Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1889-02-08
pAKorA's GREAT BLIZZARD.



AS the time for billiards comes round
again, says n writer in the Atlantic
Monthly, ! propose to invite the club
to meet at our camp, Rosebud agency,
southern Dakota. To prepare the
minds of the members let me recall our
experience Of last January. We knew
before We got out of bed. in this little
government school-house, that the most
awful storm we had ever witnessed was
imminent. The sky was inky. In a
few minutes the storm began, and in
half an hour from this time it was at its
height. Lila ventured a few yards out
of the front door at its beginning and
was near not getting back. The wind
struck her with such violence as to
bring her head down to level with her
knees and take away her breath. She
said she was near falling on her face,
and she knew that if she fell she would
not get up again. She got to the house,
bent at the angle into which the wind
had forced her. The storm ragged
without one moments abatement or lull
during the whole day and far into the
night when We fell asleep. At first the
little frame building creaked and shiv-
cred like o ship at sea, and we wonder
ed how anything constructed by the
hand of man could stand against that
wind. After the first half-hour it was
impossible to distinguish the sound Of
grooming timbers, for the ears were
filled with the rush OF the elements. 1t
was like the roar and surging Of a
mighty ocean.
Being in the house we could see out
few yards on one side-the side from
which the storm did not come. On the
other three sides the snow beat and
come in (though the house is close and
tighD, and went half way across the
school-room. 1t hung in q beautiful
fringe, several inches long, from the
drying rope stretched across the room,
and festooned the maps on the walls
and finally blocked up the windows till
they were as impeneterable as snow
banks.
1t was n comfort TO us to believe, as
we then did, that this greatest of all
billiards had set in rs early in other
camps as in ours, and that no human
being was exposed to its fury. No
sun had risen over our heads on that
day and we had rung no school bell;
we could not know that bells were
ringing from many a prairie school
house and that the fair promise of the
day was Turing men, women, and chill
dren TO their doom.
On the afternoon preceding this de-
structive day no snow fell, but the
force of the wind was so great that ii
lifted up from the boundless prairie the
accumulated drifts of weeks and car
ried them along in great waves, so that
the whole earth seemed in motion and
rising heavenward. The outline OF
these vast pillows and the intervening
troughs, as seen against the horizon,
was the most impressive sight that had
ever met my eyes.
On the morning of the 18th the mer-
curry registered % degrees below zero
and the wind was blowing cruelty.
The drifts between us and the village
were so deep that we thought il unsafe
to ring for the children. But they came
over the half mile, through drifts waist
deep to large children, and the two
faithful policemen. Stiff Arm and Cut
Foot, came to see how we had got
through the blizzard.
The school-room was not TO be
thought of on that bitter day, and we
brought the children and the police.
men into our bedroom to thaw out. We
run the mercury up to 10 degrees
within two feet OF the stove; at dis.
lance OF eight feet it was 95 degree:
lower. Not one of the children uttered
sound OF complaint, but the big tear:
rolled silently down the swollen cheeks
of one OF the little girls when the
genial warmth of the room began tc
make her comfortable.
Our fifteen-mile-off neighbor, the
young teacher at the camp, stepped in
one evening to ask il we could give
him bed for the night. He had been
trying all day TO get to his camp and
had consumed four hours in travelling
one mile and half. His plucky little
Indian pony dragged the wagon
through the heavy drifts by main force,
the wheels not turning and the horse
waddling where he could not walk. The
sheet of ice inclosed his nose and an
icicle more than q foot long hung from
it, This gentle animal during the
blizzard OF the 18th not only broke his
halter, but paved down thick stable
door with hinges foot lone. His
master went out into the storm to see
how he was faring. He spent two hours
in looking for him, though he was only
q few yards from him. When found he
was mass OF ice, his eyes nearly closed
by it, and giant icicle hanging from
his nose.
Mr. Warmers own eye-lashes froze