The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-01-17
Accounts Coming in from the Stricken
Districts.
Wednesday the Morning Opened Beauti-
fully hat Night Fell On n Scene
Of Death and Desolstson.

are being counted. The pitiful list
is growing almost every hour. 1t is not
improbable when the record is complete,
it will show a hundred lives sacrificed to
the awful fury of the blizzard. Next to
| this, the worst blizzard that the North
west ever experienced occurred January
Z, and 0, 1878. In that storm seventy
| people were frozen to death and thou
sands of dollars worth of property de-
be even more terrible in it's results. Ii
came without warning.
| IN THE EARLY MORNING.
| At sunrise last Wednesday, Dakota
never had more lovely winter weather.
The air was clear as crystal, and every
object above the horizon was distinctly
visible. The wind was from the South,
warm and balmy, AMI before the sun
was high in the sky a decided thaw had
set in. Farmers took advantage of the
beautiful weather to go to town to
draw wood, hav. etc.
THE SCENE CHANGES.
About noon the cloud was seen along
| the horizon, lying close to the ground
but stretching out from west to north in
a dark semi-circle. Little attention was
paid To it, but in an hour the cloud had
swept over the country, the sun was OBJ
scured, snow WAS falling and gale was
| sweeping from the northwest with terri
BILE fury. The blizzard had begun.
CLOSING OF THE FEARFUL DAY.
The mercury fell rapidly and by D
O'Clock it was fifteen degrees below zero
and the next morning it registered thirty
below. All the while the wind increased
| in fury, the snow fell thicker and the
large amount of snow that was already
on the ground was blown into powder
| and hurled along by the wind. On the
prairie objects forty feet distant could
not he seen, and mans voice could not
be heard six feet distant. The air was
full of snow fine ASH our and the roaring
o. the wind and the darkness caused by
SO much snow in the air made the scene
the most dismal, dreary and forsaken
that man has ever looked upon. Every
railroad in Dakota and Minnesota, and
many Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin
railroads, were blockaded. Telegraph
wires everywhere were down, and it
was not until Saturday that the full ex-
tent and awful results of the storm be-
came apparent.
BRAVE MARY CONNELL.
The telegraph wires bring stories of
suffering, terrible struggles for life and
heroic deeds by brave men and women
OF the storm-stricken sections that have
never been equalled- Mary Conneil, a
little school teacher near Cavour, started
home with two of her pupils, a boy and
girl. The boy left them and peri5hed-
Miss COnneIl put her dress folds about
the little girl and made her walk all
night, sheltering her charge with her
body. They were found next morning
alive, but horribly frozen.
TALES OF SUFFERING AND DEATH.
Another teacher, Miss jacobson, near
Stolof, started home with little girl
Both perished. When found Miss Jacob
son was crouched in n little hollow i'm
the ground with her arms about the little
girl and her dress shirt wrapped about
her. Her bonnet was off her head and
her hand clutched her dress at her
throat, but there was a smile on her
face.
Two children, n boy and girl, of Joseph
Hutchison, near Gary, were lost going
home from school. Twenty-Five men at
once started on a search for them, and
the mother could not be kept from e,oine,s
| along. The poor woman was with the
party who found them. They were lying
| close together, and the boy had his sis
ter's hands between his own.
| A PARTY OF SEVEN LOST.
Thursday forenoon, Just before the
blizzard struck this point, a party of
seven farmers about twenty five miles
northeast of here started for their homes,
having been here with wheat. Reports
come that the bodies of four of them
have been found dead. Searchit z parties
are out looking for the others.
WITHIN FORTY FEET OF HER DOOR
Mrs. Knutson, of Rushmore, was
found frozen to death within forty feet
of her door. Her husband was absent
and becoming uneasy she started in
search of him, losing her life in the act.
DYING FROM sUFFOCATIoN.
These are but few of the many ter
rible stories which have come in, the
majority of which have been briefly
mentioned before in these dispatches A
number of the dead had the appearance
of having died from suffocation- Some
had torn their clothing away from their
throats, and others had torn away their
head covering and were clutching at
their throats as though struggling for
breath.
EFFECTS OF A BLIZZARD.
During a genuine blizzard the air is
filed with fine ice dust driven with ter
rifle force, which chokes the unfortu-
nate victim in a short time if he at
tempts to stand against il.
THE LATEST.
MINNEAPoLIs, January 16.-The Jour
nars revised list of the blizzard fatal