Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-12-08
ON THANKSGIVING day
A Snappy, Chilly, Frosty Cold Snap
Ushers In the Day of Univer-
sal Thanks.
The Average Freeholder Preferred
the Major Part Of His Day
In Doors.
An Old Timer Tells a Large Story
to Prove That It was Not
Cold.
Thanksgiving.

in by one of the snappiest cold
snaps which has often been experienced.
Wednesday night, the thermometer pre-.
pared itself for a considerable drop, and
on Thursday morning it took a tumble
TO itself to the tune of about fifteen be-
low. 1t was the coolest kind of cold,
too. The air vas crisp, and sharp, and
penetrating. One Of those deceptive
days, when an exposed nose or un-
covered ear is nipped before its owner is
fully ware of it.
1t savors strongly of the laughable to
see two persons meet upon the street,
stop, each raise a hand and point toward
the other, and exclaim in unison "your
nose is frozen Yet that was one Of the
experiences. Men walked behind noses,
white from o much exposure, and were
unaware Of it, until, suddenly coming
near a FIRE, the tingling sensation gave
notice of a frost bite.
The average freeholder celebrated his
Thanksgiving within doors. The desire,
supposed to be universal on Thanksgiv-
ing, to go slelghing or skating, or to
drive various numbers of miles to eat the
old fashioned Thanksgiving dinner with
relatives in a sort of reunion, wa frozen
up early in the day, and failed to thaw
out. 1t was much easier to give thanks,
when sitting beside a warm fire, than
when nursing a frost bitten nose or ear.
in the first stages of convalescence.
There were church services at the Pres
byterian church in the morning, and Rev.
Cook delivered an apt sermon. From
church, probably the major portion Of
the attendants turned to the enjoyment
of the Thanksgiving dinner. The usual
number of turkeys went the way of all
turkeys. Cranberry sauce and mince
pie disappeared like a June frost, and
people ate and were thankful.
"Cold?" said an old timer to a Tub
nj man, about the middle of the after.
noon, and while the mercury in the
thermometer was pressing hard against
the bottom Of the glass tube in it's mad
endeavor to get down lower. "Why
this is balmy, summer weather, COM
pared with some I've seen. Back in
Minnesota, in the winter of 1882, I was
travelling on a branch line of road, up
in the northern part of the state. It
was on Thanksgiving day, too, and I was
on the road, from a small town at one
end of the branch to the main line, to
get home for Thanksgiving dinner. We
ran about two hours, when We came To
a snow drift, which made the road i'm
passable. The engineer looked at it fol
a.few moments, concluded he couldn't
make it and started to back up There
was no help for it. We had to go back
20 the town at the end of the branch, be
said. But when he reversed his engine
two of the bands which held the rails
together at the joints, broke and thu
rails started to contract. The engineer
saw it and threw his engine wide open
in her backward course, until be wa.
running sixty.fve miles al hour, but il
was no use. Those rails under him
sh runk SO fast, he could not keep his en-
CINE backing fast enough to stay on 'em
and they shrunk right out from under us
and left us high n dry on the ties
There We stood on the rear end of til,
last car, and watched those steel rail-
shrink away from US until they wer,
clear out of sight, and we all had to pc
out and walk back to the town, abou'
fifteen miles. When the officials came t.
repair the break, they found they onl,
had about fifteen miles of rails to cove
sixty miles of track, the cold having con
tracted the rails to that extent. The,
put in more rails, and when summe
came, and the steel began to expant
again, the track would be raised VI
several feet in places, by the expansion
and one day it lifted a freight train o
forty cars, about three feet from tn
ground and they had to let it dow
with d%erricks."
The old timer coughed. The cougl
had a sort of expectant ring, as though
something should be coming and not! o,
him, but the TRIBUNE man hardened
his heart and moved on.
Twenty Years Ago.
Dec. 3, 1873:-Missouri river closed a
this point, night Of Nov. 26th and peopl,
crossed on 9th. First snow on 26th..
Lieut.. Chance returns from p hunt will
five deer....J. w. Raymond sends
team to Fargo after a load of OYSTERS.
Impromptu meeting held on Nov. 29tl
and organized the Burleigh Count,
Pioneers association. The persons pres
ent and declared charter members were
Col. G. A. Lounsberry, G. H. Mccarthy
E. Donahue, DR.. B. F. Slaughter, G. W
Freede, H. N. Hellomay, L. T. Marshall
Chas. w. Clark, w. 4. Mckay, A. {
Tippie, Maj. J. E. Walker, M. Tippie, g
Guelberth, Capt. J. w. Raymond an,