Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-02-16

w,
surface of the scales and it will not
even make it tremble. When you want
to express extreme triviality OF weight
YOU saw, Light as a feather, but a
snowflake is much lighter. 1t Is just
twenty-four times lighter than water.
And vet the accumulation OF these
flakes broke down few days ago In
sight of my hoslse si1 telegraph poles,
made helpless police and fire depart
ments and halted rail trains with two
laundering locomotives.
We have already learned SO much of
the power of electricity that we have
become careful how we touch the cleo
trio wire, and in many case a touch
has been death. But, few days ago,
the snow put its hand on most of these
wires and tore them down as if they
were cobwebs. The snow said: You
seem afraid of the thunderbolt; will
catch it and hurl it to the ground.
Your boosted electric lights adjoining
YOUR cities with bubbles of fire L Will
put out as easily as your ancestors
snuffed 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
| not a word. The snow mightier than
the lightning.
In March, 1888, the snow stopped
America. It said to Brooklyn, ''Stay
homer to New York, Stay homer
to Philadelphia, Stay home!" to
Washington, ''Stay homeP' to Rich
mond, Stay homer 1t put into
white sepulcher most of this nation.
! Commerce, whose wheels never stopped
before, stopped then. What was the
matter? Power of accumulated snow
flakes On the top of the Apennines
one flake falls, and others fall, and
they pile up, and they make mount
ain of fleece on the top of mountain
of rock until one day gust of wind,
or even the voice of a mOuntalneer
sets the frozen vapors into action, and
bv awful descent they sweep every
thing in their course-trees, rocks, vii
lages-as when, in 1927, the town OF
BrieI in Valais was buried and in 1874,
in Switzerland, three hundred soldiers
were intombed These avalanches
were made up of single snowflakes.
What tragedies Of the snow have
been witnessed by the monks OF st.
Bernard who for ages have with the
dogs been busy in eXtricating Devil
dered and overwhelmed travellers III
Alpine storms, the dogs with blanket
fastened to their backs and TASKS OF
spirits fastened to their neck to resus
citate the helpless travellers, one o.
these dogs decorated with o medal fol
having saved the lives of twenty-five
pprsons. the brave beast himself slaiI
of the snow on that day when accom-
panying a PiedmOntese courier on thu
way to his anxious household down thu
mountain, the wife and children of thu
Piedmontese courier coming up thu
mountain in search of him, an ava
Ianche covered all under pyramid
higher than those under which tn
Egyptian monarchs sleep their sleep o
, the ages!
! What an illustration of the tragedle
of the snow is found in that scene be
tween Glencoe and Glencreran on
February in Scotland, where Ronald
Cameron comes forth to bring to hi
,, fathers house his cousin Flora Mac
Donald for the celebration of q birth
day, and the calm day turns into
hurricane of white fury that leave
: Ronald and Flora as dead to be re
suscitated by the shepherds What q
8 exciting struggle had Bayard Taylo
! among the wintry Apennines!
SNOW DECIDED THE DEsTINIEs o
G EUROPE.
. In the winter of 1912, by simila
, force. the destiny of Europe was do
! cided The French army marched u
q toward Moscow five hundred thOusan
+ men. What can resist them? Nc
bayonets, but the dumb elements owe
D whelm that host Napoleon retreat
:. from Moscow with about two hundre
y thousand men. mighty nucleus fC
;, another campaign after he gets back
, Paris. The morning of Oct. 10, whe
r they start for home, is bright an
r beautiful The air is tonic, and a
I though this Russian campaign has bee
It a failure Napoleon will try again
g some other direction with his host
! brave surviving Frenchmen.
: But a cloud comes on the sky, an
d the air gets chill and one of the SC
e diers feels on his cheek a snowflake, ar
d then there is a multiplication of the
5 wintry messages, and soon the plum
Of the officers are decked with anoth
D. stvle of plume, and then all the ski
re let loose upon the warriors a hurrical
10 of snow, and the march becomes dit
90 cult. and the horses find it hard to pJ
" the supply train, and the men begin
Y fall under the fatigue, and many II
ln able to take another step lie down
In the drifts never to rise, and the caval
re horses stumble and fall, and one tho
a. sand of the army fall, and ten tho
in sand perish, and twenty thousand
ct down, and fifty thousand and hu
Is. dred thousand and a hundred al
IL twenty thousand and a hundred al
n thirtv-two thousand die, and the Wet
,h of jena and bridge of Lcdi and Eyl
On and AusterIitz, where three gre
armies, commanded by three empero
n surrendered to him, now himself 81
in renders to the snowfiakes
re Historians do not seem to recogn
all that the tide in that mans life turn
llV | from december lIlO 1Dblls ICOOy WI
on he banished by hideous divorce
nd wife Josephine from the palace and
~ challenged the Almighty, and the Lie
til charged upon him from the fortress
he of the sky with ammunition of cryst
~, Showed underl Billions, trillions, qua
~ rilions, quintillions of fakes did
VI work. And what a suggestion OF
:" cumulative power, and what rebu
li to all of us who get discouraged
lio cause we cannot do much, and the
- fore do nothing.
~ ~ ooh, says some one, 81 would L
~ to stop the forces of sin and crime tt
are marching for the conquest OF
~ nations; but I am nobody. L he
ilU neither wealth nor eloquenee nor soc
ay power. What can I do?" My broth
ILLS how much do you weigh-as much
a snowfake2 "Oh, yes" Then
lai your share Tt is an aggregation
ac- small influences that will yet put
gh lost world back into the bosom OF
"a pardoning God. Alas that there
6S, ,,,o,o cd vr-ouaoo UUhn will !