San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-07-14
A Cold Summer.
Indianapolis News.

ing,n explained Patrolman Josh
Spears last night. AS he spoke he
looked at the sky and then at his
friends in the Ananias Club. 81
doesn't sound reasonable to say that
snow will fall on or about the lst of
July, but 1 have known stranger
things than that. to happen. ~
"If you remember, the winter
of 1928 was a very open
one; in fact, if I remember
rightly. there was but little weather
too chilly for man to 60 in his shirt
eeves. Why I was running around
then barefoot, quite chunk OF lad.
1t was in many respects a
most remarkable winter. For
instance, we cut hay on the LIST of Jam
uary. Well, the winter went away
and spring happened along. 1t was
just like any other spring, but an old
Indian chief, who lived near our
house, in Brown County, said that be-
fore the year was done the winter
would make up for lost time. We didn't
pay much attention to the warning,
laughing it away as an idle
Jest, and soon it dropped out
of mind entirely. The 23d day
day of August, 1853, was the hottest
day / ever knew. The sun raised
blisters on the street pavements, and
wells thousand feet deep went dry.
1t was not safe for any person to be
where the sun could get good square
lick at him. If he did he would
shrink up and die right there. A bout
7 o'clock in the evening a light
hrnnua orI rho Manila
tured out. In the Western sky there
was just such cloud as pointed
out to you a few minutes ago. We
didn't know what it meant then, but
We found out later - -oD. By 8
o'clock that evening the at
mosphere was cool and pleas
ant, and every one went to bed to
catch little sleep, for the intense
heat of the previous night had driven
sleep from our eyes. In the morning
there were six feet of snow all over
the town. Every hit OF running
water was now frozen, wells and els.
terms were frozen solid, all grain and
vegetable life was killed, and flowers
withered before the snow like ba-
nanas before my friend Hart. Several
houses where the windows had been
left opened were half filled with
snow. 1t was cracking cold morn
ing, the mercury was 60 degrees be-
low zero and it seemed to be growing
chillier every minute.
About IL o'clock high wind came
up, and the snow was piled in drifts
about the city. 1t was banked up
against the Lutheran church to a
height of 20 feet. AS if that was not
at 2 o'clock in the afternoon
the snow commenced falling again.
1t did not come down like PLAIN
everyday winter snow. There were
no flakes, but spheres about the size
of base balls. They were as hard as
chilled steel until they struck the
earth, and then they burst, not be-
cause of the hardness of the ground
1t was frozen SO hard
that 1t could not be broken with
dynamite cartridges-but there was q
peculiar atmospheric condition that
was heightened when the snow
ball struck the earth, and this
brought about the bursting I men,
toned previously. There was not the
least bit of noise attendant on the
bursting-or, might say, by a vio-
lent attack on the English language
that the explosion was perfectly
noiseless. But a Thousand different
colors darted and dashed from the
1t was the most wonder
fal pyrotechnic display l ever wit
1t was broad daylight, too.
The result of this strange unnatural
shower of snow balls was that over so
feet of snow was piled upon that city
"Where-where were the people?"
asked Sergt. Joyce IN a voice faint
from suppressed emotion.
Dead. Every one of them dead. In
that city of $4,000 souls not single
person escaped. They were smothered
by the snow or killed by the pellets
that came from the clouds. No living
thing, not even a dog, escaped, and
when the glad sunshine came out
again and melted the snow, the
from the face of the earth, and to this
day not a sign can be found of the
once beautiful and enterprising city"
At this moment commOtion oc-
CURED at the front door, Sergt. John
Lowe rushed breathlessly into the
room with the intelligence that q man
had been ffozen to death ON Blake
street, near Indiana avenue, and the
club filed out to capture the body be-
fore it could get away.
New ORLEANS rejoices in having
kicked out of the pale of the
state Sunday law by grace of the
state legislature. 1t has no tears
however for the rest of the state still
in that bond of ininultv and GALL of