San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-02-20
SCENES IN WONDERLAND
Two Inches of Ice-six Inches of
Snow-Below Zero-sleigh Rid
ing - All Fruit Killed.
C-n-,hoIIa Da..o-oI.


MONTERREY, Mex, Feb. l6, '95.
Daily LIGHT:
Monterey has experienced the
coolest spell of weather the past
ten days that she ever had before.
The weather prophet, the oldest
inhabitant, has been frozen up and
showed under. At 80 o'clock, on
the night Of the 9th, a norther
struck this city, and at o'clock
next morning everything was
frozen up. An inch and a half OF
ice was formed in buckets, and
hundreds Of feet of iron pipe were
bursted at the smelters. All trop-
ical fruits and plants were Bills
tered, including the orange, banana
and aguacate fruits. The latter
were in full bloom and it
is feared that they are all
killed. Reports from montenegro
los, Linares, Victoria and beyond
on the line Of the Gulf railway re-
port killing frost.
From the 7th to the l4th was
bitter cold, and at 3 p. m. OF that
date it commenced to snow so that
by 9 p. m. there was two inches Of
snow, and by s o'clock of the morn
ing OF the 10Th there was over six
inches OF snow on the ground.
There were icicles over feet long
hanging from the fountains on the
| II iHalUn nlaua Uyhinh frnnta thn
Hidalgo hotel. Everything was
showed under and froze up. All
| business was suspended. During
the night all the street cars were
housed up and did not turn awheel
until the afternoon of the 18th;
and so were the hacks. Only two
ventured out, and they were kept
busy all the forenoon.
AS soon as the Americans turned
| out on the morning of the 10th,
| they commenced to throw snow
| balls, and soon after the MeXicans
caught on, and many pitched
battle was fought during tho day
| and night.
At ii a. m. a band of music
| paraded the street, and was fol-
lowed by hundreds of men and
boys, all throwing and pelting each
other with snow balls.
The many friends of Cap. VIM.
Scott, (and they are many in this
city, were shocked to hear OF the
assault that was made on him and
his brother last week in the in
terror Of Mexico, your correspond
ent has known him since April,
1881, and Drawer and truer man
than "Willie" never stepped in
shoe leather.
Mr.. J. II. Schneider and friends
had sleigh rugged up and pair of
horses hitched to it with strings of
bells jingling from their necks and
| drove through the principal
streets. There were three men in
it, and they were bombarded with
snow balls from the time they
started until they turned in. This
was the first time that a sleigh
was ever seen on the streets of
Monterey. AS all the buildings in
the city are flat rooted they held
all the snow, so that there was
great danger of the weight brakeing
the roofs down. Men were put on
them to shovel the snow off, so
that in many places there was
snow from three to four feet deep.
At the San Pedro mines which
are situated about eight miles
south OF the city in the foot hill OF
the Sierra Madre, there was nine
teen inches Of snow and the Their"
mOmeter went down to seven be-
low zero. AS your correspondent
consulted number OF the oldest
inhabitants in reguard to the
weather, they all declared that they
never saw or heard of such cold
weather nor so much snow before.
The nearest approach to it was in
January 1888, when two inches OF
snow fell. Your correspondent
was here at the time. There was a
old and about fourteen feet high in
the front yard Of the Hotel Mon
terey on Matamoras street, that
was killed by that snow. 1t was a
great curiosity to the Americans,
as it was always in bloom and bore
open bolls the year around.
The indications are that we will
have killing frost for several days.
There is great suffering among the
poor. Wood and charcoal have
gone up two hundred and fifty per
cent. and they cannot be had at
that price.
There is certainly one good effect
that these cold billiards. mad:
that is that it caused hundreds OF
persons to flee from the north and