Mower County transcript., 1890-04-23
LOST IN A BLIZZARD.
Five Hours Wandering In q Death.
Dealing Blast.


Dealing Blast
It showed. Over the whole >.Aotony
OF the level prairie hung a palrM dirt
colored clouds, and from them, steadily,
aoiselesslV persistently, fell the snow
fakes It had commenced showing
about midday; hesitatingly at first,
thor the storm became interested In its
work AID . great snowfall impended.
There Is something particularly desolate
about snow-storm in lonely locality.
Rain Is sad and dispiriting; it makes the
does not otherwise change its features.
Snow, on the contrary, metamorphoses
every thing. First, the road, the con-
Meeting link with civilization, merges
into the wide expanse Of snow.covered
prairie; then the little improvements
and fixtures you have placed about your
house as reminder OF days at home in
the East disappear, until you feel as II
. vast ocean Of white foam had drowned
all the world and left your house like An
isolated island alone in Wilderness OF
loneliness.
Some such ideas traversed my mind
IS gazed from my window, by the gray
light Of the dying day, at the bleak
wintry expanse, and for the first time
since l had pitched my tent in the West
felt despondent. I had talked and
imagined myself into o sense of tamil
iarity with the rigors of pioneer life;
but here was its realization; this was a
taste Of the winters of the mighty
West, . fragment Of the many storms to
occur.
Six months ago we felt lonely and
isolated in tho throbbing heart of q
great Eastern city, and longed for the
freedom and company of nature; and
now we shudder at touch of her hand.
When l married I was a business man;
hosts of friends pressed my hand in con-
graduation, and smiled on me as they
passed. One year after the tide of pros
perity ebbed from my office, and the
food never returned. Failures here,
reclamations there, losses of some sort
everywhere, until one day gazed at my
balance-sheet discharged my clerks,
handed my store key to the janitor, and
went out of trade. Disguised with the vi
cissitudes of commerce, 1 tried specula-
ton with the salvage Of my wrecked
commercial enterprise, but the first op-
erations resulted so disastrously that l
wrote mo thoroughfare" on that avenue
to wealth, and etabout finding another.
1t was imperatively necessary to do
something. Then came longing for
the great West, to leave the beaten,
trampled pathways Of civilization, and
settle and rise with q new country.
BY the merest chance had fallen in
with settler in Cedar County, la. He
had thousand acres of land, had built
. house and barn, and plowed his fold;
then his wife died, and the man. lone
some to desperation, determined to join
his brother in Kansas. I bought his
farm. The house and barn helped me
vastly on the way to founding homo,
otherwise would have been obliged to
delay until they were built. keptone
man, and negro woman, who had
served my wife in the South, accom-
panied US. This was our help. Besides,
/ had one horse and COW. Rather a
small complement for thousand-acre
farm, but more would be useless during
the winter
Thus it was that gazed from my win
dow at the falling snow somewhat dis
pirited, little awel, perhaps, at our
isolation, and
''Dick, there's not grain of sugar in
the house!'
A very pleasant voice spoke these
words, voice that had often soothed
and encouraged me as no other voice
ever can or will; but now it brought q
frown TO my brow.
mo sugar, Helen!" I exclaimed,
''why, bought some sugar two days
ago."
''Yesy despondingly, ''but the man
gave you salt in mistake, and what will
May do without sugar in her milk?''
understood what was expected of me-.
must go two miles over the snow-cov-
cred prairie to the village, in order that
the queen of the household, our four
year-old daughter May, might relish her
milk.
Now, several circumstances conspired
to make this task very unwelcome one,
barring the inclement weather. My
horse had hurt his leg and was unfit for
use, my farmland had departed that
morning ON leave of absence of three
days and to crown all had just been
congratuIating myself on the cha nee to
enjoy restful evening after hard
days work. ~,-
''Confound the sug arp said l, and, an
unfailing resort of mine in trouble,
took out my pipe and tobacco pouch.
The pouch was empty; walked to the
cupboard to refill it from the box. Con.
sternation! that was also empty. Here
was q state of affairs! The next day
was Sunday, and tobacco, unless gotten
tc-niQht, would be unattainable till
Monday. The idea of tonight, to-mor
row and tomorrow night unseasoned
AID nnsc.nted with the incense from
my meerschaum was horrible. Fortu.
nate daughter MAY! Had found m boz
filed with tobacco, fear, streng q.
may Lc my parental love, !uat 70,
would haze elevated your pretty nos.
over unsweetcned milk. AS it was,
departed from my threshold amid th'
hi,H and smudgs Of q snow-storu,, NO