The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1895-06-22
II WIS A DELUGE
THE WAY THE SNOW
FELL.
Last sunday Recalls the Heavy snow
Of the sos When Alder Was Filled
n Jim Mitch. II Swan a Horse
Across Granite.

The heavy snow which came last
Sunday like the dew of heaven. and did
the placer miners and farmers and
those who deal with them. so much
good has set the Oldest inhabitants to
figuring, and Jim Mitchell in speaking
OF the big storm which visited this
section June -. 1868 and that the snow
was two and a half feet on a level about
Virginia. Is inches deep in the valley.
and that the gulch was full of the beau
tiful. The snow melted rapidly and 80
heavy was the fall that the gulches
were o roaring torrents. The Vir-
GINA bound stage was stopped by the
water coming down Granite Creek. and
the passengers bivouaced for the night
without shelter just on the other side
OF the creek. the stream being impassi-
BILE. The next morning. Mr. Mitchell
swan his horse across the stream to
where the trapped travellers were en-
camped and a few hours later. when
the water had subsidized somewhat the
stage forded the stream and come on to
Virginia.
Bozeman was visited by a heavy
storm also in the early COS about the
time OF VirGinia's big storm. concern
ing which w. H. Babcock said to a
Courier man.:
There was a snow storm like this
just thirty-one years ago. There were
o very many of us here then May
had been a dry month and everything
was drying up. Several of us met one
day and decided that We ought to pray
for a snow storm. BY general consent
it was admitted that the best man in
the crowd was Steve Howes and we
thought of having him do the praying.
1t was finally decided to elect one
OF the party to do the praying.
Ballots were prepared and John STAN
ley counted them. Stanley was gener-
ally conceded to be the man of the
party to whom praying would not come
easy and natural. On the contrary he
could do some very effective swearing
whenever he was stirred up a little.
When the ballots were counted there
was general surprise that Stanley was
the n elected. Stanley was the most
surprised man of the lot and he Just
stormed around. He said the ballot
was fraudulent and it was decided to
take it Over again. At this ballot
Stanley received every vote but one
presumably his own. He first declared
he would not do the praying but finally
decided that he would, but he would go
into a clump of timber near by where
no n of us could hear him. This was
agreed upon. He went out to the cen
ter of the grove and two of the party
who crawled up to the edge said he
sent up to the throne of grace an invo-
cation that would done credit to Rev.
Bird. He was down on his knees and
he prayed earnestly for fifteen minutes
evidently fully approaching the CRAWL
ty OF the situation, for the crops We're
sOrely in need of moisture.
well sir, in a day or two it COM
menced to storm and we had a snow
fall of eighteen inches. | shall never
forget the second day of the storm
when everything was covered inches
deep in snow and it was still showing.
| met Stanley and | never saw him look
so serious. He said to me. I'm afraid
I've Over-dOne the business
But it turned out all right and we
had splendid crops that fall. They
were all small patches of ground but
the yield was Over a hundred bushels
to the acre"