Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-20
\ COLD wRArunR STORY

LOlO Oy 0 xOun3 m4A WHO "AD - Member of the Famous schwatka Exploring Party.
 With the near approach of real hot weather perhaps story, not one of fiction but fact, of Arctic coldness will not be out of place. The following article was writ ten by a young man who has led quite an eventful life and who ran away from his home, in this state not far from this city, to sail the ocean blue. He joined the fa- nous Schwatka exploring expedition and this is one of the stories which he tells:
 I once asked an old captain how cold he had seen it in the Arctic. 'Cold" he re- piled, ''why young man, I've heard your soft stories about the lightning freezing to fences, but as Davy Jones is my judge, said he solemnly, once saw the time in Re- pulse bay, where you passed one winter, when it was so cold that the meridians and parallels of latitude and longitude froze up solid, and we thought of reeling lem up and takin' lem back to Bedford as @ cargo of telegraph wire only they was too coarse for the business; why, Sanford, that night went out to the foremast where the thermometer was hangin' an I see the speerits gittin' down as fast as nature would let lem an l went below in hurry and told the boys they had better put blanket an plenty of fire around the stove so as to stop it from freezin', as it looked as if all the cold in creation was let loose. They laughed at me an had lem come on deck and we watched the plaugey tube for some time. thought sure she would bust. All the spirits got clean down in the bulb. AL though all the boys were shivering as if they had the ague, says: Let's watch the blamed thing and see what she will do now. .-
 We'll, sir! The bulb was as big as . hazel nut, but that pesky stuff kept gittin' down, down, down, till it had shrunk to the size of No. shot. And it didn't even stop there. For then! (and the old man winked at me solemnly) the thermom- eter got down off the nail and kept goin' till it got way down in the cabin to get warm.
 I never saw it quite as cold as that, but I do recollect one day that was pretty chilly, especially for one fellow, so here goes the story.
 It was our custom daily in September, after we had frozen into winter quarters, to make fishing excursions to the fresh wa ter ponds which abounded on the island for land locked salmon.
 One of the crew of boatsteerers, named Sam, would never accompany us, but would fo'castle, hugging the red-hot stove until we returned with the days catch, and then regale us with the biggest sort of stories about his powers in the piscatorial line. He had some of the most astounding ad- ventures in his fishing experience, and all ways caught the largest string of any in the party he ever accompanied, according to his version. At last, after hard urging and little persuasion in the shape of whisky on my part, he decided to go with us on the next pleasant day and prove the love of the fnny tribe for his particular ty.
 The next day was calm and pleasant, 80 early in the morning we hurried to the fo'castle batch and reminded Sam of his promise. He at last came on deck, bundled up warmly in deerskin suit, but when he saw the thermometer which registered 22 below his determination seemed to waver, and he glanced longingly down the hatch way toward the warm quarters he had just left. Our peals of laughter at his lugu- brious countenance seemed to screw his courage up to the sticking point, and after brisk fifteen minutes walk we arrived at the lake.
 Sam chose the side nearest the ship for his efforts. I saw very plainly why. He wished to return to the ship as soon as we had got ten feet away from him, for if any man enjoyed good substantial heat he was the one. We left him chopping out one of our old fish holes and hurried to the other side, where the water was deeper, tc try our luck, and was soon busily engaged in hauling out the beauties.
 '1 guess Sam is having pretty good lucl according to his actions," said the mate.
 I turned around to look, and there sal Sam on the ice quarter of mile away swinging his arms in an excited way and shouting at the top of his voice. paid no further attention to him till heard startled exclamation from the mate, anG turned and saw him running toward San at the top of his speed.
 immediately followed him, and wher we reached the negro there he lay stretched out on the ice in an unconscious condition
 He had thrown the slush from the hole he had chopped out on the ice and had un Intentionally sat down in it and certain portions of his clothing had frozen fast, st he was unable either to extricate himself from his position, or even exercise enough to keep his blood in circulation. We wert obliged to cut parts of his clothing iron his body in order to free him, and afte, some brandy had been forced between hi' lips to partially revive him we hurried him to the ship, where he was obliged te sit for some time in bucket of snow tt gently thaw out. He had only had on' bite, and that was caused by Jack Frost We never heard any more big stories iron him, and for some time he was obliged tt eat his meals in standing position, ant you can depend upon my statement whel I claim that fish formed no part of hi diet.