St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-02-02

boy urged his father to 60 and look for
help, but he refused to leave him.
They remained together during the
night, a st. Bernard dog with them.
The boy was entirely covered up with
snow and says he was quite comforta-
BILE, though he knew his father was
! freezing. In the morning the father
was still alive and said to his boy,
''Now Johnny, you pray and I'll pray,
and then / know God will take you
through all right" They both prayed,
and soon after the father breathed his
last. The dog stood sentry over them
and guided searching party to where
they lay but the father had given his
life for his son. Another incident is
reported from Iowa. A young lady,
having in charge lad of l2 years, was
basely deserted in the storm by her
companions, two young men, who
went off and found shelter for them
selves. Undismayed, she wrapped the
boy in all the extra clothing she had
and stayed with him until they were
rescued. The boy was found uninjur-
ed, but the young lady was terribly
frozen, though still alive. A man liv-
ing near Miller, OAK, went out in the
storm to get doctor for his suffering
boy who had met with an accident.
He lost his way and was frozen to
death. The boy also persisted from the
cold and injuries he had received.
Miss jacobson, a school teacher near
st. Olaf, Mimi, started home with a
little girl and both persisted. When
found the teacher was clasping the lit
tie girl in her arms, having wrapped
the folds of her dress around her, and
a smile was on her face.
Many thrilling escapes from the
storm are recounted. A party of men
who had gone out to rescue the pas
sengers of a snow-bound train west of
Huron, were unable to find S6eir way
back. Procuring a coil of rope, they
tied one end to q telegraph pole and
then with the other end walked about
until they found the next telegraph
pole. Thus the whole party, 35 in all,
moved on, guided by the rope from one
telegraph pole to the next, until they
all reached the village safe. A farmer
near PipestOne, Mimi, was Overtaken
by the storm quarter of a mile from
home. After wandering about for two
hours, he stumbled across a neighbours
house, and then, fearing that his son
and hired man would get lost hunting
for him, he took some laths and pieces
of string and staked ont a line through
the snow, reaching home just at dark.
A school teacher at Myra Valley, Neb.,
had Ii pupils under her charge. The
storm struck the schoOl-house with
such force as to tear the door off its
hinges, and the next gust unrOofed the
building. Thus exposed to all the flu
ry of the storm, the teacher took some
Irvine and tied the children together,
three abreast, and then taking the
youngest child in her arms, she guided
them, after much difficulty, to farm
house three-quarters of q mile distant
where they were all cared for.
But it is not needful to multiply in
cidents to show the real nature of a
blizzard. 1t is thing to be dreaded
as much as cyclone and it will be a
welcome day for the jewellers upon the
open prairies of the Northwest when
the causes which operate 10 produce
these storms shall be so we'll known
that ample warning may be given of
their approach. 1t should be said, |
however, that as the country becomes |
more thickly settled, these storms will
lose much of their terror. Fatalities
have been reported only Tor mainly
from the sparsely- settled districts,
where the houses are miles apart.
The storm was equally severe in other
localities, but shelter was more easily
found. Moreover, in many cases suf-
fering and death resulted from sheer
A blizzard is something
that it will not do to take risks upon.
Presence of mind, too, will often avert
disaster. More than one person saved
his life in the recent storm by covering
himself up in the snow.
Another fact should be remembered.
The casualties of the late blizzard,
great as they were, would not compare
in number with the deaths occurring
in some Eastern city during the intense
heat of the summer, and which may
be traced directly to that as a cause.
1t is no more fair utterly to condemn
Jhe climate of the Northwest because
Of an occasional blizzard, than it
would be to condemn the climate of
New York or Chicago because of the
arge death-rOll in the summer months.
The country and its climate should be
Judged of as a whole and viewed from
his standpoint, no one need be de-
erred from making his home in the
Northwest because of the great blizzard
Of 1888. III. w. GLEASON.