St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-13
The Belt of Country in Which
Changes are Said to Be p
Most Numerous.
An 0ld-Timep Who Has Seen
Worse Winters Than That
of 1888.
The Great Fall of Snow Pre-
Sages Good Crops for the
Northwest.
CORRESPONDENCE Of the Globe.

tiit po.VuN,uVu pStplS III tuC OillC,'
States of adult years and i'll their right
minds, it is probable that a street car
would hold all who are fully satisfied
with the climate of their locality. Most
people think they live on the dividing
line between the North and the South
or East and West, just where they get
the heat, and cold, and wind, and dust.
and rain, and Sleet and hail, and snow,
subjects all to the many prankS of our
capriclOuS climate. The general idea
Is that somewhere else the weather is
more regular, i'll Cuba, Oregon, the
Sandwich islands, Florida, Southern
California or Colorado, OH the plains. III
the mountains or by the sea. We were
amused recently by reading the eX-
perience of j. Ii. Beadle, not of dime
novel fame. but Journalist and writer
In whom is no guile. Having had the
benefit of extensive travel over our
land he was questioned as to where he
thought the weather was regular, to
which lie replied: If l were asked to
name amy Que strip of our glorious
country where the weather is the very
reverse of regular, where one literally
can't tell what day much more a
night may bring forth. | should name
that strip 800 or 400 miles wide from the
eastern base of the Rocky mountains
down the slope to the old settled sec
lions near the Missouri. And the
farther south one goes the more uncer-
tain, rs rule. the weather is. In Da-
kota and Minnesota you can say with
certainty that from Thanksgiving
to Washington's birthday things will
be tight, and in Nebraska and Iowa
there Is an
APPROACH TO CERTAINTY,
but iii Kansas l have seen man start
out one day in his ShirtSleeyeS and come
back the next day with barely nose
enough to blow, with two fingers disa-
bled and one eye closed. When you ask
what is the matter the usual reply is
60, nOthin' much; got caught in little
snap on the divide; dash, dash sich a
country anyhow" | have seen the
at Cheyenne, WyO., i'll August; l have
Seen the young corn and vegetables
frozen solid at Defiance, AriZ.. in June !:
[ have had to wear heavy overcoat in
Southern Kansas in MAY, and have
had my fingers Stiffen around gun
stock while standing guard in Ten
neSSee the last of February, but if |
were asked to name any one place where
the wind blOweth as it liSteth, without
regard to the constitution of the United
States or the signal Office, where the
genius of the weather has it all her
own way and ObeyS no law, | should
name San Antonio, Tex. 1t is a health
full place. with 'bracing' climate, and
the more sudden and painful the
'nOrther' is the more stimulating the air
for several days thereafter.
Singular as it may be, the very center
of Mr.. Beadle'S strip of uncertainty,
Kansas, has produced more weather
prophets like Foster and Blake, and
during the great storms of the second
week of January suffered more than
any other section of the country. PeO-
pie have short memories, and who is it
that has not heard time and again that
this was the finest spring or the 'hOt-
test SUMNER" or the ''loveliest fall" or
the coolest winter" that the speaker
ever experienced. The records show
that the annual temperature of the
country has
NOT VARIED THREE DEGREES
in fifty years, if the summer is hot, the
winter is cold: if cool summer. a mild
winter, and in this way the sun, which
sends the same amount of heat to the
earth every year, keeps a uniform bal
ance. The earth is growing old. and
most scientists believe that it is gradu-
ally getting cooler. but the cooling-off
process need give no uneaSineSS to the
present generation. Millions Of years
hence, when the frost has SteriiiZed the
Northern lands and gathered life along
the equator, where now
Broad, boundless forests, pure Of human
tread, ss-..
Uprear luxuriant foliage to the SUD.
And like great, imperial mantle, spread
Their green magnifcence round the ANA
ION.
1t will be time enough to begin to think
of the death of the world. The mighty
Northwest, Just now beginning to un-
fold its b0untiful resources, has count
less centuries of life, energy and pros
perity before it. 1t is not YET the prop
erty of the ice king. and the children of
generations of a future period. greater
in length than the historic past, will
make it their dwelling place. The well
Watered plains Of Montana, covered
with nutritious heritage and underlaid
with coal, her wide valleys, rich with
agricultural possibilities, and mountains
freighted with precious metals, have
parts to play in the great drama of
on the continent. Without the bleak
ness of New England or the humidity
of the Pacific coast, it has the happy
medium OF the north temperate zone
best suited to develop aud sustain the
best forms OF human and animal life.
The great falls of the Missouri below
this city have power sufficient TO turn
EVERY SPINDLE IN NEW ENGLAND
and all the gold stamp mills of the
West. From the space in Eastern news
papers given 60 highly exciting accounts
of the storm of Jan. 12-14, one is almost
led to think the like never occurred be-
in flrnh fry
our elbow is an old man whose active
experience as pioneer, soldier and
steam boat captain covers period of
time greater than is ordinarily allotted
to most mortalS, who gives the follow
ing testimony: TALK about storms
and cold weather. The cold wave of
New Years day, 1864, was one of the
most terrific that ever swept over any
civilized land. Unlike the storm last
month. which was limited to Dakota,
Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, the
storm of 1864 extended over all of our
habitable country. Soldiers Oh duty in
all parts of the South we'll remember il.
and the suffering TO man and beast was
Intense from the lakes to the gulf aud
ocean to ocean. The winter of 1872 AZ
was perhaps the most protrau:cd and Sc
we're within my recollection. Snow fell
in the early part of November, and on
until the middle of April there was lit
tie or no mitigation of the cold. Il
was the coolest winter known to white
men in the Mississippi valley. and had
it been as thickly settled as now the suf-
fering and loss of life would have been
great. A steamboat in which had an
Interest left Davenport about the mid
die of November and arrived at StLo.Iis
the second week in May, seven months
on the way. Burlington was reached
before navigation closed, and there the
boat lay until the LIST of May. For
weeks in succession the Thermometer