Daily camera., 1897-05-22
SURE-ENOUGH WINTER.
Genuine Cold Weather Felt in the
South.
sIcet and Snow Were Plentiful
During December Some OF
the Defects of the
Visitation.

The last month of 1896 is memorable
in the south for the cold storms that
swept over the country and enveloped
everything in sleet and snow. People
shivered before the heaped-up light
wood fires and talked as if they really
entertained the idea of building warm
er houses. Some sent off for stoves to
warm the big halls and dining-rooms
stoves that, owing to the prevailing
torpidity of labor and trade, got to them
after the cold spell was over.
If was so cold that more than one Sit
ting-room door was shut and kept shut,
fact significant to anyone familiar
with plantation customs, and it was so
cold that the sheets had to be rubbed
over with warm iron before people got
between them. Even courageous, ro-
bust yo....g iUlks left the fire reluctant
ly when bedtime came, and hot-water
bottles, hot bricks and flannels were
the order of the night. The carrying in
of huge back logs and front logs and
great armfuls of fat splinters in all the
rooms was the order of the day.
The focks OF guineas took refuge in
thick orange trees and stayed there, re-
fusing to be coaXed down even by the
most liberal spread of peas and corn on
the snow below. Mocking birds, and
poor, bewildered little thrashers and
sparrows flew in under the piazzas for
shelter, and their natural enemies made
no effort to disturb them. Up by the
cattle sheds and the sheep folds, remote
from the houses, queer tracks would be
| seen in the early morning, imprinted
by shy woods creatures, which, startled
by the abnormal condition of things,
sought strange companionship. Do
mestic servants known to be of slim
proportions assumed unfamiliar stout
aess as the thermometer fell.
How many Trocks have you got on
to-day, Maum Eve?" that trusty maid
| servant would be asked, with a compre-
hensive glance at the layers of dress
bodies that refused to fasten over her
chest.
Use cold, chile cold all through"
grasping helplessly at the refractory
buttons. Last night it look like every
ting on de whole yearth would freeze
lam up fore mornin'. l never sleep
none tall; jest lay down cen de bed and
hear de trees crackin' and strainin' and
snappin' off out cen de woods. Seem
like some strong-handed something was
going through there 'stroyin' Of en-
There was heavy rain, then freeze,
then snow, then another freeze, and
during the three days before things
commenced to thaw out the country
had a curiously unusual aspect a hush
seemed to settle down over the land as
if something nortentous had happened
or was about to happen. Scarcely any
travellers were abroad on the roads, and
over all tl.c h:r. fat fields nothing was
to be seen but the dead white level of
snow and the plumes of smoke curling
upward from the nero cabins The few
people who did any visiting went
wrapped up to the ears, and provided
with every safeguard against getting
cold When the negroes ventured forth
they were bundled up amazingly, and
had all manner of woolen strips ban
daged round ankles and wrist and head
Out in the woods no usual sounds were
to be heard Nothing stirred neither
futter of bird nor chirp of insect. Even
the chattering crows were chilled into
silence. The forest paths were abso-
!utely untrodden by man or beast. Not
sign of life was to be seen, not
glimpse of a rabbit or squirrel or chip
munk: only the vast, unbroken quiet,
save when some overburdened bough
crashed to the ground. One walking
there felt like a pioneer in a strange
country, the most familiar hooks seem
ing cast in different mold. Great lam
entations go up for the wrecked and
broken trees.
"The live oaks on my place are ruined,
and I'll never live to see others take
their place." says one cotton grower,
and another reports that his fig trees
are killed and the magnolias in the front
garden bruised and battered. All the
trees with thick foliage have suffered;
theirs was literally a weight of woe
that they could not withstand. each leaf
a crusted icicle.
1t was too cold for hunting, too cold
for riding, too cold for sewing, piano
playing, or any kind of occupation that
would take one away from the fire. It
was almost too cold to read; but it was
capital time to pull molasses candy,
pop corn, pet the children, and do any
thing that amounted to nothing.
81 thought that roses grew out Of
doors down here in December" protest
ed northern visitor in South Carolina,
"but I never was so cold as this IN Mas
sachusetts. Pile on that big light-wood
knot, Sambo. I love to see it blaze,
even though it makes me back out into
the hall. A fire of pine knots puts to
shame the most brilliant lamp that was
ever lighted, and one can enjoy it's
beauty even while longing for prosaic
furnace to warm by."-N. Y. Sun.