, 1890-09-04
colo SUMNER WAY eAcK.
The Oldest outdone by -
NIember of the AnanIas Club.


The Oldest InhRbitant tide by n
Member of the AnAnias Club.
eff 1 don't miss my guess very much
we will have snow before morning"
exclaimed Patrolman Josh Spears.
IF YOU remember, the winter of
1762-63 was a very open one In fact,
If / remember rightly, there was but
little weather too chilly for a man TO go
in his shirt sleeves. Why, 1 was run
ming around then barefoot, quite a
chunk of a lad. 1t was in many re-
spects a most remarkable winter. For
instance, we cut hay on the LIST of Jan
uary. Wen, the winter went away and
spring happened along. 1t was just
like any other spring; but an old In
dian chief who lived near our house in
Brown county said that before the year
was done the winter would make up
for lost time. We didn't pay much at
tention to the warning, laughing it
away as an idle jest, and soon it dropped
out of mind entirely. The 23d day of
August. 1868, was the hottest day / ever
knew. The sun raised blisters on the
street pavements, and wells a thousand
feet deep went dry. 1t was not safe
for any person to be where the sun
could get a good square lick at him. If
he did he would shrink up and die right
there. About z o'clock in the evening
a light breeze came up, and the people
ventured out In the western sky
there was Just such n cloud as l pointed
out to you a few minutes ago. We
didn't know what it meant then, but
we found out later on. By o'clock that
evening the atmosphere was cool and
pleasant, and every one went to bed to
catch a little sleep, for the intense heat
of the previous nights had driven sleep
from our eyes. In the morning there was
six feet Of snow all over the town.
Every bit of running water was now
frozen, wells and cisterns were frozen
solid, ali gram and vegetable life were
killed, and flowers withered before the
snow like bananas before my friend
Hart. Several houses where the win
dows had been left opened were half
filed with snow. 1t vas a cracking
cold morning, the mercury was go degs.
below zero and it seemed to be growing
chillier every minute.
About IL o'clock a high wind came
up, and the snow was piled in drifts
about the city. 1t wa banked up
against the Lutheran church to a
height of 20 feet. As II that was not
enough, at . o'clock in the afternoon
the snow commenced falling again.
1t did not come down like plain, every
day 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 because Of the hardness Of
the ground alone-though ii was frozen
so hard that il could not be broken
with dynamite cartridges-but there
was a peculiar atmospheric condition
that was heightened when the snow
ball came in contact with the earth.
and this brought about the bursting /
mentioned previously. There vas not
the least bit of noise attendant ON the
bursting-or, l might say, by a violent
attack on the English language that
the explosion was perfectly noiseless.
But a thousand different colors darted
and dashed from the fragments. It
was the most wonderful pyrotechnic
display | ever witnessed 1t was broad
daylight, too. The result of this
strange unnatural shower Of suowballs
was that over fifty feet of snow was
piled upon that city
"Where-where were the peoplef'
asked Sergt Joyce in a voice faint from
suppressed emotion
Dead. Every one of them dead. In
that city of %, 900 souls not "a single
person escaped. They were smothered
by the snow or killed by the pellets
that came from the clouds. No living
thing, not even n dog, escaped, and
when the glad sunshine came out again
and melted the snow, the raging waters
washed the buildings from the lace of
the earth, and TO this day nota sign can
be found of the once beautiful and en-
terprising city"
st this moment n commotion oc-
CURED at the front door, Sergt. John
Lowe rushed breathlessl. into the room
with the intelligence that a man had
been frozen TO death on Blake street,
near Indiana avenue, and the club filed
out to capture the body before it could
cot aUav -Tndfnpapplia NavVs