Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1890-01-17
snnd-stOrm Terrors.

no not WINDS mere, anyhow, TO drink up
your very life at one gust, and leave you
limp as a wet rag, said |, as we sat on
deck in the dreamy Mediterranean twi
light. Il got caught by them once in
| Egypt, and a passing Arab howled after
me, None but pig and a Christian can
face the khamsin" (hot wind. "And
answered, so see, my friend, for you and
are the only living things abroad 2"
well, I'd sooner face that than such a
sand storm as we had once in Arizona, 3"
said a gaunt, wiry, keen-eyed man beside
me, who looked like an old soldier. IAN
in one moment the whole sky seemed to
rush down upon us as if it were a big pep
per-box with the lid off, and instantly all
was dark as night, and | felt as if forty
thousand ants were eating me up at once.
/ You should see how the beasts whisked
round to get their backs to it, and ducked
their heads down And how the men shut
their eyes, and pulled their hats down over
their faces, and covered their mouths with
their hands But it was no use trying to
keep the dust out it seemed to get inside
ones very skin. When it cleared off we
all looked as if we'd been bathing in brown
sugar. and you might have raked a match
on any part of my skin, and it would have
lit right away"
] lbu ueeu NOT 20 10 Arizona lDT JudJ,
| cried his English neighbor. "You can see
the same thing on the outskirts of Moscow
any summer day you like. The moment
the wind rises all your surroundings are
clean blotted out and the whole air is a
whirl Of hot prickly dust, making you
smart from head to foot. Passing wagons
loom dimly through the driving storm la
dies hold down their wells with the grasp of
desperation men shut their eyes and
| plunge blindly on, like mad bulls and
every time you draw breath you feel as if
you were taking snuff at the rate of half a
bushel a second"
Most Russian towns are like that said
but the worst sand storm | ever saw
was in the Kara Koom BLACK Sand desert,
between the Ural mountains and the Syr-
Daria (Jaxartes), when poor McGahan and
| were following the Russian army in its
march upon Khiva 1t was Just about sun
set on the third day, and ] was half across
the desert, when a detachment of mounted
Cossacks appeared in the distance, coming
slowly from the northward, They had got
near enough to be plainly seen, when sud
denly the biggest of the three camels that
drew my Tartar wagon stopped short and
began to snuff the air uneasily, Its uneasi-
ness seemed shared by my Kirghiz driver,
!
ering with excitement. goaded the beasts to
their full speed with wells and whip cracks
up low ridge in front of us.
I'VE had hardly reached the top when
saw the advancing Cossacks leap from their
horses and fling themselves on the ground
with the greyish- white dust of which their
greyish-white dresses mingled so completely
that it seemed as if the earth had swallowed
them. Just then nv camels fell flat on the
earth, and the Kirghiz, screaming 'Teb
bad ? (sand-storm) threw himself besid,
them. l had just time to notice that the
horizon had suddenly grown blurred anC
dim, as if seen through a wet glass, wher
my Tartar servant dragged me down beside
him into the bottom of the wagon and pulled
a heavy shawl over us both. The mex
moment came a rush and roar, rocking
the huge wagon like a toy, the air grew
thick and close as if we were in an over
heated room and the skirr of the sane
against the tilt was like the chirping of
thousand grasshoppers,
But Just as we were almost stified, the
noise began to abate and we ventured Il
peep forth. The passing storm had lef
the air bitterly cold, and in the dim moon
light we saw the whole plain lashed int
huge ridges like stormy sea. NV wagol
and camels were more than half buried ant
the Kirghiz was gone altogether and whei
he started up out of the sand in his lonl
white robe it was Just like corpse risin
from the grave But for that high groun
which kept the sand from burying us W
should all have been dead men. AS for tn
Cossacks they got up, shook themselves am
went on as if nothing had happened"
DdUid Ker in HdIper's WeekiU