Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-21
ROUGH ON THE GAME.
Fears Expressed That Many Quail
and Other Birds Perished
DURING THE RECENT BIG STORM.
Many Hunters We're Driven in by the
Deepness of the Snow.
COMPARISONS WITH FORMER STORMS


week was as various as were the stories of
rebel destltution during the Civil War told
by reliable contrabands." Mr.. j. B.
Grimes stated that it was 18 inches on Mt.
oliver, at least he judged SO from the fact
that there were IS inches of snow on the top
of pump stock, and he reasoned that nearly
30 per cent failed to get a lodgment.
Squire Soffel said he measured it in
his front yard on Mt. Washington
and found 18 inches where there was no
drift. On the other hand, Mr.. Web. Muir
ray states that there was only ten inches in
Knoxville, and Commissioner Mckee stated
that it measured but ten inches at Oakdale
during the forenoon. ALI agreed, however,
that had the fall been dry it would have
made at least two feet.
Many hunters were driven in. among them
Mr.. Samuel Shaner, who had gone down
into the edges of Ohio to shoot rabbits It
feared that quail were killed by the 10000,
or will be, should there be freeze, as they
huddle down under drifts for warmth.
Should there be no dry snow, however, this
danger is much lessened, for Tuesdays in
stallment would not drift much.
Mr.. III. s. Stewart walked in from the
Arbuckle wells, back of CHARTERS, over the
road on which young Caughey was killed
last Friday night, and by the time he
reached Duff's station was so nearly e1-
hausted thar he feared to come to the mouth
OF the creek. He fell so often that had it
not been for the soft covering on the road he
thinks he would have been killed.
Shows Common Years Ago.
The change that has come over the coun-
try in the matter of weather Is such that
young people can scarce conceive that such
snow falls as that of last week were common
40 years ago in this latitude and altitude,
when winter was considered remarkably
open if it did not give six weeks of good
sleighing. But the most remarkable winter
ever known in this section was that of
1856. The summer of 1854 was the dryest
to date in our history, and that of
1856 the wettest, and in the fall
of the latter year weather prophets said
there would not likely be any snow of
consequence. But notwithstanding goose
bone, corn husk, muskrat house and other
infallible signs to the contrary, the beauti-
full began to descend early in the fall, and
more or less fell every day for 6S days, with
just sufficient moisture to make it pack
solidly. 1t was supposed that altogether
there was fall of 10 or II feet un packed
snow, for in March the depth in the piue
woods, where blasts never caused drifts, was
56 inches packed so solidly that it required
considerable weight to drive spade into it.
Strangers passing through the forests near
Cherrytree the next summer thought the
loggers had erected scaffolds on which to
stand when cutting trees. Quail, rabbits
and even squirrels were almost all killed of
on the mountain ridges. the quail on ac-
count of their propensity to huddle under
hr,. o11 hahs I'D I-seA
caught them. or foxes, skunks and other
vermin devoured them, and squirrels and
rabbits because the work of digging through
the drifts to the ground for food was too
great for their strength.
How Rabbits Lived.
Rabbits Jared better than squirrels, for the
former could live on the bark of young
trees, and they could scarce be blamed for
quail were so nearly exterminated that the
CHEEKY call of "Bob White" was rarely
heard during the next three summers. The
ruf1ed grouse, usually called pheasant, did
not suffer much, as it is strong bird that
can fight its way out of snow drift, and
lives mainly on buds in the winter time
Tuesdays experience, which was worse
that in 1886, being more sudden, is enough
to dampen the enthusiasm of those who sigh
for old-time winters and yet want to live in
cities. The modern city. with its lnstan-
taneous communication with the rest of the
world; its electric lights and electric rail-
ways, the wires of all strung on poles; with
its ten to twelve story buildings
and several other modern Improvements
too numerous to mention, is in poor shape to
meet an old-fashioned winter or a modern
blizzard, and many city people themselves
ara nf1 To vuit
skeptical would people beyond the COS have
been if told that strong man in the prime
of life, like Roscoe Conkling, had met his
death facing blizzard in New York Cityl
They might have credited the story had the
scene been laid in a Western prairie, but
not in city, least of all the metropolis of
the country, where shelter could have been
reached within ten feet.
A Tough Experience.
The writer and brother in the winter of
1866 were caught in drift in lonely
road in the Alleghenies, and their horse
sank with the cutter so that he could not be
gotten either back or forward. They broke
through the snow three-quarters of mile,
got couple of shovels and dug
passage for the horse over a quarter
of mile, returned the shovels, drove four
miles through prineval forest to a country
tavern, got their mail and some groceries,
took stiff slug of mountain dew, procured
pint for fuel on the way back, drove home
nine miles, put their horse into the stable
and fed him, ate hearty supper and went
to bed. We got up refreshed the next
morning, and never experienced the
slightest symptoms of a cold, though the
thermometer was but 100 above zero, and
there was a stiff gale blowing.
Such blizzard as that Of Tuesday is
the strongest kind Of an argument for the
burying of all kinds of electric wires, and
a telegraph operator states that they are
Just as easily repaired when out of order,
buried as when strung on poles. Few people
know how many of the latter are rotten
until strain like that of last week is put
on them.
As late as 1860, all the poles and wires in
Pittsburg, when four-story house was con-
sidered a tall one, were very little in the
way in storm like yesterdays, but before
five years more pass electricity will be the
power used to do large part in the work OF
every household, and unless the wires are
buried before that time it will become
dangerous to live in large towns.