The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-11
1T RAINED LIZARDS.
Judge BiNby's Account of IL Recalled
Hank Moore's DroSeS of Elephants.

From the New York sun.
San Bernadino. Cal-COL Bixby, Judge
Dukes and Mai. Finney came over from
the Barstow diggings last evening with
a big story about a storm a few evenings
before on the Laramie plains In which il
rained lizards They had been over the
divide TO the Waterman ranch, and on re-
turning We're Overtaken By gale. which
presently brought rain. For an hour or
SO q poured IN torrents, and then, just
az dusk. they felt something solid strik-
ing them occasionally. At length the colo
mel, who was sitting on the back seat,
reached down into the. wagon box and
pulled out a water dog about six inches
long. This convinced the tourists thar an
extraordinary storm was In progress. and
70 some extent prepared them for what
Little by little" said the Judge. "the
BON bardment increased, until lizards and
toads were thickern flies. We turned up
our coat collars and pulled down our hats,
but II did no good. They'd strike us IN
the face, in the lap, on the back. and all
over, and the horses became wild with
terror we lost our way, ana the major
got out TO look at the ground, but jumped
back into the wagon again with yell,
saying 1t was knee deep with lizards. BY
this time il had stopped raining. and We
came TO the conclusion, after u1ature re-
Election, that the area OF the storm could
not be large, and that Il We moved straight
ahead In almost any direction would soon
be out Of it, Acting on this determination,
we started mp again. and In the course of
half an hour we struck hard ground. We
camped near there. and when daylight
came We went back a ways and examined
the lizards. There were millions OF them,
the great majority OF them BENG dsaa,
as the result OF their fall; bf there were
plenty of live ones, and the way they were
crawling was a caution.
Some one having asked what theory
they had to advance In explanation Of this
visitation, the matter said that there was
lake on the summit OF the mountain OF
toward Banning that was full OF lizards,
and he had no doubt that the wind, which
was very high, had scooped out that body
of water with all It's contents and dumped
them on the Laramie plains. He knew
of u similar case in Kansas. a tornado
had followed the line of a river ana
scOoped IL out so clean for a distance of
nineteen miles that farmers living thirty
miles from the stream found FISH, turtles
and frogs I'm their front door yards, and
believed they had rained down. The
colonel said he had brought few Of the
lizards in TO show the folks, and he would
get them, but, after searching. the wagon
box in vain, he was forced to apologize
by saying that they had probably come to
life and crawled away.
Capt. Nelson, the salOonkeeper, who had
been patient listener, shook his head
and said:
"Old Hank Moore was the only man I
ever knew who could get EN- and be Kind
Of pleasant and sociable with 'em. lie
never made no fuss, never got excited, and
never got scared. He'd be walking along
on the SIDEWALK ana al OF Il buAltu ne
would see a little baby elephant ahead OF
him and would run along and try 10 climb
on his back. Then, when he'd fall, he'd
swear that somebody tripped MIN up, and
he'd get all over It. An hour later he
would get you off In the corner and tell
you confidentially that he wanted a drink,
but that he couldn't swallow IL unless you
took that alligator off the bar I've seen
Hank so out in the street lots of times
10 avoid stepping on a toad that he thought
he saw. But he was always happy and
no T=aaA n "a A mi
elephants in a minute than any man you
ever knew, and sometimes when they were
particularly thick he would get up dance
with them. He was n pleasant man TO
have around. When he got the tremens,
he would always get them right and no
body was the worse for II.
zone day he came in from the Dodge
City plains with a long story about see
Ing a drove of elephants out there l
didn't know him so wen then as did
afterward, and he was so quiet about II
that l believed him, and just for the
fun Of the thing drove out there with
him. After we had gone a few miles he
cause he didn't want to hurt them.
Hurt what2' says l.
THE little elephants" said he.
linen looked at him, and he jumped
out of the buggy and began to chase one
Of them. Pretty soon ] got tired, and
began to chase him. He and had II there
for about two hours, but / ran him down
and got him into the wagon. Then he
wanted me to take one of them home with
me, and just TO please him ] pretended 10
put one into the wagon. He patted the
imaginary elephant and was very con-
tented with IL until we got most TO Lara
mie. and then it vanished, to his great
sorrow. Strange things happen on the
Dodge city plains, gentlemen"
After all hands had partaken of the
landlords cheer, he added:
Now, then, Judge major and colonel,
| don't mind telling you that Haris
Moore's drove of elephants was seen in
the same place that the lizards Were but
there was something rather entertaining
about the way he led EN-. I'm afraid
you're mixing a little too much"