words never reached hi
congregation, they freezing on benz
hurled from the end of his language
tosser, and dropped at his feet, an
made a racket like unto the smast
ing of crockery ware. And then h
will tell how the people have deger
Grated morally and physically sine
the days of his youth, and how tn
generation of the future would treez
up like cast iron statue If the
should come in contact with sue
weather as the generation of his tim
endured uncomplainingly, and TIN
instead of cursing, sent up praye
to the Superintendent of the Wealth
thanking him for net making 1t III
bearable.
SIX men arrived here yesterd'
evening from Graham, in ollv