The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-03-04
make It trembIe. When Won want "a axJ

press extreme triviality of weight YOU saw,
Light as feather" but snowflake /,
much lighter. It is just twenty-four times
lighter than water. And yet the accumula.
tlon OF these fakes broke down. a few days
ago, In sight Of my house. six telegraph poles.
maze helpless polics and fire departments
and halted rail trains with two laundering
locomotives.
We have already learned so much of the
power Of electricity that we have bacome
careful how we touch the electric wire and
In many case touch has been death. But
few days ago the snow put its hand OH most
of these wires, and tore them down as though
they were cobwebs. The snow said: "You
1t and hurl it to the ground. Your boasted
electric lights adorning your cities with bub-
bles of fire, Twill put OUT as easily as your
ancestors snufPed out a tallow candle" The
snow put its finger on the lip Of our cities
that were talking with each other and they
went into silence, uttering nota word. The
snow mightier than the lightning.
In March, 1885, the snow stopped Amer
lea. It said to Brooklyn, 'tStay homer to
New York, 'Stay home" to Philadelphia.
"Stay homer to Washington, "Stay home"
to t., Richmond, Stay homs% on sn 1t Put INTO re1I
merce whose wheels never stopped before.
stopped then. What was the matter? Power
of accumulated snowfakes. On the top of
the Apennines one fake falls, and others fall,
and they pile up and they make mountain
of fleece on the top OF a mountain OF rock,
until one day gust Of wind, or even tine
voice of mountaineer, sets the frozen vapors
into action, and by awful descent they sweep
everything in their course-trees, rocks.
villages-as when in 1927 the town of Briel,
in Valais, was buried, and in 1924, in Switzsr-
land, three hundred soldiers were entombsd.
These avalanches We're made up of single
snowhakes.
What tragedies Of the snow have been
witnessed by the monks Of st. Bernard, who
for ages have with the dogs been busy in ex-
Treating bswildered and overwhelmed
travellers in Alpine storms the dogs with
blankets fastened to their backs and TASKS Of
spirits fastened to their necks to resuscitats
helpless Travellers one Of these dogs decorated
with medal for having saved the lives OF
twenty-five persons, the brave beast himself
slain of the snow on that day when accom-
panying = Piedmontese courier on the way to
his anxiols household down the mountain,
the wife and children Of the Pieimontese
courier coming up the mountain in search Of
him, an avalanche covered all unl Ter pyra-
mids higher than those under which the
Egyptian monarchs sleep their sleep OF ths
ages!
What an illustration of tho tragedies Of
the snow Is found in that scene between
Glencoe and Glencreran one February in
Scotland, where Ronald Cameron comes
forth to bring to his fathers house his
cousin Flora Mcdonald for the celebration
of birthday, and the calm day turns into
hurricane Of white fury that leaves Ronald
and Flora as dead, to be resuscitated by
the shepherds! What an exciting struggle
had Bayard Taylor among the wintry
Apenninesl
In the winter of 1912, by a similar forcs,
the destiny Of Europe was decided. The
French army marched up toward Moscow
five hundred thousand men. What can re-
sist them? Not bayonets, but the dumb e!e-
ments overwhelm that host. Napoleon re-
treats from Moscow with about two hundred
thousand men, mighty nucleus for another
campaign after he gets back to Paris. The
morning of October 19, when they start for
home is bright and beautiful, The air is
tonic, and although this Russian campaign
has been failure Napoleon will try again in
some other direction with his host OF brIYe
surviving Frenchmen.
But a cloud comes on the sky and the air
gets chill, and one of the soldiers feels on his
cheek snowflake. and then there is a multi
plication of these wintry messages and soon
the plumes of the officers are decked with an-
other style Of plume, and then all the skies
let loose upon the warriors g. hurricane OF
snow. and the march becomes difficult, and
the horses find it hard to pull the supply
train, and the men begin to fall under the
fatigue and many not able to take another
step lie down in the drifts never to rise, and
the cavalry horses stumble and fall, and one
thousand of the army fall, and ten thousand
1, down
fifty thousand, and hundred thousand, and
O hundred and twenty thousand and hum
dred and thirty-two thousand die, and the
victor of Jena and bridge of Lodi and Eylau
and Austerlitz, where three great armies,
commanded by three emperors, SURRENDERED
to him; now himself surrenderS to the snow
fakes.
Historians do not seem to recognize that
the tide in that mans life turne1 from Dec.
16, 1909, when he banished by hideous divorce
his wife Josephine from the palace, and so
challenged the Almighty, and the Lord
charged upon him from the fortress OF tne
sky with ammunition of crystal. showed
under! Billions, triilions, quadrillions, quin-
trilions of flakes did the work. And whata
suggestion Of accumulative power, and what
a rebuke to all of us who get discouraged ba-
cause we cannot do much, and therefore do
'nothingI
''Oh,h says some one, "Twould like to stop
the forces Of sin and crime that are marching
for the conquests Of she nations, but l am
nobody; have neither wealth nor eloquence
nor social power. What can l DO" My
brother, how much do you weiga? AS much
share. It is an aggregation Of small inau-
:ences that will yet put this lost world back
into the bosom of q pardoning God. Alas that
there are so many men and women who will:
not use the ons talent because they have not
ten, and will not give penny because tney
cannot give dollar, and will not speak as
well as they can because they are not elo-
quent, and will not be snowflake because
they cannot be an avalanche In earthly wars
the generals get about all the cretit but IN
the war for God and righteousness and heaven
all the private soldiers will gst crowns OF
victory unfailing.
When We reach heavenly the grace OF
God may we all arrive there-l do not think
we will be able to begin thu new song right
away because of the surprise we shall feel at
the comparative rewards given As we are
being conducted along the street to our
celestial residence we will begin to ask
where live some Of those who were mighty
on earth. We must ask, us So-and-so
here? And the answer will be: "Yes, l
think he is in the city, but we don't hear
much Of him; he was good and he gotin, but
he took most of his pay in earthly applause;
he had enough grace 10 get through the gate,
but just where he lives know not. He
squeezed through somehow, although
think the gates took tine skirts Of his gar
ments. think he lives i'll ono OF those back
streets in one of the palmer residences"
Then we shall see palace, the doorsteps OF
gold, and the windows OF agate, and tho
tower like the sun for brilliance, and char
lots before the door, and people who look
like princes and princeses going up aud down
the steps, and we shall say. "What one OF
the hierarchs lives here." That must be the
residence of a Paul or Milton. or some one