New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-12-29

cheese. and the dollars and cents began to fly away
from suly and Bennett to congregate and roost mid
way between the two, beneath the humble mud roof Of
John Bremen, who slowed them carefully away for the
Milwaukee brewers and other future uses.
As the spring time waned away the weather became
exceedingly warm, so much as To- become almost
unbearable. and the parched lard dried up and
cracked and CAPPED under the burning influence of the
Chinook" wind, that remnant of the Japanese cur
rent which, blowing through the mountain passes OF
Montana and distributed by the great valley of the
Missouri, scorches every thing in It's way and makes
Southern Dakota summer day miniature llades.
One by one the sweet wild flowers dropped. and
then they died in masses and Bremer's varied assert
ment Of vegetables followed their example and met
the fate. The short. curly. natural grasses,
whose light and dark green intermxed coloring had
been pleasant to the eye, became yellow and yell
lower and dried up, not only above, but beneath the
surface of the sofor in the prairie fires that sprang
up ali around the fire remained burning in ;he roots
for days after the onward rushing flames had passed
over them.
The scorching wind affected the chickens well
as the plants for, like them, they dropped one by
| one and disappeared by the dozen under the COM
bined effects of the burning heat and the determined
efforts of the coyotes, wild cats. and other vermn
injecting the Missouri bottoms, which banded together
in sort of know nothing" league to prevent the
| aliens from obtaining foothOld in the domain OF
the original possessOrs of the soil.
Day by day the drOuth increased, becoming hercer
| and fercer as the summer went on and Bremen fell
on his knees and cried and prayed for rain. those
that came and went before him did in the old syrian
| days.
one afternoon. he hocng IN his garden he
noticed dark cloud rising IN the northwest Thank
heavens! his prayers had been heard, and rain was
coming at last
AS he gazed on the welcome sign
of forthcoming relief. he perceived an
other dark smoky looking cloud. extending
slowly around the horizon from southeast to south
west and moving rapidly toward the northwest cloud.
As the two clouds together with rush. they
formed central dark spot core darker than the
dark clouds surrounding it, out of which light woolly
| looking cloud of very narrow dimensions began TO
descend toward the earth During its formation 1t
twisted about like rope. and while twisting il would
dart downward at times in a spasmOdic manner then
draw itself upward slowly, each time descending
lower and lower until it struck the earth, when 1t
| again bounded upward like rubber ball.
The cratic bounding cloud assumed the form
OF huge funnel advancing in kangaroo jumps in his
direction. and the dark heavy clouds from which il
depended moved backward and forward either side
the funnel heightened contracted. As ii moved
| onward, and its speed increased it became darker
and darker, until it reached the sombrc hue of the
matrix from which II had generated.
II on, boiling, twisting and drawing itself up
| and down like an enormous black snake hung ny its
head and wreathing in agony. but with distinct
gyratory movement. speeding iresistibly onward
| with a whrling motion. To Bremen the whole tmng
resembled monster elephant suspended in the shy,
picking up peanuts here and there the ground with
It's huge trunk and throwing them up into his capacous
| mouth, while moving straight forward toward him
| with gradually increasing velocity.
As the cloud approached light rain descended
| then ii began 10 grow darker and large hastones
| battered and rebounded the ground. All at
| become
| intense, an immense flash Of lightning ziszagged
| through the clouds. followed by a terrific clap Of
thunder which shook the world all around him to It's
very foundations and brought him to his knees, and
changed his establishment into rrepressble fear.
Afar off he heard loud, sucking noise as If a
Niagara Of waters rushing into partial vacuum
and the increased nearer until it was
like a thousand railway trains coming toward him at
full speed. Then he felt himself smoked up into a
vortex which whired him from right TO left in the
Jaws Of the cyclone with velocity that first made
him gasp, and then took his breath almost completely
| away.
| At times he felt himself away up in the air
and then dashed violently TO the ground. still
whrling around pivotal point. TO which ne was
chained by resistess force. Finally his endurance
gave way. and he died for the time being
When he recovered his consciousness. just the
sun setting in sky blue and serene as if 1t
had never known storm, he found himself stretched
4
seen before. His clothes stripped from his
body, which bedaubcd with gumbo mud from head
TO foot and all that he could hardly rise
and put foot before the other.
Following the Cllch in its downward course, cIoan-
ing and moaning at every step, he came 10 tho
Missouri River, into which he waded to wash of the
mud all over him. lie finally accomplished this after
much diculty-for he felt as if all his bones had been
boiled into jelly When he got rid Of the mud-which
chung TO him with gumbo tenscity-he found the skin
underneath discOored from head TO foot, for the
tire surface of his body ecchymosed with bruises
wind that the flesh nearly black with the settling
Of the blood in the tissues Of the skin.
He lay down exhausted on the river bank and slept
up when he assembled one Of the river bluffs take his
bearings. lie found himself about four miles from
home, toward which he turned his weary footsteps.
When he reached the spot halowed by his toll he
had TO rub his eyes in order TO convince himself that
he was not dreaming. Nothing remained standing.
Dwelling house and chcken-coop. such they
had disappeared, and Dame Fortune had flown 10
parts unknown, taking the remaining chickens and
the portrait Of his beloved father, well as the
,towed-away dollars along with her. after sweeping
the surface Of his garden clean with
broom.
During the day team with several soldiers passed
near him its way from Bennett 70 Sullv. He MN
aged Overtake it-much 70 the surprise OF the sol
son CrusOe without his furs. Borrowing a blouse
from one and pair OF trOuser OVeralls from another.
he made his entry into the post in tOerahe FORM and
here he remained recuperae for further efforts in
his pursuit of fortune.