The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-12-19
lone Blizzard STORIES.
COLLECTIONS OF COLD SNAPS
4 TOLD AT THE ANANIAS CLUB
THE OTHER NIGHT.
OME MOST WONDERFUL ESCAPES.
dercury Bulbs for Marbles in Dakota
and Steers Melted in TeXas-Four
Extremely Remarkable Tales.
Other Questionable Yarns.

ING with few words of criticism, saying:
HGentlemen, / was deeply panied to OBJ
serve the quality of the stories told at
Gun last meeting. The Star, in it's very
correct report of the proceedings, saw
the faults so plainly that it said in the
4 headlines that they were lies. No true
follower of the great and artistic gentle
man whom we have honored by choos
ing his name should tell story with the
falsehood so palpable that the lie is capa-
Bic of detection. | hope that this griev-
aus fault will be remedied, and we should
therefore discuss a subject tonight that
s What we tell about it must be believed.
Il notice that cold weather and snow are
A predicted. A few incidents concerning
hrevious snaps and SHOWS will be interest
Nag, and at the same time will be believed,
+ while adventures and natural phenome-
ma require painful study and care as to
"details that render them difficult to re-
late properly. We will hear from our
Brother johnson Calkins."
Va "Mr. President and gentlemen began
Mr. Calkins, Il am not an old man, and
therefore the winter l speak of is familiar
to all of you-that of 1873. Five of us,
with our wives, had gone to Dakota in
order to obtain homesteads, and settled
Va % miles from the then small village of
Fargo. near where the city of Castleton
lis now situated, but then wild, desolate
prairie, with no neighbors nearer than
fFargo, and bands of Indians or droves
Of wolves placing us i'll constant peril.
The five families, although having sod
houses of their own, all lived in one house
for companionship and protection. Well,
.at 1920 o'clock Wednesday night, Octo-
her 9 it turned so cold that we could see
Z the walls moving in and the house grow
smaller from the natural contraction
/. caused by the atmosphere. 1t grew cold
Ell constantly until morning, ana then re-
manned as it was"
T''What was the degree?" some one ask
ITO tell the truth, gentlemen, do not
Know" was the response. I'VE had half
ID dozen thermometers, but they were the
mercury kind, and mercury troze so soma
within an hour that the children used the
bulbs to play marbles with all that winter
and until they thawed out the following
Fourth of July. We had plenty of fuel
and wore heavy winter wraps in the
house, in this way keeping from freez-
Ing. After a few weeks we became used
to- it. One of the ladies discovered how
Beautiful the icicles were that grew upon
HE windows. They then wore them as
Mewels and diamonds never looked pref
{ Nor There was no danger of their melt
ing, even in the house, and it was actually
a source of sorrow to the ladies when the
fWeather grew warm enough for us to go
n Outdoors and to melt the diamonds with
which they had decorated themselves.
What was the coolest winter l ever eX-
lperienced, but can not tell just how cold
1T was owing to having no spirit ther-
iamOmeter."
TX 81 remember that winter very WE'LL
fSaid Tom Anderson. Il was moving
small bunch of cattle from Tarrant, coun-
ty, Texas, near Fort Worth, to Greedy,
Col, at the time my brother Calkins
speaks of. The railroad was completed
only to Wichita Falls, and we had to
drive across NO Mans Land to Colora-
do, it taking three months to accomplish
the trip. 1t had been warm and rainy,
which was an occasion for great reJolc-
ing in that drouth infected country.
2When we left Wichita Falls it was mud
#dy and driving was slow work. The
blizzard, probably the same one that has
lust been told about struck us suddenly.
III was feeling warm and comfortable,
when in moment | seemed to be par
alyzed and looking around me in dazed
sort of way realized what had happened.
The ground was frozen solidly, and OF
course each one of the steers had caught
fast, having been stuck in the mud. The
other foot which had been lifted to step
with, when the blizzard struck us, was
on top of the frozen earth. Something
had to be done at once or we would lose
every steer, so | called all of my men.
fortunately we had plenty of matches
in the commissary and the su"nly of dead
mesquite bushes was practically unlimit-
ed, so it did not take long to determine
upon plan of action. We started
fire under each steer and watched them
carefully. We had twenty men, and
you never saw fires built so rapidly i'll
your life. Within two hours they were
all blazing. We could not thaw the
+ cattle out of the earth, but they were
kept alive, and two days later the sun
came out as it does in Texas, suddenly
and strong, and in another day we were
knowing along the trail again as if moth
ling had happened
4 "That blizzard must have been very
general" said Sias Adams 81 was liv-
ing in Peoria, ILL.,, at the time. Peoria
is built on the western bank of the Hi
81 nOis river, which widens into a lake at
That point. Back of the business portion
of the city, little over a mile from the
river is bluff upon which some of the
leading citizens have erected handsome
Residences | lived near the street car
ON South Adams street, near Main, and
Started for home early in the evening.
1t began to turn cold just as passed the
soldiers monument, and meeting Bob
Burdette. who at that time was editing
the Review there, he remarked that it
WAS going to be cold enough to freeze all
the pipes and even the knobs off the doors
which would boom the plumbing and
hardware trades. | left the humorlst
at the postoffice, one block further on,
+ and By the time | reached the foot OF
the bluff | realized that he was right.
4 1t seemed to me that | could never 1--we
to get home The exposed portions of
my face were frozen, and it took long
time to thaw myself out with ice before
xenturing into the house. When L en-
+ tered my wife screamed, and looking into
mirror, | saw that my beard, which
was then long, was as white as snow.
IT was not simply frosted. The roots
of the hair had frozen and taken out ev-
cry vestige of color. The next day we
went to Picking ten miles below Peoria,
to attend the wedding of a friend of my
wife. | had never been there, and it
WAS evident that my wife's friends were
astonished at my seeming age. | made
up my mind to have the beard cut off
as soon as / returned to Peoria. AS we
sat in the parlor of the house where the
wedding was to occur, | noticed first one