St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-05-06
1T RAINED LIZARDS.
Dixby,s Account of Ii Recalled
Hank MOOre's DrOves of EIe-
NH -

plants.
San Bernardino, Cal, Letter. Col
onel Bixby, Judge Dukes and Maj.
Finney came over from the Barstow
diggings last eveing with big story
about the storm a few evenings before
on the Laramie plains In which II
rained lizards. They had been over
the divide to the Waterman ranch, and
on returning were overtaken by gale,
which presently brought rain. For an
hour or so it poured in torrents, and
then, just at dusk, they felt something
solid striking them occasionally AT
length the colonel, who was sitting on
the back seat, says writer in the New
York Sun, reached down into the
wagon box and pulled out a water
dog" about six inches long. This con-
vinced the tourists that an extraordi-
nary storm was in progress, and to
some extent prepared themselves for
what followed.
Little by little" said the judge, 'the
bombardment increased, until lizards
and toads were thicker'n flies. We
turned up our coat collars and pulled
down our hats, but it 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, and the major got out to
look at the ground. but jumped back
into the wagon again with yell, say
ing it was knee deep with lizards.
BY this time 1t had stopped raining,
and we came to the conclusion, after
mature reflection, that the area of the
storm could not be large, and that If
we moved straight ahead in almost
any direction we would soon be out of
1t. Acting on this determination we
started up again, and in the course OF
half an hour we struck hard ground.
We camped near there, and when day
light came we went back a ways and
examined the lizards. There were mill
ions of them, the great majority of
them being dead, as the result of their
fall; but there were plenty of live ones,
and the way they were crawling was
caution.'
Some one having asked what theory
they had to advance in explanation of
this visitation, the major said that
there was a lake on the summit of the
mountain off toward Banning tnat
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 a similar case In Kansas. A
tornado had followed the line of a
river and scooped it out so clean for
distance of nineteen miles that farm
ers living thirty miles from the stream
found fish, turtles and frogs in their
front dooryards, and believed that 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 a patient listener, shook his
head and said:
"Old Hank Moore was the only man
/ ever knew who could get 'em and be
kind of pleasant and sociable with EN-.
He never made no fuss, never got ex-
cited, and never got scared. He'd be
walking along on the sidewalk, and all
of a sudden he would see little baby
elephant ahead of him and would run
along and try to slimb on his back
Then, when he'd fall, he'd swear that
somebody tripped him 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
it unless you took that alligator off
the bar I've seen Hank go out in the
street lots of times to avoid stepping
on a toad that he thought he saw.
But he was always happy and good
natured about 1t. He could see more
elephants in a minute than any man
knaW
they were particularly thick he would
get up a dance with them. He was a
pleasant man to have around. When
he got the tremens, he would always
get them right and nobody was the
worse for it.
City plains with a long story about
seeing a drove of elephants out there.
| didn't know him so well then as l
did afterward, and he was so quiet
about it that / believed him, and just
for the fun of the thing / drove out
there with him. After we had gone
few miles he made me stop and then
start up slow because he didn't want
to hurt them.
Z" Hurt what?' says I.
"Then 1 looked at him, and he
jumped out of the buggy and began
to chase one of them. Pretty soon L
got tired, and / began to chase him.
He and 1 had it there for about two
hours, but 1 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 1 pretended to
put one into the wagon. He patted
the imaginary elephant and was very
contented with it until we got most
to Laramie, and then 1t vanished, to
his great sorrow. Strange things hap
pen on the Dodge City plains, gentle
men,
After all hands had partaken of the
landlords cheer he added:
Now, then, judge, major, and
colonel I don't mind telling you that
Hank Moore's drove of elephants was
seen in the same place that the lizards
were. but there WAC something rather