Morris tribune., 1895-01-23

In the accounts of the storms last
winter frequent mention was made OF
the great blizzard of 49," and some
short descriptions given in the papers
carried me back into the very heart
of that frightful tempest and caused
me to re-live, in the most vivid manner,
the whole of the three days expert
ence. I have been In many similar
storms of snow but never in any which
had the same sustained, memorable
fury.
AS matter of fact, o blizzard on the
prairie corresponds to tempest on
the sea, which never affects the sailor
twice exactly alike. Each norther
seems to have character of its own;
one may be short, sharp, high-keyed
and spiteful; another slow, steady, re-
lentless, wearing out the prisoned peo-
pie by day after day of storm
siege, while another would be simply
appalling with the suddenness and in
finite weight of its snow and the in
tensity of its cold.
Then again each storm has its spe-
cial mode of attack. One threatening,
muttering and lowering for days, while
another, like ''the great blizzard"
leaps like stalking tiger on the trav-
eler. 1t is this storm which is so de-
structive to life. Coming almost in
stantly out of clear sky. it finds the
traveller far from home, the children
at school and the husbandman unpre-
pared for the assault. Such was the
character of the blizzard in February,
1873
AL day on that memorable date the
neighbors in their sleighs streamed by
the schoolhouse where we youngsters
sat listening ''wistfully to the music
of the BELLS" Everyone was tempted
out by the brilliant sunshine and the
warm south wind. Farmers went by
with wood racks, bound for the tim
Der which grew along the river several
miles below. Others jingled past in
light sleighs, with their wives seated
beside them, on the way to the stores
in the neighboring town.
All day, until half-past three, the sun
shone warm and the caves dripped
merrily. The windows to the south
were open and the children played
without mittens. But about a quarter
TO four the scholars on the north side
of the room looking out saw wide,
seamless, gigantic dome of slaty-blue
cloud rising, swift, ominous and noise
less, sweeping on to the south like
the shad ow of night. At its upper
edges there was beautiful fringe of
silver-white vapor which was in mo-
ton, wavering to and fro, shimmering
like frost. But the mass of the cloud |
had a dense, sinister look.
At four o'clock the sun was still |
ekining, but the edge of the cloud had
crept, or, more properly, shot across
the suns disc, and it's light was grow
Sag pale and cold. In few minutes
more the wind from the south ceased
there was a moment of brea thless
pause-and then, borne on powerful
north wind, the streaming clouds
swept upon US. Large flakes of snow,
damp and wide-winged, drove in a
level line into the face of the trav-
eler, sticking to the clothing and
cheek and melting rapidly. It was
not yet cold enough to freeze, but the
must have been rapidly
falling. We dashed home merry with
the beautiful snow.
By the time we had reached home, a
half mile away, the wind was gale,
the snow vast binding cloud driving
through the air with a peculiar faint
whispering murnur, eddying and sour
Tying in fantastic and beautiful lines